WORK FORCE I S SUE S
The report stated that there are many causes of burnout, but chronic excessive workload is a key driver and must be tackled as a priority. It added that this will not happen until the service has “the right number of people, with the right mix of skills across both the NHS and care system”.
Understanding levels of stress Several organisations that submitted evidence had surveyed their members on the effect of the pandemic on their staff. In June 2020, an NHS Providers survey found that 9 out of 10 Trust leaders were concerned about staff wellbeing, stress and burnout following the pandemic, while the British Medical Association’s written submission highlighted that nearly half of the doctors that had responded to its survey reported suffering from depression, anxiety, stress, burnout, emotional distress or another mental health condition. The level of burnout was found to be very high among doctors and nurses, but the King’s Fund highlighted that there was very little data for social care workers, since there is no equivalent to the NHS staff survey. The report stated that:
“Understanding the scale and impact of workforce burnout can only be achieved with a metric for staff wellbeing and staff mental health that covers both the NHS and social care.”
It therefore recommended that the
Department for Health and Social Care should extend the NHS Staff Survey to cover the care sector.
Rising demand and capacity Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, pointed out that there has been a mismatch between rapidly rising demand and capacity, which has placed staff under considerable strain: “The way we tried to close the demand/capacity mismatch was by asking our staff to work harder and harder. The reality is that the demand/capacity mismatch was already showing up before we went into [the pandemic].”
He warned that chief executives of Trusts were telling him that after this ‘immediate period’ of the pandemic, people would leave the NHS including “those near retirement, junior doctors or people who have come over here from overseas who wanted to train”. He concluded that core workers would leave the NHS because, “effectively, the whole concept of trying to close that gap by asking staff to work harder and harder is creating an impossible and unsustainable workload for frontline staff”.
Chris Hopson emphasised that “we absolutely do not have enough people working in the NHS” and added that one of the really important things that needed to come out of the pandemic was a commitment, right the way across Government, to undertake long-term workforce planning.
Supporting staff In his oral evidence Paul Farmer, the CEO of Mind, highlighted the importance of cultural change and improving support for staff. He highlighted the need for NHS Trust boards to focus on the mental wellbeing
The added pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic has left many staff physically and emotionally drained, but health and care services have been dogged by staff burnout and workforce shortages for many years. Despite this, successive governments have seen health and care workforce pressures
as a problem for tomorrow. Suzie Bailey, The King’s Fund.
20 l
WWW.CLINICALSERVICESJOURNAL.COM
of their staff and to ensure that there were adequate numbers of champions inside their organisations. ‘Our Frontline’ also recommended that all employers across NHS and social care: l Provide adequate evidence-based training and tools to strengthen the resilience of staff in health and social care.
l Promote anti-stigma messaging to encourage people to reach out if they need support.
l Invest in mental health services specifically for NHS and social care staff who may be experiencing trauma following COVID-19.
l Embed mental health training as a core part of new staff members’ induction.
While the committee of MPs acknowledged the additional support provided for staff during the pandemic, they emphasised that this must be maintained during the recovery period and beyond to stop staff from leaving. The Department and employers need to ensure that such services are accessible to all and used by all who need them. This will require embedding a culture where staff are explicitly given permission and time away from work to seek help when it is needed. In his oral evidence, Paul Farmer suggested the introduction of a “scorecard approach” for individual NHS and social care employers that measured mental wellbeing. The scorecard would monitor both negative factors – including sickness absence due to mental ill health, and positive factors, including the extent to which colleagues feel in control of their workload, or well- supported by their line manager.
Freedom to speak up The report also highlighted the need to ensure staff have the confidence to ‘speak up’, which must be matched with a culture in which organisations demonstrate that they are not just listening to, but also
AUGUST 2021
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