CSS News

The Challenge: Establishing a Baseline for Improvement

In 2021, an internal Staff Survey revealed areas for improvement in workplace civility. The survey indicated that:

• 66% of staff felt their colleagues were “understanding and kind to one another”.
• 67% reported receiving “the respect [they] deserve from [their] colleagues at work”.
• 67% perceived their colleagues as “polite and treat[ing] each other with respect”.

These figures established a clear need for targeted interventions to enhance the civility and respect demonstrated among colleagues.

The Strategy: A Multi-faceted Approach to Civility

A comprehensive CSS Civility Campaign was launched to address these findings, implementing a range of initiatives focused on training, team engagement, and widespread adoption. CSS Civility Campaign is an initiative aimed at fostering a more respectful, compassionate and understanding workplace culture. The campaign is people led with key messages around the impact of incivility on individuals, witnesses and patients.

The campaign incorporates various training programmes, such as “Civility Bitesize” and “Compassionate Leadership,” alongside a team-based approach involving charters and dedicated sessions.

Furthermore, the initiative is being spread through a “Community of Practice” with numerous champions across different departments, highlighting its broad implementation.

Future plans include expanding this community, updating resources, and embedding an embedded organisational development approach to scale the initiative across the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT).

Training and Development Initiatives: A significant emphasis was placed on upskilling staff through various training programmes:

• CSS Civility Bitesize: This programme saw over 2,762 attendees, indicating widespread engagement. Feedback so far 4.61 stars out of 5, with 90% of attendees saying they would recommend to a colleague, feedback received – “The session was thought provoking and provided examples of unacceptable behaviours but also made you consider that there is always another perspective to every situation and good communication is the key to understanding” “I enjoyed the interaction with the group and the trainers. The fun activities at the start helped to relax everybody and get to know each other a little better, which then helped with sharing experiences.” “it was interesting to see what was described as uncivil, and realising you may be uncivil without realising”
• CSS Team Training: Focused specifically on “Incivility and responding to incivility”.
• CSS Compassionate Leadership training was provided.
• Post Grad training was developed for doctors.
• An MFT Civility Masterclass was conducted by Chris Turner.
• The campaign incorporated NHSE Wake the Beast videos into its training materials.
• CSS commissioned Enact Sessions through CPD funding facilitated important conversations around civility.
• CSS commissioned Kind Life E-Learning modules were introduced through CPD.

Team-Based Interventions: To embed civility at the team level, several approaches were adopted:

• CSS Teams developed Charters and Pledges to commit to civil behaviour – a total of 24 completed so far
• Dedicated CSS Team training Sessions were held.
• Specific sessions were designed for “Having conversations about civility”.

Spreading and Embedding Civility Across the Organisation: Efforts extended beyond specific training to foster a pervasive culture of civility:

• CSS SLT are all sponsors of the Civility approach in CSS, providing visible support to the campaign, including pledges to support civil cultures across CSS.
• A CSS wide Community of Practice was established.
• Civility Champions were identified and trained across various departments: 18 in Critical Care, 41 in AHPs, and 2 (and counting) in Imaging, demonstrating a growing network of advocates.
• CSS Civility Shared resources were made available across MFT clinical groups
• CSS OD team have been supporting other NHS organisations to launch their own campaigns, including, Gateshead, Bridgewater, Warrington and Halton, Mersey care, Pennine, NWAS and the NCA.
• CSS OD Team presented work at NHSE Community of Practice to share their 5 year Civility journey.
• CSS Civility resources have been published on the Civility Saves Lives Website served as a central resource.
• Civility principles were integrated into Induction processes for new staff.
• Awards were introduced to recognise and celebrate exemplary civil behaviour.

The Quantifiable Impact: Tangible Improvements in Staff Perception (2024 Staff Survey)

The impact of these sustained efforts was evident in the Staff Survey 2024 results, which showed notable improvements across all measured indicators of civility and respect:

• The percentage of staff who felt colleagues were “Understanding and kind to one another” increased from 66% in 2021 to 68.43% in 2024.
• The proportion of staff who reported receiving “the respect I deserve from my colleagues at work” rose from 67% to 71.27%.
• The number of staff who felt colleagues were “Polite and treat each other with respect” increased from 67% to 70.59%.

These significant positive shifts highlight the success of the comprehensive civility campaign in improving the lived experience of staff within the workplace.

Sustaining Momentum: Next Steps

The commitment to fostering civility continues with future plans including:

• Expanding the Community of Practice across CSS.
• A review and update of resources, specifically for Civility Month in August.
• An embedded OD approach to upscaling civility initiatives across MFT.