Press Release
New report shows stress is rife in the NHS
2 November 2005
Over 60% of NHS organisations believe up to half their staff may be suffering from workplace stress, according to a new report published today.
NHS Employers is publishing Workplace Stress in the NHS in collaboration with Consult GEE to coincide with Stress Awareness Day and the start of its campaign to help both NHS employers and their staff recognise stress and deal with it effectively.
NHS Employers head of workplace health and employment Julian Topping said: “Our lives are becoming increasingly more hectic and stress levels are soaring. Stress has become one of the biggest causes of staff sickness and costs the NHS millions of pounds every year.
“Employers have a legal duty to manage stress among staff, and staff have a legal duty towards making sure they are safe and well. The main problem is that many people don’t recognise when they, or their employees, are stressed until it is too late, and if they do, they very often don’t know what to do about it.
“Lots of advice and information about stress already exists and many NHS organisations are already doing a lot to tackle it. However, our research shows that a lot more can be done. That is why we have decided to run our awareness campaign. We want more staff and employers to take stress seriously and know where they can go to get advice and help.”
The Workplace Stress in the NHS report follows a survey carried out during the NHS Confederation annual conference in June 2005. The findings include:
- 62% of respondents estimated that up to half their employees might be under stress within their organisation.
- 35% of respondents said their organisations had carried out a stress risk assessment on staff (mainly every one to three years). The rest either hadn’t carried out an assessment, or didn’t know if they had.
- 29% of respondents said their organisation had a stress policy and a further 6% said they had plans for such a policy
- Counselling was the most popular stress prevention technique used by organisations: 74% of respondents said their organisation offered this to their staff. 43% said their organisation redesigned or restructured jobs to tackle stress; 42% said they offered stress management training and education training programmes and 40% offered health checks.
- 63% of respondents thought stress was discussed at senior management/board meetings anywhere between every few months to a couple of times a year.
Starting today, NHS Employers will be running a long-term awareness campaign about stress. The How Are You Doing? campaign will kick off with packs containing awareness posters and booklets being sent to every NHS trust in England. Information and advice will also be available online for both employers and staff on a new dedicated area of the NHS Employers website.
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