The NHS Context for Engagement

1. The NHS Context for Engagement

2. Diverse staff groups and locations • Many different groups • Clinical professionals • Technicians • Support staff • Managers • Patient-facing and ‘back office’ • Hands-on daily contact • Administrative and managerial • ‘Corporate’ can seem very distant • Different locations • Multi-hospital acute Trusts • Many locations for delivering community & mental health services • Mergers and restructuring • Hospitals and services changing hands • Trusts reconfiguring and changing names

3. Engagement with what? • Clinicians may owe more loyalty to their profession than the organisation they work for • Support staff often care deeply about where they work (their hospital or clinic) but don’t identify with their Trust • Patient-facing staff are often very engaged with their patients but might not care about wider Trust issues • Senior managers have high levels of organisational engagement because they are making strategic and business decisions

4. NHS Staff Survey

5. Constant pressure • Ever-increasing demand for services • Cost restraint • Public and press scrutiny • Frequent ‘reforms’ due to changes in Government • Targets → strain on staff, stressful jobs

6. Positives about the NHS • Belief in NHS ethos • Desire to help patients • Rewarding work • Patient/public appreciation • Interesting jobs, often with considerable autonomy • Career and development opportunities • Clarity of core purpose