Workforce issues
A new direction for NHS staff experience
In this article, Mona Guckian Fisher, a former President of the International Federation of Perioperative Nurses, and former President of the Association for Perioperative Practice, discusses the new NHS staff standards and how organisations will be held to account for improving staff experience. She outlines how the new standards could lead to meaningful change.
The NHS staff standards for England were published on 6 July 2026 as part of the Government’s wider commitment to improving staff experience under the 10-Year Health Plan. They establish national minimum employment requirements for NHS organisations, with the aim of creating safer, more respectful and supportive working environments for staff.1-3
is that improving staff experience may contribute to better recruitment and retention, reduced sickness absence, improved productivity and, ultimately, better patient outcomes.4
This is The
standards focus on six areas: line management, health and wellbeing, violence prevention and reduction, championing sexual safety, tackling racism, and promoting flexible working.1-3 They apply to secondary care organisations, including acute, mental health, ambulance and community healthcare services.2,3 The introduction of the standards represents an important shift in NHS workforce policy. Rather than treating staff experience solely as a human resources issue, the standards establish clearer national expectations for employers and introduce greater organisational accountability for the working environment. The policy rationale
consistent with the wider recognition that staff wellbeing, engagement and organisational culture are closely connected to the quality and safety of healthcare.
The purpose of the new standards The standards were developed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England in collaboration with employers and trade unions through the Social Partnership Forum. Their development was informed by evidence from staff engagement activity and workforce data, including the NHS Staff Survey.2,3
The NHS Staff Survey provides
an important source of information about staff experiences across England and is conducted annually to identify areas for improvement.5
The 2025 survey, for example, captured the experiences of more than 760,000 NHS staff, demonstrating the scale of evidence available to inform workforce policy.6 A key feature of the new approach is that staff experience will become more explicitly connected to organisational performance and accountability. The standards will underpin the NHS Oversight Framework and will be used alongside wider assurance processes to assess organisational performance.1-3
NHS England has
also indicated that the standards will contribute to a composite metric within the NHS Oversight Framework, providing an early warning signal of potential organisational problems.7
This is
significant because it moves staff experience beyond the status of an aspirational workforce objective and towards a measurable component of organisational performance.
The implementation challenge However, the introduction of national standards is unlikely, in itself, to resolve the longstanding workforce challenges facing the NHS. Many of the issues addressed by the six standards – including effective line management, staff wellbeing, flexible working, racism, violence and sexual safety – have been recognised in NHS workforce policy for many years. Consequently, some healthcare professionals may view the standards with a degree of scepticism. The key question is therefore not whether the principles behind the standards are appropriate, but whether they will result in meaningful changes to the everyday working lives of NHS staff. The principal challenge will be implementation. NHS organisations are being asked to improve staff experience while simultaneously managing workforce shortages, financial pressures, high levels of demand and continuing service transformation. These competing pressures may make it difficult for organisations and managers to devote
October 2026 I
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