The results of the 2020 NHS Staff Survey have been published today by The Co-ordination Centre (Picker Institute Europe) on behalf of NHS England and NHS Improvement. This is the eighteenth annual national survey of NHS staff.

Since 2013, participating organisations have been able to conduct the survey as a census or extended sample and this option is increasingly being adopted. Over 1.2 million staff across 280 NHS organisations were invited to take part in the 2020 survey, and over 25,000 more responses were received than in 2019.

Over 595,000 staff responded to the 2020 survey, a response rate of 47.3% (compared to response rates of 48.5% in 2019 and 45.7% in 2018).

Fieldwork for the 2020 survey took place during October and November 2020, between the first and second Covid-19 wave in England. As such, responses will be reflective of this point in time and this should be kept in mind when considering the results of the survey.

The survey results are available on the main NHS Staff Survey website. More information about the survey can be found on the Survey Coordination Centre website.

There have been several changes to the 2020 survey core questionnaire. 17 individual questions and one theme (appraisals) have been removed compared to 2019. Four questions relating to background information have been amended, whilst ten individual questions have been added. This includes six new questions relating to staff experience of working through the Covid-19 pandemic. Four of these questions cover: whether staff had worked on a Covid-19 specific ward or area at any time, whether they had been redeployed due to the Covid-19 pandemic at any time, whether they had been required to work remotely/from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and whether they had been shielding.

Further information about the changes to the 2020 questionnaire can be found in this document.

The results are available via a series of dashboards at www.nhsstaffsurveyresults.com.

The Chief People Officer, Prerana Issar, has written a blog that can be accessed here.