There has been some published metrics from the previous GPSS – interestingly the results appear to be better for General Practice than Trusts.

The Survey

The actual questions posed are not published, each responder is asked to complete the questions online through a portal, the questions can change each year however the following headings provide a good indication of the survey focus.

Teamwork and Culture

• Do you feel respected by colleagues?

• Do team members understand each other’s roles?

• Are disagreements dealt with constructively?

• Do you feel valued by your team?

Job Satisfaction and Motivation

• Do you look forward to going to work?

• Are you enthusiastic about your job?

• Does your work make a difference to patients?

Workload and Environment

• Do you have enough staff to do your job properly?

• Do you have adequate materials and equipment?

• How often do you feel burnt out or emotionally exhausted?

Safety and Inclusion

• Have you experienced physical violence or harassment from patients or staff?

• Does your organisation act fairly regarding career progression, regardless of background?

• Do you feel safe to report errors or near misses?

How will the GPSS survey be used?

We don’t know this for certain however there is every indication that the data collected will be used by the ICB (and CQC) as part of the suite of data used to assess practices and to look at those practices identified as having ‘Unwarranted Variations’. We can also expect that there will be General Practice Staff Satisfaction league tables.

What can practices do to ensure their Survey Results are not outliers?

At this point in the briefing note we need to clearly state that:

We are in real danger of teaching our grandmother how to suck eggs – therefore if you believe that the GPSS survey is not likely to concern you then please (mixing metaphors) treat the following with a pinch of salt. We know that most practices are very good employers and therefore the following advice is redundant! Apologies in advance!

Here is our 10-point plan:

1) Acknowledge the relevance to you and your practice. There are many things that NHSE do (and include in the GMS Contract) that are unhelpful and provide various degrees of irritation and we could argue that having the new GPSS requirement doesn’t recognise the pressure on PM time etc. However, we think that in general, staff opinion surveys are helpful – it’s worth remembering that there is absolute, irrefutable, evidence of the link between happy staff and better services, therefore it may be helpful to see the survey as positive or at least a learning opportunity! It is worth sharing this message with staff.

2) Engage the partners and senior team – The motivation for doing this may be driven by the need to be contractually compliant but given the above and the fact that the outcomes should not fall solely on the shoulder of the PMs, it is important that partners and senior clinicians are fully involved in any of these plans.

3) Improve Staff Engagement. If we were to rank this 10-point plan in terms of importance this would be number 1! We always talk about improving communication – but in reality, when staff say that communication is poor what they actually mean is that they don’t feel involved or able to influence. Finding ways of engaging staff in decision making and implementing changes is really important. For example, could a practice use a slot on a PLT to share the new GMS Access requirements and then ask all staff how best the changes could be delivered in a way that can benefit patients and the practice team.

4) Provide appropriate reminders. It may be that a more ‘negative’ response to a survey is simply because someone is not able to recall something. It is therefore important to find a way of reminding the wider team of a range of issues, here are three examples:

     a. The practice has access to a FTSU guardian – it may be that staff need reminding of this – even if the poster is in the staff room.

     b. That whilst their hourly pay rate may be less than Tesco’s the pension provision is infinitely better, as are the T&Cs.

     c. The practice does investigate every Adverse Incident and does share the learning through Learning Events.

Each practice will have different potential benefits so it's worth doing your own list and providing reminders. We can suggest countless examples – I think each practice will have at least 20 ‘reminders’.

5) Utilise your competitive advantage. Believe it or not there is still a degree of prestige in working in a GP Surgery and in particular in working with highly respected local GPs. It would be good if partners regularly engaged with all staff and in particular sought to understand the pressures and challenges – of course we need to ensure that partners of other senior clinicians don’t make promises ‘to sort’, and that the engagement doesn’t undermine the management team. This approach should be focussed on generating a recognition of everyone’s role in a vital public service. I know you know this, but a Partner walking around everyday asking how its going and thanking staff is worth its weight in gold.

6) Recognise the huge workload and significant challenges. It is important that we are all clear about the productivity and efficiency of general practice and the day-to-day challenges. It is worth regularly sharing the actual activity figures (appointments, scripts, phone calls, DNAs etc) with staff as it is good to feel part of a busy and valued service. It should be positive for staff to work in a really important service.

7) Be careful that leadership negativity doesn’t rub off. We know that recently imposed GMS contract and other changes have made our GPs feel under-valued and over-whelmed, however it is important that these feelings don’t set the tone. Try to keep doom and gloom discussions within the Board meetings!

8) Concentrate on the majority. It is inevitable that someone will use the Staff Survey as a way of airing their gripes – you will not be able to prevent this, so don’t overtry to influence the small number who might grumble and aim to work on the majority.

9) Be clear about the impact of the survey. Most staff actually want to work somewhere with a good reputation so its worth sharing how the SS data is likely to be used.

10) Promote positivity. It is really easy to slip into the habit of moaning about what is wrong with the place you work, so it is important to occasionally use PLTs or meetings to reflect on what is good about where you work and what we could all do to improve our collect lot! You could pose the question “do you think we provide a good service to our patients (given the constraints)?” In most cases the answer will be yes!

Mike Pyrah, Co-Founder, March 2026