Only about a third of staff say there are enough of them to do the job. Lancashire & South Cumbria is worst on every measure.
NHS Staff Survey 2025, averaged across each system’s trusts. The regional figure is 31%; trusts range from 21% to 54%.
The three systems side by side, against their benchmarks3 measures
Each figure is the average across that system’s trusts, set against the benchmark NHS England compares those trusts with — so a system can look middling in absolute terms and still be doing badly against its own peer group.
| Measure | Cheshire & Merseyside 16 trusts | Greater Manchester 9 trusts | Lancashire & South Cumbria 6 trusts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enough staff to do the job | 31.4% 3.5 pts below benchmark | 33.9% 0.3 pts above benchmark | 27.4% 4.7 pts below benchmark |
| Often or always burnt out | 30.6% 0.5 pts above benchmark | 30.8% 0.1 pts below benchmark | 34.0% 2.5 pts above benchmark |
| Often think about leaving | 30.4% 2.0 pts above benchmark | 29.3% 0.3 pts above benchmark | 35.1% 5.6 pts above benchmark |
Every trust, lowest first31 trusts
| Trust | Enough staff | Burnt out | Think about leaving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Countess of Chester Hospital | 21% | 38% | 38% |
| Wirral Community Health & Care | 22% | 30% | 32% |
| Blackpool Teaching Hospitals | 23% | 38% | 40% |
| Bridgewater Community Healthcare | 24% | 34% | 39% |
| East Lancashire Hospitals | 24% | 39% | 36% |
| Wirral University Teaching Hospital | 24% | 37% | 37% |
| Liverpool Women's | 25% | 33% | 33% |
| East Cheshire | 26% | 33% | 30% |
| Bolton | 26% | 37% | 34% |
| Lancashire Teaching Hospitals | 27% | 33% | 34% |
| Northern Care Alliance | 28% | 33% | 31% |
| Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals | 28% | 31% | 30% |
| University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay | 29% | 32% | 37% |
| North Cumbria Integrated Care | 29% | 30% | 33% |
| Liverpool University Hospitals | 31% | 32% | 34% |
| Stockport | 31% | 30% | 26% |
| Lancashire and South Cumbria | 31% | 31% | 30% |
| Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care | 32% | 33% | 29% |
| Alder Hey Children's | 32% | 31% | 28% |
| Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals | 33% | 31% | 31% |
| Manchester University | 33% | 30% | 29% |
| The Walton Centre | 34% | 28% | 28% |
| Mid Cheshire Hospitals | 34% | 29% | 26% |
| Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals | 34% | 29% | 29% |
| Greater Manchester Mental Health | 35% | 29% | 32% |
| Cheshire and Wirral Partnership | 35% | 25% | 24% |
| Pennine Care | 38% | 30% | 31% |
| The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre | 39% | 31% | 28% |
| Mersey Care | 40% | 25% | 28% |
| The Christie | 48% | 25% | 23% |
| Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital | 54% | 21% | 22% |
Sickness absence
Sickness absence rose in every system in the year to January 2026, from a low in 2023/24. 22 of 31 trusts are higher than a year earlier.
The rates, year by year
| 2025/26 | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | vs prior year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheshire & Merseyside | 5.85% | 5.63% | 5.53% | 6.03% | +0.22 |
| Greater Manchester | 6.25% | 6.20% | 6.00% | 6.56% | +0.04 |
| Lancashire & South Cumbria | 6.56% | 6.34% | 6.21% | 6.62% | +0.22 |
| North West region | 6.15% | 6.00% | 5.85% | 6.36% | +0.14 |
Each year is measured over the same April-to-January window, because the publication runs to January and sickness is seasonal.
What this covers
NHS Staff Survey 2025, all 31 North West trusts, averaged unweighted across trusts within each system — so a small trust counts the same as a large one. Benchmark groups are NHS England’s own (acute, specialist, community, mental health), so the comparison is like with like. Sickness rates are NHS England’s published figures; the regional and system rates are the publication’s own, never our average of trusts.
Across the region the workforce fell and sickness rose in the same year. We do not publish a trust-by-trust link between the two: two things being true at once is not one causing the other.