Health Service Workers Are The Gloomiest Staff In The Public Services

• 38% of health workers doubt senior management knows where it is going
• A quarter believe the NHS does not put the needs of patients first
• One in five are active critics of the NHS as an employer

Health service workers are markedly more disillusioned with their jobs and have less faith in their leaders than their counterparts in the education and local government sectors.

According to data from The Workers Index, a bi-annual analysis of feelings and attitudes towards work, jointly sponsored by Ipsos, the independent research organisation, and The Work Foundation, the think tank and consultancy, health sector professionals emerge as the gloomiest of all staff who work in the public sector.

Fewer than half of health service workers (48%) believe that 'senior management have a clear vision of where the organisation is going'. By contrast, 67% of people who work in the education sector agree with the statement. Health also has a larger proportion of staff who actively disagree with the statement.

In addition, twice the proportion of health workers compared to education sector workers (24% to 12%) disagree that the NHS puts the needs of clients first.

On the balance of positive and negative attitudes towards their employment, National Health Service and other health staff are consistently more critical than other public sector workers. More than one in five (22%) are actively critical of their employer; and 18% are critical of the service it provides. The level of criticism is considerably lower in the education sector: One in seven (15%) are critical of their employer and just 9% criticise the service it offers.

Criticism of management is not confined to senior tiers. Health service workers are also less inspired by their own line managers. In education, 63% say they are inspired by their line manager. In the NHS or health services, the figure is 48%. The government appears to addressing concerns of workers in the sector with the planned changes in senior management in the Department Health.

Michelle Mahdon, senior researcher at The Work Foundation, and co-author of a new commentary on The Worker's Index, said: "These figures suggest the perpetual upheaval in the health service may be eating into the motivation and commitment of staff. They do already highly demanding jobs. But on top they have to cope with this blizzard of initiatives and targets that descends on them from on high. Small wonder that work attitudes in the health service seem to be feeling the strain."

"One explanation could be the difference in the size of workplaces. Outside the GP network, NHS and health sector establishments are huge organisations with multiple layers of management. This can make communication between front-line service workers and senior managers more challenging, while staff can sometimes feel like just a cog in the machine without voice and influence."

Mark Gill, Head of Political Research at Ipsos said: "The Workers Index is further evidence that the government has some way to go to convince frontline staff that its reform programme will deliver what staff and patients expect. Staff engagement and motivation for change in the health service is essential to the future of the NHS, particularly as other Ipsos research has shown growing public scepticism about the government's ability to improve the health service."

The Worker's Index is a bi-annual survey of 1000 workers in the public and private sectors jointly sponsored by Ipsos and The Work Foundation. The third wave of the survey was conducted in May 2006 and 1,051 workers participated. The first two waves were in February 2005 and October 2005 where 970 and 1,028 workers participated respectively. Each wave was conducted face to face in respondent homes. Copies of the commentary are available from The Work Foundation or Ipsos. The findings about the public sector come from aggregating the three waves of data.