NHS Staff Survey 2025: Fewer Staff Would Recommend the NHS as a Place to Work

The results of the 2025 NHS Staff Survey, one of the largest workforce surveys in the world, were published on 12 March 2026. It's a yearly snapshot of how NHS staff in England actually feel about their jobs, and this year's results show a largely stable picture overall, but with some notable declines worth knowing about if you're considering an NHS career.

The most watched headline figure, the proportion of staff who would recommend their organisation as a place to work, fell to 58.05 per cent, down from 60.79 per cent in 2024. Reported work-related stress also crept up, from 41.65 per cent to 42.3 per cent, and NHS Employers notes that nearly one in three staff now describe themselves as burnt out.

It's not all bad news. Satisfaction with flexible working opportunities held up reasonably well, with 57 per cent of staff satisfied on this measure. On discrimination, there's a genuine long-term improvement: reported experiences of discrimination from managers or colleagues fell to 8.77 per cent, the lowest level recorded since the survey began, continuing a steady year-on-year downward trend.

The survey tracks nine People Promise themes, the framework the NHS uses to describe what would make it the best place to work, built from what NHS staff themselves have said matters to them. This year, all nine theme scores stayed broadly similar to 2024, with no themes improving, though two of the underlying sub-scores, covering staff development and advocacy for improvement, got worse. Employer action specifically aimed at supporting staff wellbeing also declined, with the relevant score dropping from 57.5 per cent to 54.8 per cent.

NHS Employers, summing up the results, describes them as mostly stable, with declines in advocacy and wellbeing support and rising stress levels among the areas of most concern.

What this means for jobseekers

• Stress and burnout are real and rising, according to staff themselves. It's worth asking prospective employers directly about workload, staffing levels and wellbeing support at interview.
• Flexible working remains a genuine strength across much of the NHS, so if that matters to you, it's a reasonable expectation to raise when weighing up an offer.
• The steady, long-term fall in reported discrimination is a rare unambiguous improvement, worth knowing if inclusive culture is a priority for you when choosing an employer.
• Results vary a lot between individual trusts. If you're considering a specific NHS employer, their own trust-level staff survey results, published alongside the national data, will tell you far more than the national averages.

This is a summary for general information. Read the original source for full detail before relying on it.