Health and Community Services staff surveys (FOI)

Request

Jersey Care Commission contracted the renowned Picker Institute to conduct a large patient experience survey posting questionnaires to a sample of over 4,000 people who have received care in the previous three months from the hospital, maternity or mental health services.

This was in preparation for the expansion of the Regulation of Care law to bring the island’s hospital services up to standard, following Professor Hugo Mascie-Taylor’s report that found potentially unsafe conditions within Jersey’s healthcare system (Jersey Evening Post 8 September 2022).

Picker Institute has also coordinated the NHS Staff Survey – the largest workforce survey in the world – annually since 2011 and worked with hundreds of organisations each year to measure staff experiences. According to Picker's website the delivery of the highest quality care is completely reliant on the employees providing it within health and social care systems. Staff engagement is paramount, with individual and team efforts, practices and behaviours directly impacting patient care experiences. 

A

Is there a plan to engage Picker Institute to conduct annual health staff surveys in Jersey? If yes, when is it expected to start? If no - is there a plan to conduct regular large health staff experience surveys using other methodology? If not - why not?

B

Please provide HCS subset of results from the Be Heard Survey (2020) described by Bailiwick Express (FOCUS: Measuring the mood in Government 10 September 2021).

C

Which key areas for improvement were identified by management based on the results of Be Heard 2020 survey? What specific initiatives have been delivered to improve staff experience in the identified priority areas?

D

How has the improvement been measured of the above-mentioned initiatives? Was there any Health and Social Care staff experience or feedback survey after Be Heard 2020 to monitor the impact of the improvement programmes? If so please provide a summary of results.

Response

A

A decision has not yet been taken as to the format or methodology of specific Health and Community Services (HCS) staff experience surveys. This is an issue to be considered by the HCS Board, which is currently being established.

B

The HCS subset of results from the Be Heard Survey (2020) has been provided in a previous Freedom of Information response, published on www.gov.je in September 2021.As this information is accessible by other means, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. 

Health and Community Services Be Heard Survey results.pdf (gov.je)

C

Improvement areas were identified by individual teams in dedicated focus sessions. As part of the sessions, action plans were developed and these are owned and implemented by each team. In addition, a range of staff experience initiatives have been implemented across all of HCS and for individual teams including:

• facilitated focus group sessions across care groups and / or service areas
• walk the floor events for a variety of staff and services
• increased communication and engagement through different newsletters and communication channels
• the establishment of a social committee
• HCS Wellbeing week.

D

Each team developed their own actions plans, which included specific actions to address improvements and success measures. Teams tracked the implementation and outcome of their own initiatives. 

Another Be Heard survey is scheduled to be implemented in Spring 2023 across HCS, along with all Government of Jersey departments.

Article applied

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.