Our team is a partnership of researchers based across England that brings experience in academia, healthcare and education. Our team work together to share expertise in designing, collecting, engaging and producing information to identify problems and workable solutions.
About
Workforce Voices has a large team based across England, and while our focus is on three regions – the North East and North Cumbria, London, and the West Midlands – our scope is nationwide. We understand that the challenges and needs of staff, and communities, in different localities can vary a lot, and our team brings understanding of regional and local differences.
EDI
A commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is a central part of our research and design philosophy. To make changes which genuinely support the work of staff within the NHS, and so the effective delivery of care to all patients, it is important we recognise, respect, and adapt to the different needs and expectations of all group. Changes to the system which benefit only some groups, or do not take reflect the diversity of patient and staff populations, will not be sustainable. You can read more about our EDI work here.
Community Inclusion and Engagement
The voices of staff and patients are essential to making our research activity, and our outputs, relevant. Changes which do not make a real difference to the work of staff, or address problems that are important to them, are not a good use of time or resources. Changes which are not acceptable to patients or the public will not deliver our aims of improving sustainability.
We have groups of staff and members of the public who contribute to our work, providing their own insights and experiences through our Community Inclusion and Engagement work.
Meet the team
Our team includes academics from a range of disciplines, and public and NHS staff representatives, bringing a broad range of expertise and understanding to our research.
Workstreams
Our research encompasses a number of methods and approaches, making sure we collect the right sorts of data, in the right ways, to properly reflect, understand and build on people’s experiences to develop achievable, beneficial change.
More details on each of the workstreams are available through the links below.
Co-design
This is the centre of our work – designing change with those who will use and benefit from that change. In series of workshops addressing specific questions identified in our projects, groups will work with our co-design experts to develop ways of working, objects or policies that will improve the experience of work.
Realist reviews
It is important that research learns from work that has already been done. Realist reviews are one way of doing this which allows us to identify what works, for whom, in different settings, and why. We will be conducting separate reviews for different projects, but also expect there to be common themes allowing us to developed a detailed theoretical understanding of how workforce sustainability can be supported.
Staff surveys
People’s decisions to leave their jobs is often linked to features of their work that can be measured using surveys. We will use surveys to understand what may affect people’s wellbeing and their attitudes to their work, and to see whether any changes we develop lead to changes in these measures.
Focus groups, interviews and observations
To get a detailed understanding of people’s experiences – in order to understand challenges and establish whether changes are having the intended effects, we will speak to members of staff, and sometimes patients and members of the public. We may also observe people’s work, to see whether things are happening in the way they are expected to.
Analysis of existing data
There are lots of data held by NHS organisations about who works in different organisations. We will analysis these datasets, and others we identify, to consider how workforce challenges (for example high turnover) vary with different geographical, organisational and social variables.
Health economics
Understanding how the costs of changes may affect behaviour, and the economic consequences of any changes, is an important element of understanding its impact and ensure the wider impact of changes is understood.
Knowledge mobilisation
Research produces complex findings, which needs to be shared in the right ways, at the right times, with different audiences. We have a dedicated workstream to ensure that our findings will be shared in the most effective ways.