But employer body says greater evaluation will realise benefits
Financial pressures on the NHS have made it increasingly difficult for boards to justify spending on internal health and well-being programmes, a report from NHS Employers has found.
Unless more evidence and rigor is developed to assess their value, many programmes will have to be disbanded, which will be a “significant loss” the group said.
The report, ‘Evaluating Health and Well-being Interventions For Healthcare Staff: Key Findings’, said the NHS would have to better evaluate its internal health and well-being programmes if it is to secure itself as a national leader on healthy staff, and set an example for other organisations.
The report follows a new vision for the NHS, set out by Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, which encourages the public to become healthier by strongly supporting health service staff to do likewise.
But NHS Employers said that many of the programmes operating internally were under-used and in some cases ineffective because of significant barriers to improvement. It recommended that all employers in the organisation look at their current initiatives and spend time evaluating the process and outcomes.
“The NHS has over many years expanded its staff well-being policies and programmes, supporting the well-being of our people, to help them to deliver high quality patient care. However we are concerned that financial pressure on NHS organisations will reduce the funding for such projects unless managers can better demonstrate their value,” said Danny Mortimer, chief executive of the NHS Employers organisation.
“Developing more systematic, evidence-based approaches will drive improvement in these projects. This research can be used to demonstrate the impact of quality health and wellbeing programmes to Boards throughout the NHS. I also have no doubt that NHS organisations can provide a great example to others about how staff can become healthier and more engaged in their roles.”
According to the report, many employers have neglected evaluating their programmes due to time pressures, a lack of understanding of how and what to measure and a want for immediate results rather than long-term commitment.
“It is important to consider how the evaluation data is intended to be used before collecting,” the report said. To tackle the perception that evaluation activity is “complex” and “technical,” NHS Employers recommended putting skilled evaluators in place.
“NHS staff report lacking the skills to be able to design reliable and valid methods for collecting evidence,” it said. “Technically, evaluators need to possess knowledge and skills about, for example, project management, organisational politics, communication, research methods and statistics,” which could mean HR needs to develop a team dedicated to the process.
“Evaluation requires organisations to commit to building a capacity for evaluation and providing appropriate levels of support and resource so that evaluation becomes common place,” the report concluded.