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Be assured – the staff survey is completely confidential

October 20, 2022

When we run a staff survey, a comment we commonly hear is ‘But is it actually confidential?’, today we set the record straight, ‘The NHS Staff Survey really is absolutely confidential’.

At our Trust we use a supplier called ‘Quality Health’, they are an independent external contractor who are in place to ensure that individual responses are not visible to SWB, and are there to protect your anonymity.

If you receive a paper copy of the survey you will notice it has a barcode – a random number generated by Quality Health’s systems and is used as a way of ensuring that no personal information has to be printed on the document. This means that responses can be logged against the right organisation and staff member, ensuring that reminders are only sent to those who do not respond.

If you were to scan your questionnaire barcode using a smartphone, you would see for yourself that it does not contain any information about you. The number is totally meaningless unless it is entered into Quality Health’s secure system.

Similarly, if you are completing your questionnaire online, you will have a unique link or log in details for the online survey, which is only useful if it is entered into Quality Health’s secure system. These references are redundant for any other purpose and could not be used within the Trust as a means to track responses.

Quality Health have produced a short video showing their processes and how the survey remains confidential. You can watch it below:

You should have got your staff survey by now. Many of you will have received an invitation via email to your NHS account from insightandfeedback@iqvia.com. Colleagues in catering, transport, portering and domestic/ward services will have received paper copies with a freepost envelope to send the feedback straight to Quality Health.

If you have any queries about the survey please contact Quality Health, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm on 0800 783 1775 or helpline@quality-health.co.uk.