NHS to rate English trusts on tackling violence and racism towards staff | NHS

The NHS will rate trusts on how well they tackle racism, violence and sexual harassment of staff, the government has announced.

All NHS acute, ambulance and mental health trusts in England will be assessed and ranked from July published league tables Six key welfare measures affecting more than 1.5 million workers.

All secondary care NHS bodies will be affected by the announcement. Primary care, which includes GP practices, is excluded for now, but ministers hope to introduce this “in the coming years”.

New performance standards will rate hospitals and ambulance services on their achievements in tackling racism, preventing violence, improving sexual safety, promoting flexible working, department management and health and wellbeing support. They will receive a score of one to four for each measure, which will contribute to the trusts’ overall rating.

For the first time, trusts’ progress on workforce wellbeing, assessed through the NHS staff survey, will directly impact overall performance ratings as well as waiting list and A&E metrics.

Secondary Health Minister Karin Smyth said: “NHS staff are the backbone of our health service and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

“The levels of racism, violence and sexual harassment reported by staff are completely unacceptable and for too long employers have had no formal responsibility to address them.

“These new standards, a 10-year health plan commitment, change that. For the first time, how trusts treat their staff will be measured and published, because we know patients get better care when staff are supported.”

Hundreds of thousands of NHS staff have been attacked, harassed, bullied or subjected to racism, according to the latest NHS staff survey; Nearly one in 10 NHS workers, a third of ambulance staff and more than one in 10 nurses and midwives said they had experienced unwanted sexual behavior in the past year.

A recent investigation by the Guardian found there have been huge increases in levels of violence and sexual harassment in the past three years.

Experts welcomed the new performance measures but questioned how quickly staff would notice the difference.

Suzie Bailey, The real test will be whether the standards transform everyday working life, said the director of leadership and organizational development at the King’s Fund think tank. “The NHS cannot deliver high quality care if staff and managers do not feel safe, valued and supported,” he said.

Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Zero tolerance policies on paper have done little to improve the day-to-day experience of nursing staff.

“To deliver real change for staff, robust enforcement mechanisms need to be in place for those who fail to comply with new standards. If this level of abuse does not change, nurses will continue to drift away from the NHS and that would be a tragedy.”

Tim Mitchell, the outgoing president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said a national, independent and anonymous way for NHS staff to report incidents was needed.

“Staff should be able to come forward without fear of reprisal, confident that their concerns will be dealt with impartially and compassionately,” he said.