Safe Staffing

All Trusts with inpatient beds are required to publish their staffing fill rates (actual versus planned) in hours on the NHS Choices website with effect from June 2014.

On the 24th June 2014, data on staffing fill rates for nurses, midwives and care staff will be presented on the NHS Choices website. Patients and the public will be able to see how hospitals are performing on this indicator in an easy and accessible way. The data will sit alongside a range of other safety indicators. More information about safety indicators is available by following the individual hospital links below to the NHS Choices website:

 Royal Albert Edward Infirmary
 Leigh Infirmary
 Wrightington Hospital

Trust Board Reporting

It is an expectation set out in the National Quality Board (NQB) guidance published in November 2013 (http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nqb-how-to-guid.pdf) that Boards take full responsibility for the quality of care provided to patients, and, as a key determinant of quality, take full responsibility for nursing, midwifery and care staffing capacity and capability.

Reports to the Trust Board must meet the requirements set out in the NQB guidance, with particular reference to page 12 regarding monthly publishing. The guidance states that the Board will be advised of those wards where staffing capacity and capability frequently falls short of what is planned, the reasons why, any impact on quality and the actions taken to address gaps in staffing.

Reports Published in this Section

The following reports will be made available via this page:

• Full Unify data collection for public viewing of all ward staffing fill rates for the Trust (Unify is the system for sharing and reporting NHS and social care performance information to the Department of Health)
• The monthly Exception Report relating to planned versus actual staffing variances
• The six monthly Trust Board reports that contain the details regarding the capacity and capability of wards