NHS Staff Survey results 2025: what you need to know

• Indicators relating to quality and experience of line management remain positive, which is very welcome, and demonstrates staff commitment to each other amid a significant period of change for the NHS. 
  
  
• Reported experiences of discrimination from managers or colleagues is the lowest it has ever been at 8.77% and has trended downwards year on year since the NHS Staff Survey began. 
  
  
• The 10 Year Workforce Plan is due to set targets for the NHS to become the country’s best employer, not just the biggest. Challenging findings on staff engagement, motivation and morale paint a clear picture of how far off these targets are, set against a backdrop of ongoing national industrial disputes, and significant funding constraints. NHS employers take seriously their duty to improve the workplace experience for their staff and will continue to focus their efforts on this work. NHS England and government must enable this through the provision of appropriate funding, training places, and physical working environments.
  
  
• Indicators on workload, burnout, and pressures are worse than last year. Staff reporting being unwell as a result of work-related stress rose from 41.6% to 42.36% this year. Almost one-in-three staff feel burnt out because of their work. More than two-thirds of staff report being unable to do their job properly due to staffing levels. Only 54.80% say their organisation takes positive action on health and well-being, a notable drop from 57.05% last year and the lowest this metric has ever been – by almost 2 percentage points. The 10 Year Workforce Plan must address these findings by ensuring adequate staff pipelines, and supporting organisations to run focussed, sector-specific staff retention and wellbeing initiatives. 
  
  
• Many measures relating to engagement and morale are at their lowest on record. 58.05 per cent of staff would recommend the NHS as a place to work compared to 60.79% in 2024. The only time this metric has been lower was in 2022, at 57.38%. 
  
  
• There is a worrying decline in metrics relating to freedom to speak up, and action as a result.
  
  
• 62.84% of staff say that if their friend or relative needed treatment, they would be happy with the standard of care provided by their organisation. This is the lowest this metric has ever been.
  
  
• 9.26% of staff report experiencing discrimination from patients or the public. This metric has slowly but consistently increased year on year and is now the highest on record, with results for disabled and ethnic minority staff consistently worse. 
  
  
• 25.25% of staff have reported at least one incident of harassment, bullying or abuse in the last 12 months from patients or the public. This has been persistently high, peaking at 27.86 per cent in 2022. However, instances of the same from managers and other colleagues are now at their lowest recorded levels, 9.11% and 17.01% respectively. We look forward to these metrics continuing to drop. 
  
  
• 9.07% of staff report experiencing unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature from patients or the public (8.85% last year), rising very sharply to 31.05% for ambulance staff (an increase from 28.79% last year). When asked about their experience of unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature from colleagues, 3.51% of staff reported that an incident had taken place in the last 12 months. This compares favourably to 3.67% last year, and 3.86% in 2023. The downward trajectory is very welcome.  

On 12 March 2026, NHS England (NHSE) published the annual NHS Staff Survey results. The survey ran from across autumn 2025 and gathered responses from 766,285 staff (2% down from 2024). This is equivalent to fewer than half of all NHS staff (49%). Results cover staff from 238 NHS organisations, including all 206 trusts. 

By staff group, registered nurses and midwives were by far the most common respondents at 219,563 responses, followed by Allied Health Professionals at 119,524 responses, then admin and clerical staff at 105,201 responses. 20,343 general management staff responded. 

Since 2021, the survey questions have been aligned with the NHS People Promise. The NHS Social Partnership Forum has been working on a new set of minimum staff standards, currently due for publication in April this year. We await detail of these, and whether they will also become key metrics in the annual NHS Staff Survey, or replace the People Promise metrics. 

The success metrics for a number of High Impact Actions (HIAs) in NHSE’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Improvement Plan are closely linked to the NHS Staff Survey. This is the third set of national staff survey results published since the EDI Improvement plan was launched in summer 2023 and it continues to be important for trusts and NHS organisations to track their local staff survey results against the EDI plan. We have indicated where an HIA is relevant throughout this briefing. 

This briefing gives a summary of the national level findings, and NHS Providers’ and NHS Confederation’s view. If you have any comments or questions on this briefing, please contact Sarah White, senior policy manager (workforce), sarah.white@nhsproviders.org. 

Burnout, health and wellbeing 

Workload and staffing pressures

Metrics relating to workload and pressures are worse than last year. 

• 31.47% of staff feel burnt out because of their work; 36.51% say their work frustrates them, and 28.51% feel exhausted at the thought of another day at work. These metrics are all at three-year highs. 
• 32.83% of staff say there are enough staff at their organisation for them to do their job properly, down from 33.98% last year. The 10 Year Workforce Plan must address this finding that more than two-thirds of staff report that they are unable to do their job properly due to staffing levels. 
  
  
• Only 46.51% of staff are able to meet all the conflicting demands on their time at work; only 56.06% say they have adequate materials, supplies and equipment to do their work; and only 26.40 % never or rarely have unrealistic time pressures. All of these metrics are at three-year lows. 

There is also an ongoing and notable decline in discretionary additional effort. 

• Staff working additional paid hours continues to decline, with 31.72% reporting doing so. Last year the same metric was 30.05%, 2023 was 36.78%, and 2022 was 38.41%. 
  
  
• Staff working additional unpaid hours continues to decline, with 49.4% reporting doing so. Last year the same metric was 50.28%, 2023 was 52.82%, and 2022 was 56.62%. 

While organisations must never rely on unpaid work from staff, the clear loss of good will and increase in workload pressure across the board will be impacting productivity levels. 

Physical and mental wellbeing 

Results on burnout, work-life balance and work-related stress remain worryingly high and speak to ongoing high levels of demand outstripping the pace of care delivery. They are likely also impacted by headcount reduction initiatives across many trusts in the past year, in line with financial savings targets. 

• Staff reporting being unwell due to work-related stress rose from 41.65% to 42.36% this year. 56.01% of staff have gone into work in the last three months despite not feeling well enough to perform their duties, slightly up from 55.77% last year. The only time this indicator has been higher in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic peaks (56.69% in 2022). 
  
  
• Only 54.80% say their organisation takes positive action on health and wellbeing, a notable drop from 57.05% last year and the lowest this metric has ever been – by almost 2 percentage points. 

It is good that levels of reported bullying and harassment and violence against staff are improving, as it enables the scale of the problem to be better identified. However, this remains concerningly high. 

• 14.47% of NHS staff report being physically attacked by a patient or the public last year, the highest rate for three years. 
  
  
• 25.25% report at least one incident of harassment, bullying or abuse in the last 12 months from patients or the public. This has been persistently high, peaking at 27.86% in 2022. 
  
  
• Instances of the same from managers and other colleagues are now at their lowest recorded levels, 9.11% and 17.01 % respectively. We look forward to these metrics continuing to drop. 

This is the third year that a question was included about staff experience of access to food while working, which 54.67% say they often or always have access to food. 

• This is a three-year high, 54.12% last year and 53.67% in 2023. 
  
  
• Community trusts continue to have the highest proportion of staff who can ‘often’ or 'always’ eat affordable food while working (62.32%), and ambulance trusts continue to have the lowest (45.90%, though this is a marked improvement on 42.82% for ambulance trusts last year). 

NHSE EDI improvement plan

High Impact Action 4 calls for trusts and NHS organisations to develop and implement a wellbeing improvement plan to address health inequalities within the workforce. One success metric for this is linked to improvements on NHS Staff Survey questions related to organisational action on health and wellbeing. 

High Impact Action 6 calls for trusts and NHS organisations to create an environment that eliminates bullying, discrimination, harassment and physical violence. Success metrics from the NHS Staff Survey are linked to improvements on questions on bullying, harassment and abuse from managers or other colleagues, as well as questions on discrimination from the same groups. 

Inequalities

This year’s NHS Staff Survey shows how much work is still needed to address workplace inequality in the NHS. Consistent cuts by national- (including NHS England and representative organisations) and local-level employers in roles and specific expertise relating to equality, diversity, and inclusion will make this work harder to undertake. The financial challenges in the NHS are impacting all areas of work in the service, but capacity and efforts to achieve equality must remain a protected priority. There is a vast amount of evidence to show that high levels of workplace equality in care settings leads to higher quality patient care. It is also well evidenced that high levels of workplace equality in all settings improves staff recruitment, retention, and wellbeing. 

Only 53.74% of staff feel their organisation acts fairly with regard to career progression or promotion, regardless of protected characteristics. Due to a wording change, there is no direct comparison to results from last year, but 55.9% of all staff in 2024 reported that their organisation acted fairly regarding promotions and career progression, and 56.4% said the same in 2023. Whether fairness is indeed decreasing, or staff awareness of biased systems is increasing, cannot be directly concluded from these findings. However, it is clear that there is a persistent issue with regard to equal opportunity for progression or promotion in the NHS. This is also demonstrated by the widening disparity between ethnic minority representation in the workforce and board level ethnic diversity.   

9.26 % of staff report experiencing discrimination from patients or the public. This metric has slowly but consistently increased year on year and is now the highest on record, with results for disabled and ethnic minority staff consistently worse (see below).  

This is unacceptable. Our members have taken various approaches to tackle instances of discrimination against staff, including treating them as 'never events', more person-centred support for the staff experiencing the behaviours, and training for leaders responding to the incidents, which we would like to see rolled out more widely. We have been engaged with NHS England on this topic. 

Reported experiences of discrimination from managers or colleagues is the lowest it’s ever been at 8.77%. This is an encouraging direction and must be maintained. 

69.74% of staff feel their organisation respects individual differences, such as different cultures, working styles, backgrounds and ideas. Since 2022 this metric has hovered within 1 percentage point of 70%. We hope to see it increase with an eventual return of dedicated resourcing for national work on equality, diversity, and inclusion. 

Ethnic minority staff

Results from this year’s staff survey show that: 

• Ethnic minority staff remain more likely to experience harassment, bullying or abuse from patients and the public (29.16%) compared to their white colleagues (23.54 %). This represents a gap of 5.62 percentage points, and this has widened compared to 2023 (5.1 percentage points).  
  
  
• This is also the case regarding these behaviours from a manager, with 9.81% of ethnic minority staff reporting experience of bullying, abuse or harassment (10.13% last year), compared to 8.58% of their white colleagues (8.97% last year). 
  
  
• 49.7 per cent of ethnic minority staff agree that their organisation acts fairly regarding promotion and progression (49.5% last year, 48.9 per cent in 2023), compared to 55.85% of their white colleagues (58.9% last year, 59.4% in 2023). 
  
  
• 13.93% of ethnic minority staff report experiencing discrimination from a manager or colleague in the last 12 months, compared to 6.51 per cent of their white colleagues. This represents a gap of 7.42 percentage points, which has narrowed notably since last year, when it was 8.4 percentage points (and 8.7 in 2023), but still remains high and progress must be sustained. 

Disabled staff

• The proportion of disabled staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from a manager has reduced to 13.62% (14.1% last year, and 14.5% in 2023). Experiences of these behaviours reported by non-disabled staff have also decreased slightly to 9.11%, compared to 9.45% last year. However, a gap of 4.17 percentage points remains between the experience of disabled and non-disabled staff.
  
  
• The proportion of disabled staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse by patients and members of the public has increased slightly to 29.68%, compared to 29.51% last year. The same metric for non-disabled staff this year is 25.25%. These are all disproportionately high findings.
  
  
• 25.56% of disabled staff report feeling pressure from a manager to come to work when unwell, up slightly from 25.40% last year. The same metric for non-disabled staff this year is 20.27%, a 5.29 percentage point difference.
  
  
• 74.89% of disabled staff report that their employer has made reasonable adjustments to help them do their job, a slight decrease from 75.12% last year. However, the overall trend is that this metric is increasing since it began in 2021 (73.01%).
  
  
• 62.05% of disabled staff feel valued by their team, compared to 69.62% of non-disabled staff, a gap of 7.57 percentage points. This is an improvement on last year’s gap of 11.1 percentage points, and progress should be maintained. 

NHSE EDI improvement plan

High Impact Action 2 calls for trusts and NHS organisations to overhaul their recruitment processes and embed talent management processes that target under-presented groups. One success metric is linked to improvements on NHS Staff Survey questions related to access to career progression, training and development opportunities.

High Impact Action 5 calls for trusts and NHS organisations to implement comprehensive induction, onboarding and development programmes for internationally recruited staff. The success metrics linked to this from the NHS staff survey include improvements on questions related to a sense of belonging for internationally recruited staff and a reduction in bullying, harassment and abuse experienced by these staff by managers and teams.

Quality of care and working environment

This is the second year that a question relating to ease of accessing clinical supervision was included in the NHS Staff Survey, and it is positive to see that over half of staff (58.96%) feel able to access clinical supervision opportunities when needed (a slight drop from 59.26% last year). This measure was highest for staff at mental health & learning disability and mental health, learning disability and community trusts (77.88%). It was again lowest for ambulance trusts (46.18%, broadly similar to 46.04% last year).

It is critical that staff are able to access suitable clinical supervision when needed. We would like to see details on ambitions for the educator workforce included in the upcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan. At the time of writing, this Plan still has no publication date.

The picture regarding the quality of care given to patients is much more worrying.

• 62.84% of staff say that if their friend or relative needed treatment, they would be happy with the standard of care provided by their organisation, down from 64.26% last year. This is the lowest this metric has ever been (62.88% in 2022).
  
  
• 69.18% agree that their organisation acts on concerns raised by patients, down from 70.90% in 2024 and similar to 2022’s score of 69.15%.
  
  
• The ‘raising concerns’ theme score is at a five-year low:
  
  
  • While there has only been a slight drop to 71.10% of staff saying they would feel secure raising concerns about unsafe clinical practice (71.56% last year), and it remains high overall, this metric has seen year on year decline and of concern, it is currently the lowest it has ever been. 
    
    
  • A more immediate concern is that only 55.49% of staff are confident that their organisation would address their clinical concern once raised. That is a notable drop from 56.82% last year, and the lowest it’s ever been – by more than 1 percentage point.

While local Freedom to Speak Up Guardian roles remain mandatory, we note that the National Guardian’s Office in England, which supports whistleblowers and oversees local Guardians, will close in 2026, with its functions moving to NHS England. How this will work in practice is currently unclear but it is vital, particularly in light of these results, that speak up systems are robust and well-supported at every level of the system. It is also worth noting that, in the 10-Year Health Plan, there was a commitment that “For senior leaders who let their profession and colleagues down – whether through dishonest behaviour, by silencing whistle-blowers or covering up unsafe practice – we will legislate to establish a new system to disbar them from ever taking leadership roles in the NHS again.”

Despite the above findings, overall approaches to patient care remain fairly well regarded by staff, albeit with drops from last year:

• 71.78% say that care of patients is their organisation's top priority, a notable drop from 74.37% in 2024 and 75.14% in 2023.
  
  
• 87.78% of staff feel their role makes a difference to patients, broadly equivalent to 2024’s score of 87.81%.

This year’s report contains the fourth dataset of year-on-year comparator of measures related to patient safety, with some clear trends emerging. The report shows a similar but very slowly increasing level of staff seeing errors, near misses or incidents that could have hurt staff and/or patients/service users. It should be noted that this does not necessarily mean poorer safety, as the results may indicate a better reporting culture.

There is a slight drop this year in the perception of fair treatment of staff who are involved in errors, near misses and incidents, and in receiving feedback about changes made in response to such incidents being reported. Results across the years suggest a persistent gap between reporting incidents and staff seeing clear organisational learning or change. Specifically:

• 33.71% of staff reported seeing errors, near misses or incidents that could have hurt staff and/or patients/service users. This is compared to 33.64% last year, and 33.5% in 2023. 
  
  
• As in all previous years, the percentage of staff reporting these incidents is highest at ambulance trusts (38.88%), and lowest in community trusts (24.65%). 
  
  
  • Since 2021, all trust types have seen an increase in staff seeing errors, near misses or incidents except for acute, and community trusts who have seen slight decreases.
    
    
• 86.16% of staff say their organisation encourages staff to report errors (broadly in line with 86.43% last year, and 86.41% in 2023).
  
  
• 59.29% believe their organisation treats staff involved in incidents fairly (broadly in line with 59.72% last year, and 59.5% in 2023). 
  
  
• As in all previous years, staff working in community trusts are the most likely to agree that their organisation treats staff involved in incidents fairly (67.66%), and ambulance trusts the least likely (49.76%).
  
  
• 67.30% of respondents agreed that their organisation takes action to ensure that reported incidents, errors or near misses do not happen again. This is a drop from 68.19% last year, and 96.20% the year before that.
  
  
• As in all previous years, the ambulance sector sees the lowest proportion of respondents agreeing that their organisation takes action to ensure reported incidents do not happen again (54.79%), while staff at community trusts are the most likely to agree (75.91%).
  
  
• 61.02% of staff reported that they were given feedback about the changes that are made in response to reported errors, near misses and incidents, broadly in line with 61.28% last year.
  
  
• 68.63% of staff at community trusts (highest scoring) reported receiving feedback about changes made in response to a reported error, compared to 48.68% of staff at ambulance trusts (lowest scoring). These percentages are both slight increases on the same results last year.

Sexual harassment

This was the third year that the NHS Staff Survey contained questions on experiences of unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature in the workplace. This means that year-on-year comparisons are beginning to show trends. It is also worth noting that across 2024, 100% of NHS trusts have signed up to the NHSE Sexual Safety Charter, a national NHS commitment to tackle sexual harassment in the workplace.

When asked about their experience of unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature from colleagues, 3.51% of staff reported that an incident had taken place in the last 12 months. This compares favourably to 3.67% last year, and 3.86% in 2023. The downward trajectory is very welcome. 

Results regarding unwanted sexual behaviour from patients or the public have increased from last year, after two years at broadly the same level. This may indicate a better reporting culture, following focus from NHS England on this topic across 2024-25. 9.07% of staff report experiencing unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature from patients or the public (8.85% last year), rising very sharply to 31.05% for ambulance staff (an increase from 28.79% last year). Interventions must clearly be made sector-specific in order to address this.

It is important to build an open culture where staff feel confident in raising issues and concerns. This year’s results still show that a relatively high percentage of staff (60.29%) feel safe to speak up about anything that concerns them, although this represents a decrease since 2023 (61.83%) and is in fact the lowest this metric has ever been. The bigger worry is that only 47.59% of staff report that they are confident their organisation would then address their concern – a notable drop from 49.51% last year and again, the lowest this metric has ever been.

Flexible working

NHSE’s 2025 analysis of the outcomes of the People Promise Exemplar Programme (Cohort 1) showed that implementing flexible working directly contributed towards improved leaver rates, given that work/life balance is a common reason staff leave the NHS, and staff are increasingly seeking opportunities to work in more flexible ways. We therefore hope to see continued prioritisation of national enablers to flexible working in the upcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan, as positive progress is reflected in Staff Survey findings:

• 56.63% of staff report a good balance between their work life and their home life, a slight increase from 56.58% last year.
  
  
• 71.75% can approach their immediate manager to talk openly about flexible working, also a slight increase from last year’s finding of 71.29%, and an all time high for this metric.
  
  
• 57.66% are satisfied with the opportunities they have for flexible working patterns, also an all time high.
  
  
• This measure was highest for staff at acute trusts (67.45%) and mental health & learning disability and mental health, learning disability and community trusts (66.45%).
  
  
• This measure was lowest for ambulance trusts (40.98% for the second year running).

Pay, recognition and management

Career development

Appraisal completion is the highest it’s ever been at 86.42% (85.42% last year). However, low proportions of staff perceive their appraisals as having valuable impact:

• 26.01% feel it helped them to improve how they do their job (26.04% last year).
  
  
• 35.32% feel it helped them to agree clear objectives for their work (35.53% last year).
  
  
• 32.86% say it left them feeling that their work is valued by their organisation (33.41% last year).

Appraisals are a key focus of the 10 Year Workforce Plan currently in development, and it will be interesting to see if a new national approach is set for the process. We believe that this must avoid being a box ticking exercise, and should be folded meaningfully into day-to-day work rather than used as an annual yardstick.

The picture of staff learning and development is concerning.

• The proportion of staff who say there are opportunities for them to develop their career in their organisation is at its lowest ever level, 51.15% (54.65% last year).
  
  
• 68.47% say they have opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills, a notable drop from 70.35% last year.
  
  
• Only 55.24% feel supported to develop their potential (56.91% last year), and 58.24% are able to access the right learning and development opportunities when they need to (60.02% last year). Both of these metrics are at three-year lows.

Continuing professional development is important for staff retention and for good quality care. The drop in all metrics on learning and development must be urgently addressed. The 10 Year Workforce Plan provides a potentially pivotal moment to change this.

Relationship with managers and teams

It is encouraging that metrics relating to immediate managers remain positive.

• The metrics for staff agreeing that their immediate manager encourages them, and values their work, are the highest they’ve ever been at 73.04% and 72.84% respectively.
  
  
• 72.65% of staff believe that their immediate manager is interested in listening to them when they describe challenges they face, a slight increase from 72.57% last year.
  
  
• 68.8% say their immediate manager takes effective action to help them with any problems they face, broadly in line with 2024’s result of 68.12%.
  
  
• 66.55% say their immediate manager gives them clear feedback on their work (66.26% last year), and this metric has gone up across every single staff group.
  
  
• 60.05% say their immediate manager asks for their opinion before making decisions that affect their work, which is an all time high.

Findings on autonomy and trust within individual roles are also broadly positive. The percentage of staff who always know what their responsibilities are high, at 86.06% (86.00% last year). The percentage of staff who feel trusted to do their job also remain high, but has continued its year-on-year decline and now sits at 89.38% (2024: 89.73%, 2023: 90.15%, 2022: 90.31%, 2021: 90.46%). This is a worrying trend and must not become any more entrenched.

It is significant that there has been a drop in terms of staff feeling like they are involved in deciding changes introduced that affect their work (48.63% down from 50.12%), as well as in staff feeling able to make improvements happen in their work (54.16% down from 55.18%). It has long been known that staff involvement is one of the strongest predictors of successful and sustained improvement in healthcare, and when staff are disengaged or disempowered, organisations risk losing vital frontline insights when making decisions on how best to improve quality of care. This decline is also significant from a cultural perspective, as, high performing trust cultures are ones where staff feel heard, trusted and empowered to shape the conditions in which they work. Staff who feel powerless disengage from their work – which is an issue for patient safety, staff morale and organisational improvement. 

There is a mixed picture when it comes to team dynamics.

• 80.36% of staff enjoy working with the colleagues in their team. This is high, and hasn’t dropped much from 80.79% last year, but it is the lowest result on record for this metric (81.61% in 2023, 81.61% in 2022, and 81.50% in 2021).
  
  
• The number of staff who feel valued by their team is broadly unchanged at 69.62%. Since 2022 this metric has hovered within 1 percentage point of 70%. Staff who report that the people they work with are polite and treat each other with respect has dropped to 71.23% (71.70 last year), which is the lowest it’s ever been. This tallies with the finding that 71.48% of staff feel they receive the respect they deserve from their colleagues at work (71.57% last year), but this is the second highest recorded outcome for this metric.
  
  
• The number of staff who say their team has a set of shared objectives remains high at 73.56% (73.58% last year), 62.65% say their team often meets to discuss the team’s effectiveness (62.76% last year). However, only 53.73% feel teams within their organisation work well together to achieve their objectives (54.32% last year).

Pay and reward

Findings on pay come against a backdrop (at the time of writing) of ongoing national disputes between government and all NHS unions, local disputes between various unions and employers, negotiations between government and resident doctors, a slightly sub-inflation pay award for Agenda for Change staff announced in time for April (rather than into the financial year, as has been customary), continued delay to Agenda for Change reform,  and climbing costs of living which required a revised OBR forecast in early 2025.

Only 32.14% of staff are satisfied with their level of pay. This broadly the same as last year (32.09%), still demonstrating that more than two thirds of staff feel their pay is dissatisfactory. Pay levels in the NHS remain a key concern for trust leaders, particularly given ongoing industrial disputes at national and local levels.

Alongside this, there has been a drop in staff satisfaction with the extent to which their organisation values their work, at 42.95% (44.41% last year).

Engagement, motivation and morale

Many measures relating to staff engagement and motivation are at their lowest on record.

• Just over half (52.32%) of staff look forward to going to work, a notable drop from 54.23% last year, and 66.32% are enthusiastic about their job, a notable drop from 68.07% last year. These metrics are both at their lowest level on record.
  
  
• 58.05% of staff would recommend the NHS as a place to work compared to 60.79% in 2024. The only time this metric has been lower was in 2022, at 57.38%.
  
  
• 54.16% of staff feel able to make improvements happen in their area of work, a notable drop from 55.18% last year and the second lowest that the metric has ever been (53.21% in 2021).
  
  
• The percentage of staff who say they are able to make suggestions to improve the work of their team or department has seen a year-on-year decline and now sits at 69.94% (2024: 70.84%, 2023: 71.62%, 2022: 70.97%, 2021: 70.41%). 
  
  
• 48.63% of staff say they are involved in deciding on changes introduced that affect their work area. This is a notable drop from 50.12% last year, and the metric is now the lowest it’s ever been.

This across the board drop in motivation and engagement is a worrying trend. The picture on morale is similarly concerning:

• 29.55% say they often think about leaving this organisation, up from 28.84% and a three-year high.
  
  
• This metric is highest in ambulance trusts, at 37.09%.
  
  
• This metric is lowest in community trusts, at 26.13%. However, this is still more than 1 in 4 staff.
  
  
• Similar to last year (21.44%), 21.43% of staff say they will probably look for a job at a new organisation in the next 12 months.
• 16.75% say that they will leave their organisation as soon as they can find another job, up from 16.08% last year and an all time high.

The 10 Year Workforce Plan is due to set targets for the NHS to become the country’s best employer, not just the biggest. Challenging findings on staff engagement, motivation and morale paint a clear picture of how far off these targets are, set against a backdrop of ongoing national industrial disputes, and significant funding constraints. Our members take seriously their duty to improve the workplace experience for their staff and will continue to focus their efforts on this work. NHS England and government must enable this through the provision of appropriate funding, training places, and physical working environments.

Do engage with your organisation’s own Staff Survey results, use the interactive dashboard to delineate results by protected characteristics and working patterns, and make full use of NHS Employers’ support to address areas of concern. If you have any comments or questions on this briefing, or suggestions for NHS Providers and NHS Confederation’s onward workforce policy influencing, please contact Sarah White, senior policy manager (workforce), sarah.white@nhsproviders.org.

We encourage members to make particular provision within their organisations to protect focussed work and expertise on equality, diversity, and inclusion. Workplace equality is extremely important to both staff and patient experience.

We continue to lobby on members’ behalf regarding all areas of workforce policy. We are representing our members’ views in the development of the 10 Year Workforce Plan, lobbying for the reform of Agenda for Change, and have supported NHS England with work to improve resident doctors’ working lives.