NHS staff believing career progression is fair at work for all staff
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NHS staff experiences.
1. Main facts and figures
New data for the year 2020 is available if you download the data. The charts, tables and commentary on this page cover the year of 2019 and do not include the new data.
In 2019:
- in 2019, 84% of NHS staff said that their NHS trust gave all staff an equal chance of promotion or career progression
- 87% of White staff said that their NHS trust gave all staff an equal chance of promotion or career progression, compared with 71% of staff from the Other ethnic group (all other ethnic groups combined)
- in all regions of England, and all types of NHS trust, White staff were more likely than staff from the Other ethnic group to say that their trust gave all staff an equal chance of promotion or career progression
Things you need to know
This data shows whether NHS staff thought there was fairness in career progression or promotion in their NHS trust amongst all staff. It does not show whether they felt that they had been treated fairly personally. A member of staff from one ethnic group who sees unfair treatment of a member of staff from another ethnic group may therefore report a perception of unfairness, even if they themselves have been treated fairly.
All NHS trusts have to take part in the NHS Staff Survey, but the number of survey respondents varies between them. Caution should be used when comparing trusts where the results are based on a small number of respondents.
The survey question was completed by staff in 229 NHS trusts. Data from 4 of the trusts was excluded from this analysis because they had fewer than 11 respondents from the ‘Other’ ethnic group (that is, staff from all ethnic groups except the White ethnic group), making the results unreliable. This means the percentages shown here are based on 225 trusts (98%), with a total of 357,073 respondents.
Some trusts selected a sample of staff to take part in the survey, while others invited all their staff to respond. Where a trust selected a sample, the sample may not have been representative of all staff in that trust. Staff who completed the survey might have had different experiences at work than staff who didn’t do so only includes staff who said what their ethnicity was. Staff from some ethnic groups might have been less likely to report their ethnicity or reply to certain survey questions. Therefore, the results may not be representative of all staff working for NHS trusts. No adjustments have been made to the results to compensate for any possible biases.
There is a unknown margin of error around all the estimates presented, so the percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number. The commentary excludes any differences observed in the data of a few percentage points, as they may not indicate real differences. It is possible that some of the larger differences observed in the data, including those which we have commented on, are also within the margin of error, but we’re not able to assess this.
What the data measures
This data shows the percentage of people who, when responding to the NHS Staff Survey in 2019, said their organisation provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion for all staff.
This data is based on responses to the annual NHS staff survey. Key finding 21 shows the percentage of staff believing that trust provides equal opportunities for career progression or promotion.
Data is also presented for 7 broad regions in England and 7 types of NHS trust.
The regions are:
- East of England
- London
- Midlands
- North East and Yorkshire
- North West
- South East of England
- South West of England
The types of NHS trust are:
- Acute
- Acute Specialist
- Ambulance
- Combined Acute & Community
- Combined Mental Health / Learning Disability & Community
- Community
- Mental Health / Learning Disability
The data does not include staff working in:
- independent healthcare providers (non-NHS)
- social enterprises
- arm’s length bodies
- clinical commissioning groups (CCGs)
The ethnic categories used in this data
For this data, ethnicity is broken down into 3 broad ethnic groups:
- White (including White British and White ethnic minorities)
- Other (all other ethnic minorities)
- Unknown (where ethnicity is not known/not declared)
This is to be consistent with other Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) data. This ethnicity classification was used for all previous WRES reports, so using the same classification allows for comparisons with previous years. It also helps to increase the reliability of the data.
2. By ethnicity and area
| Geography | All | Other | White |
|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | |
| England | 84 | 71 | 87 |
| East of England | 84 | 74 | 86 |
| London | 77 | 67 | 84 |
| Midlands | 84 | 71 | 87 |
| North East and Yorkshire | 87 | 74 | 88 |
| North West | 85 | 73 | 87 |
| South East of England | 86 | 77 | 88 |
| South West of England | 87 | 75 | 88 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and area’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and area’ (CSV)
Summary of NHS staff believing career progression is fair at work for all staff By ethnicity and area Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2019, 84% of NHS staff said that their trust gave all staff an equal chance of promotion or career progression
- 87% of White staff said that their trust gave all staff an equal chance of promotion or career progression, compared with 71% of staff from the Other ethnic group (all other ethnic groups combined)
- nationally and in each of the 7 regions, White staff were around 1.2 times as likely as staff from the Other ethnic group to say that their trust gave all staff an equal chance of promotion or career progression
3. By ethnicity and type of trust
| Trust Type | All | Other | White |
|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | |
| England | 84 | 71 | 87 |
| Acute | 84 | 72 | 87 |
| Acute Specialist | 84 | 70 | 87 |
| Ambulance | 73 | 59 | 74 |
| Combined Acute and Community | 85 | 71 | 88 |
| Combined Mental Health / Learning Disability and Community | 86 | 72 | 88 |
| Community | 89 | 70 | 91 |
| Mental Health / Learning Disability | 84 | 70 | 87 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and type of trust’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and type of trust’ (CSV)
Summary of NHS staff believing career progression is fair at work for all staff By ethnicity and type of trust Summary
This data shows that:
-
out of all types of NHS trust, ambulance trusts had the lowest percentage of staff from both ethnic groups who said their trust gave all staff an equal chance of promotion or career progression – 74% of White staff and 59% of staff from the Other ethnic group did so
-
individual NHS trust scores ranged between 65% and 95% of White staff believing their trust gave all staff an equal chance of promotion or career progression, compared with between 49% and 96% of staff from the Other ethnic group
-
a higher percentage of White staff said their trust gave all staff an equal chance of promotion or career progression, compared with staff from the Other ethnic group, in 221 out of 225 trusts
4. Methodology
300 NHS organisations took part in the staff survey, including 229 NHS trusts. In 4 trusts, there were fewer than 11 responses from staff in the Other ethnic group, and so the results have not been included.
Staff were sent a paper questionnaire or an email containing a link to an online questionnaire. 569,440 staff completed the questionnaire between October and December 2019, an overall response rate of 48%.
There are 4 questions related to the Workforce Race Equality Standard in the staff survey.
The survey was administered by the Survey Coordination Center on behalf of NHS England.
Suppression rules and disclosure control
The data doesn’t include figures from trusts where fewer than 11 staff from either the White or Other ethnic group responded to the survey.
Rounding
Percentages are given to the nearest whole number. You can see unrounded figures if you download the data.
Related publications
Technical guide to the 2019 staff survey data (PDF opens in a new window or tab)
5. Data sources
Source
Workforce Race Equality Standard 2019: supporting data
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
NHS England
Note on corrections or updates
Updated with the latest data for 2018/19
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
Data is collected by ethnicity to improve race equality in the NHS workforce.
6. Download the data
This file contains the following: Measure, Year, NHS_trust, NHS_trust_code, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Geography, Geography_type, NHS_trust_type, Value, Value_type