05.11.14
Guidance issued to NHS managers to help tackle staff stress
New guidance has been issued to managers across the NHS to help reduce stress in the workplace by offering better support.
This comes after the NHS Staff Survey revealed that 38% of the workforce has suffered stress in the previous 12 months. NHS Employers also estimates that more than 30% of all sick leave is now caused by work-related stress in the NHS, costing up to £400m each year.
The new document – ‘Guidance On Prevention And Management of Stress At Work’ – written by the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Partnership Group, should enable health organisations to work together to reduce the causes and risks associated with workplace stress.
The guidance explains how managers’ behaviour impacts on the health of staff; and demonstrating how the impact on health and wellbeing can be positively improved and how sickness absence levels can be reduced by saying and doing the right thing as a manager.
Kim Sunley, staff-side chair of the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Partnership Group, and senior employment relations adviser at the Royal College of Nursing, said that the current pressures on the health service have led to increasing workloads and high levels of stress among NHS staff.
“Health workers face the immense challenge of delivering care at a time of growing demand and scant resource, and this can leave them stressed and at very real risk of burnout,” said Sunley. “It’s positive that Simon Stevens and NHS Employers recognise the need to improve support for health service staff.”
NHS Employers stated that it aims to significantly reduce stress-related sickness figures, to improve workforce resilience, staff morale and the ability to deliver quality patient care.
James Tracey, employer-side chair of the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Partnership Group, who is also senior human resources manager at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, stated that the figures are big and “we want to get them down below a third”.
He added that the NHS is well aware of the challenge of the stress in its workforce.
“What we want to achieve now is a greater depth and breadth in how managers respond to stress. There are many technical areas that can be improved, for example measuring specific causes, but most important is the need to better manage the emotional side,” he noted. “If someone phones their manager and asks for some days off because of stress, it takes skill and understanding to respond in the best way.”
Guidance On Prevention And Management of Stress At Work is available to download from www.nhsemployers.org/hswpg.
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