NHS staff survey 2009

This is the seventh annual survey of NHS staff. It provides trusts with information about the views and experiences of employees that can help to improve the working lives of staff and the quality of care for patients. Almost 290,000 NHS staff were asked for their views on working in the NHS in October 2009 (fifty-five percent responded).


The Care Quality Commission will use the results from the survey in a range of ways including:

  • setting out national findings
  • informing patients and the public of trusts’ results
  • using the results in regulatory activities such as registration, the monitoring of ongoing compliance, and reviews.  

The Department of Health will also use the results to inform commissioning, service improvement and performance measurement, and to review and inform NHS policies.

National results

The 2009 survey provides 40 key findings about working in the NHS. Of these, 26 show improvements from 2008, two have deteriorated and eight have remained unchanged. A further four key findings are new to the survey in 2009.

There has been an increase in, for example, the proportion of staff who:

  • are satisfied with the quality of work and patient care they are able to deliver (now nearly three-quarters of staff);
  • had health and safety training in the previous twelve months (more than three-quarters);
  • were appraised with personal development plans in the last 12 months (now 60%, up by five percentage points from 2008) but  less than a third think these are well-structured or helpful

We also see a small increase in staff job satisfaction and a decrease in the proportion of staff who say they are thinking of leaving their trust. There has been a fall in, for example, the proportion of staff:

  • feeling pressure at work (a small drop in the scale score);
  • working extra hours (down by one percentage point);
  • experiencing physical violence from patients / relatives in last the 12 months (down by one percentage point);
  • experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients / relatives in last the 12 months (down by one percentage point)

The experience of staff has deteriorated in two key findings with a one percentage point drop in the proportion of staff receiving job-relevant training, learning or development in the previous twelve months and in the proportion of staff feeling able to contribute towards improvements at work.

Approximately half of all staff would recommend their trust as a place to work, and just under two thirds are happy with the standard of care provided by their trust. There has also been a substantial rise in the % of staff saying that they have had training in infection control.

Many staff however feel excluded from decision-making, there is a strong view that senior managers do not act on their feedback and less than half the staff think that clinical and managerial staff work well together. Overall, less than a third of staff are satisfied with the extent to which their trust values their work. Although showing improvements year on year, just under half of all respondents said that there are not enough staff to enable them to do their jobs properly (45%) or that they do not have enough time (46%).

For further details on these and other key findings, please go to:

NHS staff survey 2009 key findings (DOC, 86KB, opens in new window)

Feedback reports for NHS trusts

Each trust has received data from the 2009 survey on 40 key areas (known as ‘Key Findings’) in their own feedback report. We include the top and bottom ranking Key Findings, local changes in the Key Findings since 2008, benchmarked analysis of Key Findings against other trusts of a similar type, breakdowns of the Key Findings by directorate, occupational and demographic groups, and details of each question included in the core questionnaire.

The questionnaires:

Further information

Find further information on the NHS staff survey, including a document on ‘Making sense of your data':

Making sense of your survey data (PDF, 250KB, opens in new window)