How your staff survey responses are kept confidential | Trust news

Your feedback in the NHS Staff Survey is completely confidential. This means you can be completely honest without worrying about who might see what you said. 

Who runs the survey?

We use an independent organisation called Picker to manage the survey. Their process is designed to protect the identity of all staff members who take part and keep your responses completely anonymous.

What information is shared with Picker?

Before the survey starts, Homerton sends a list of staff who are eligible to take part. This includes names, emails, job title, and department.

Picker then creates unique reference number for each person. This number is not linked to your name or any personal information. It is just used to send reminders and organise responses into the correct report without matching responses to individual’s identifying information. Homerton or the wider NHS never see your individual responses.

How your responses are handled

Your survey response is submitted directly to Picker. The Trust does not see your answers and cannot tell who has and hasn’t completed the survey. The final report presents the survey findings in summary form, without revealing the identity of any staff members.

Picker does not check whether an individual has completed the survey unless asked directly by the individual. Reminders are sent out automatically. Picker will never tell anyone else whether you’ve completed the survey unless you give express permission. 

How the results are reported

Picker collects all responses, with the codes allowing the responses to be stored separately from any personal, identifiable information. The Trust receives anonymous summary report on the survey results, broken down by division and department. To ensure there’s no risk of identifying any individual’s responses, Picker does not report results for any groups with fewer than 11 responses. 

How prize draws work

Because the Trust doesn’t know who has completed the survey, Picker also manages the prize draw. They draw the winners at random from the list of completed survey using the unique reference number. They match the code with the winner’s name in the staff list provided by the Trust and contact the winners directly. They will ask permission to let the Trust know they have won (and that they have therefore completed the survey). Picker will not provide the Trust with any further information about the winner or their responses.

Your demographic information is not linked to your answers

If you choose to share details like your ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, it is not linked to your individual answers.

Instead, Picker provides a summary of responses by demographic category. For example, Homerton will receive a report on the experiences of staff across the whole organisation who are in the global majority compared to staff across the whole organisation who are white. But this report isn’t linked to teams or division. This means your answers stay anonymous even if you are one of the only people your team in a certain demographic.

Why we collect demographic data? 

We collect this information to understand how experiences vary for people with protected characteristics. It helps us ensure our policies and practices are fair and equitable.

Have questions about the survey?

If you have questions or need support, you can contact Picker directly. You don’t need to go through anyone at Homerton.  

Email: pickernss25@picker.org 

Telephone: 0800 103 2818  

For more  information on how Picker keeps your responses confidential, see their confidentiality factsheet.

 

Get more information on the staff survey and the impact your voice has had on the Staff Survey intranet page