Trusts Unanimous in Concern for Staff

Liaison Workforce

A new report from NHS Providers has found that 92% of trusts agree with the statement; “I am concerned about staff wellbeing, stress and burnout following the pandemic”.

The report, Recovery Position, looks at the results of NHS Providers’ first survey of chairs and chief executives of trusts since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Under the heading, ‘The Impact of the Pandemic on the Workforce’, the impact of Covid-19 on staff is found to have been substantial and wide-ranging. Trust leaders cite high levels of staff absence (70%), and state that staff will need a chance to take leave over the summer to recover, with many concerned about the impact on staff should there be further waves of the outbreak.

As part of the ongoing need to maintain surge capacity, 78% of trusts have undertaken workforce reconfiguration to redeploy staff or create more flexible roles and are committed to supporting their workforce with this process.

Judith Shaw, Managing Director of Liaison Workforce, says: “Before Covid-19, we saw from our own research that a number of the trusts adopting flexible working policies recorded a reduced turnover rate and sickness absence rate reduction. We would expect to see those rates continue to fall in the future where flexible working becomes the new normal as a result of policies being altered to facilitate flexible and remote working due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

To find out more, please see our research at Covid-19: An Opportunity for a New Normal.