The latest NHS Staff Survey, which includes the experiences of more than 766,000 NHS workers in England, shows a record percentage of staff say they were subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour by the same group - rising steeply to 31% of ambulance staff.  

In addition, 9.26% of respondents said they were subjected to discrimination from the patient and the public - the highest on record.

The data shows 87.78% of respondents felt their job made a difference to patients, while the number of staff who would recommend their workplace to others fell slightly to 58.05% from 60.79% in 2024.

Danny Mortimer, director general (people) for NHS England, said: ‘These figures paint a deeply worrying picture of the abuse our hardworking NHS staff face. Staff safety and wellbeing is paramount, and we want everyone experiencing any kind of unwanted incident to feel confident enough to report it.'

He added: ‘We must look at what more we can do to support the people who keep our services running. We know about the everyday pressures staff face – such as not being able to get decent food on a night shift – and we haven't moved fast enough to fix them.

‘Staff have worked so hard to improve NHS performance and deliver care over winter, as shown in the latest performance figures. These survey results show it is now for the NHS to deliver improvements for staff because there is so much more to do to make the NHS a better place to work.'

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Rory Deighton, acute and community care director speaking on behalf of NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation, said: ‘NHS leaders are committed to ensuring all staff have a good experience at work. These findings underline the scale and importance of that task.

‘The forthcoming 10-Year Workforce Plan is a great opportunity to ensure effective workforce planning, training, and development.

‘At a time of such wide sweeping changes across the NHS, clear national direction for its staff is vital.'

Dean Royles, interim chief executive at NHS Employers, said: ‘NHS leaders will have mixed feelings about the latest staff survey results overall which show that most indicators have remained similar to last year at a time when services were under massive pressure.

‘Staff and managers across the health service were managing an early flu season, reducing a waiting list backlog and continuing to deliver care while also, at times, contending with industrial action by resident doctors. Sustaining these scores into 2025 therefore, reflects the hard work and commitment of NHS staff and their managers.'

He added: ‘Despite enormous amounts of work to improve the experience of staff, NHS leaders know that more needs to be done and have continued to roll out work programmes to support employers in key areas, including health and wellbeing, flexible working and discrimination.

‘The new Staff Standards framework should play a crucial role in making this happen by setting consistent, mandatory expectations, ensuring that all NHS staff benefit from the same high-quality working conditions wherever they work.'

Unison deputy head of health, Alan Lofthouse, said: ‘The report points at a deeper malaise in the NHS. Morale is down and it's worrying that staff feel less confident raising issues and that those concerns would be addressed.

‘Health workers' worries about staffing shortages and the inability to meet all the demands on their time must be listened to and acted upon. A dramatic cultural shift is needed in the NHS or the service will lose experienced people who won't put up with being treated so poorly.'

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive at The King's Fund, said: ‘Despite the government's ambitions to build a modern 21st century health service, abuse experienced by staff from ethnic minority backgrounds leaves the NHS stuck in decades past, entrenching a culture in which racism is disturbingly normalised and creating a health system that fewer staff would recommend as a place to work.

‘One in five Black and minority ethnic staff report abuse, bullying or harassment from patients or the public, compared with just 5% of white staff. 14% say they have faced similar behaviour from colleagues , managers or team leaders, double the rate reported by 7% their white colleagues.'

She added: ‘The upcoming 10-Year Workforce Plan for the NHS must put anti-racism at its core and NHS leaders must embed it across their culture and leadership. Anti-racism must be an action, not a label, and requires calling out discrimination, tackling subtle but harmful behaviours at play, and dismantling the systemic barriers that hold staff back to make the NHS a place people want to join and stay rather than leave.

‘This must also be matched by clear, coordinated cross-government action. The Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care need to work together to assess how proposed immigration changes, including extending the wait for settled status, could affect NHS staffing and morale.'

Ruth Thorlby, assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation, said: ‘Today's survey underlines the urgency of a concrete workforce plan to improve working conditions, boost morale and enable staff to improve services. As well as ensuring that the NHS has adequate staff numbers in the future, the government's forthcoming workforce plan must place equal importance on supporting the existing workforce. This will boost retention, attract more people to work in the NHS, and, ultimately, improve services for patients.'

Shazia Ejaz, director of campaigns at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, said: ‘It is a no-brainer to find out more about the thousands of doctors, nurses, allied professionals and support staff who work through agencies every day. The Department for Health and Social Care and the NHS have questions to answer about the choice to exclude agency workers from a survey aimed at boosting patient safety and service quality.

‘Bank staff can speak openly about time pressures, unsafe practice and their willingness to stay in the NHS, yet agency workers are excluded and ignored. It is a serious failure that they have no voice in the NHS Staff Survey at a time when the NHS needs every part of its workforce to tackle long waiting lists.'

Chris Graham, group chief executive at Picker, said: ‘These results will make for concerning reading among employers and the government as the NHS undergoes a period of significant reform to deliver the ambitions outlined in the 10-Year Plan for Health. NHS staff will be expected to play a central role in driving change in the coming years; their buy-in and readiness for change are essential to the success of the plan.'

He added: ‘As always, employers should use the survey data to understand and act on the concerns of their workforce locally. At a national level, these results show that NHS staff feel they are working under sustained pressure. As the government seeks to finalise its 10-Year Workforce Plan and deliver the NHS Staff Standards, these results must be front of mind. Staff must be supported to flourish if the service as a whole is to meet its goals.'