Picker awarded renewed multi-year contract to coordinate the annual NHS Staff Survey, the largest workforce survey in the world

Leading health and social care charity Picker is delighted to announce it has been awarded the renewal of a multi-year contract to coordinate the annual NHS Staff Survey for a further three years, following a competitive tender process.

The NHS Staff Survey is understood to be the largest workforce survey in the world and has been conducted every year since 2003. The aggregated survey results are designated as Official Statistics, providing a rich source of data that is used by a wide range of NHS organisations to inform understanding of staff experiences locally, regionally, and nationally.

Chris Graham, Picker Group CEO, said:

The survey offers a crucial voice to staff in the health service and it is integral to informing policy and improving workforce experiences. Having coordinated the survey for more than a decade, we have taken great pride in its growing importance and impact. Today, the survey is rightly valued by leaders across the NHS as one of the most important sources of evidence about quality and workforce experience.

We look forward to working in partnership with NHS England to implement further improvements, continuing to show that the NHS Staff Survey is a trusted source of intelligence for understanding and improving working cultures in the NHS.

Picker was first appointed to coordinate the survey in 2011 by its then owner, the Department of Health. The survey’s ownership moved to NHS England in 2013 and Picker have served as the Survey Coordination Centre responsible for carrying out the staff survey for over a decade.

During their stewardship Picker has successfully worked with our sponsors to expand the scope of the survey and to develop its impact. Using a gold standard approach to survey design, analysis, and reporting Picker has overseen transformative changes. From the rollout of a mixed-mode design, moving from a sample to census, and to the introduction of an online reporting tool, changes have modernised the survey.

Recently, Picker worked with NHS England and stakeholders to redevelop the survey to align with the NHS People Promise enabling organisations to understand better how they are delivering against core elements of experience such as retention, well-being, and equality, diversity, and inclusion.

The survey has also become more inclusive, ensuring that almost all staff in participating organisations are given the opportunity to take part: from consultants to care assistants, and from porters to paramedics. In 2022, the eligibility criteria were extended to include bank only workers, a key part of the NHS workforce, increasing understanding of the working experience for this group.

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Notes for Editors

• Picker is an international charity working across health and social care. Established in the US in 1987 and UK in 2000, our work is at the forefront of understanding and furthering the link between patient experience, person centred care, and clinical excellence. We believe in high quality person centred care for all, always.
• Our survey package is built on decades of expertise, putting Picker at the forefront of mixed-methodology survey deployments – combining paper and digital for the most robust, measurable results. We interrogate the links between staff morale and patient experience and are consistently working to define terms and measure outcomes more effectively.
• Further details about the NHS Staff Survey are available on the survey coordination centre website.
• Media enquiries, please contact the Marketing & Communications Manager at Picker, Lorraine Pullen pressoffice@pickereurope.ac.uk Mobile: 07825 952160 or Greig Box Turnbull at Fortitude Communications gbt@fortitudecommunications.com