In February and March 2014 The King’s Fund conducted a survey of NHS managers and clinicians about leadership, culture and compassionate care in the NHS. We received more than 2,000 responses. This is the second leadership survey of NHS staff we have undertaken and it revealed a mixed picture of leadership, culture and the working environment across the NHS.
This survey is published alongside the Developing collective leadership for health care report, which discusses the concept of collective leadership, in which all staff take responsibility for the success of an organisation as a whole.
The most notable feature of this year's survey results was a consistent discrepancy between the views of executive directors and those of other NHS staff, especially nurses and doctors. Executive directors tended to be much more positive about the working environment and culture within their organisations than other staff, especially nurses.