Health & Social Care Staff Experience Survey 2023

Appendix 7: Response Volumes by Method

Method Effect on Response Rates

In order to ensure all staff have the opportunity to take part in iMatter, paper questionnaires are distributed to those without access to the online survey either by email or SMS.

All Boards sent email invitations. 18 Boards sent SMS invitations and 17 used paper surveys. 3 Boards only sent emails. They were Healthcare Improvement Scotland, NHS Education for Scotland and Public Health Scotland.

In 2023 91% of surveys were issued via email, 2pps higher than in 2022. 6% were issued on paper and 3% via SMS. The share of the responses received is 96% from email, 3% paper and 2% from SMS, reflecting the highest response rate being achieved via the email survey.

Full details of response rates by method for each Board are included within the iMatter 2023 Data file^[21].

The overall proportion of paper surveys issued has continued to drop from its highest level of 18% in 2017. Nine Boards reduced considerably the volume of paper surveys issued. However, two Boards (NHS Borders and NHS Dumfries & Galloway) issued a larger volume of paper surveys in 2023. In NHS Borders it appears this increase has come primarily through the HSCP using more paper surveys.

Overall, the volume of SMS invitations sent has reduced by 31% (1,951) in 2023. There are several Boards that sent far fewer SMS invitations than in 2022:

• NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde sent 2,377 SMS invitations in 2023, a reduction of 41% from 2022.
• NHS Dumfries & Galloway sent 226 SMS invitations in 2023, a reduction of 31% from 2022.
• NHS Tayside sent 128 SMS invitations in 2023, a reduction of 61% from 2022.

NHS Golden Jubilee noted that they have used SMS previously where there was a lack of access to IT to allow completion of the emailed survey. This has been resolved this year with staff being given access to a computer in their work area.

In contrast several Boards increased the volume of SMS invitations sent considerably:

• NHS Lothian sent 837 SMS invitations in 2023, an increase of 45% over 2022.
• NHS Highland sent 172 SMS invitations in 2023, an increase of 43% over 2022.
• NHS Forth Valley sent 164 SMS invitations in 2023, an increase of 40% over 2022.
• NHS Grampian sent 150 SMS invitations in 2023, an increase of 90% over 2022.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde reduced the volume of paper surveys and SMS invitations this year, through positive action to migrate more staff to the email survey, particularly within the HSCPs.

NHSGGC has an overall approach of shifting more of our staff onto digital means of completing the survey. In 2023, we particularly focused effort on areas of the organisation with traditionally larger numbers of paper responses and where staff had less access to NHSGGC email accounts, to move those staff onto SMS responses. This led to increases in 7 Directorates & HSCPs of the use of SMS by 966 additional staff overall, in those areas.

The reason we are showing an overall reduction though, is that in our largest HSCP, they were able to transition a large number of staff who traditionally used SMS onto email. This large number of staff previously using SMS migrating to email, reaped positive results in that HSCP with an overall increase in responses of 4% in that one area.

We'll continue to both monitor response levels by response method and engage with service areas and teams to ensure the most appropriate method is used to maintain positive staff engagement. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, iMatter Team

Scottish Ambulance Service sent very few SMS invitations in 2023, having sent over 400 in 2022. It is noted that most of those sent SMS invitations in 2022 were staff temporarily working in Mobile Testing Units, who at the time did not have regular access to email.

Unusable Responses

A prerequisite of iMatter is that the core iMatter questions are answered (staff grouping, raising concerns and demographic questions are optional). If there are any errors on the questionnaire, then it is not processed.

On the online survey unusable responses included:

• 2,878 staff who opened the link, started the survey but did not finish it
• 892 staff answered all the mandatory questions, but did not submit their survey

On the paper questionnaire it is not possible to monitor responses as they are being completed, and so it is only when returned questionnaires are processed that incomplete or incorrectly completed responses are identified.

Of the 12,701 paper surveys issued, 3,060 (24%) were input and a total of 980 (7%) were rejected for the reasons shown here.

Of those with partial responses, 561 had not answered one question, 66 two questions and 117 three or more questions. 35 had not answered any questions.