ENGLAND — All NHS acute, ambulance and mental health trusts in England will be rated on their performance in tackling racism, violence and sexual misconduct toward staff starting in July. The initiative will involve judging and ranking trusts in published league tables based on six main measures of staff wellbeing.

The new standards affect more than 1.5 million staff across all secondary care NHS bodies. Organizations will be scored from one to four for their success in tackling racism, preventing violence, improving sexual safety, promoting flexible working, line management, and health and wellbeing support. These scores will contribute to a trust's overall performance rating, alongside existing metrics for waiting lists and A&E.

Karin Smyth, Minister for Secondary Care, said: "NHS staff are the backbone of our health service, and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect." She added: "The levels of racism, violence and sexual harassment reported by staff are completely unacceptable, and for too long there has been no formal accountability for employers to address them." Smyth said: "These new standards – a 10-year health plan commitment – change that. For the first time, how trusts treat their employees will be measured and published, because we know that when staff are supported, patients get better care."

Primary care practices, including GP practices, are excluded from the initial rollout; ministers hope to extend the standards to primary care in future years. Progress on workforce wellbeing will be assessed through the NHS staff survey.

According to the latest NHS staff survey, hundreds of thousands of staff have been attacked, harassed, bullied or subject to racism. Nearly one in 10 NHS workers said they had experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in the past year. This figure rose to a third of ambulance staff and more than one in 10 nurses and midwives.

Suzie Bailey, Director of Leadership and Organisational Development at the King's Fund, said: "The NHS cannot deliver high-quality care if staff and managers do not feel safe, valued and supported."

Nicola Ranger, General Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "Zero-tolerance policies on paper have done little to improve the day-to-day experience of nursing staff." She added: "To deliver real change for staff, robust enforcement mechanisms need to be in place for those who fail to deliver against the new standards." Ranger said: "If these levels of abuse don't change, nurses will continue to walk away from our NHS and that would be a tragedy."