NHS staff health and wellbeing

Helping you to look after the health and wellbeing of your staff and contribute to the delivery of quality patient care.
An exercise class, stretching.

To deliver high-quality patient care, the NHS needs healthy, well and at work staff. Looking after the health and wellbeing of staff directly contributes to the delivery of quality patient care.

Developing a sustainable health and wellbeing approach needs strong and clear leadership, supported by a solid strategy that is continually developing and is underpinned by a proactive and engaged approach.

Research shows that where NHS trusts prioritise staff health and wellbeing and actively engage with staff to develop work in this area, levels of engagement increase, as does staff morale, loyalty, innovation, productivity, all resulting in higher quality patient care.

The NHS cannot deliver care without its staff and depends on having a healthy and productive workforce. Line managers are key to facilitating open communication with their staff, and this can play a huge role in keeping staff well, motivated, feeling valued and empowered to perform to their full potential and provide high quality patient care. 

SPF partner organisations have developed some useful tools and resources, to help support the health and wellbeing of healthcare staff. 

In November 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) launched a redesigned version of the NHS health and wellbeing framework. NHSEI worked closely with the SPF’s Workforce Issues Group on the redesign. The framework helps organisations identify staff's health and wellbeing needs, plan and deliver appropriate support and interventions, and evaluate their impact. The framework is available on NHS England's websiteThis page includes links to case studies from organisations and systems that have used the framework to improve the health and wellbeing of their workforce.