‘Speaking up’ policy
Patient safety is our primary concern and our staff are often best placed to identify if care may be falling below the standard our patients deserve. In order to ensure our high standards continue to be met, we encourage every member of our staff to raise concerns with their line manager or another member of the management team. We want everyone in the organisation to feel able to highlight wrongdoing or poor practice when they see it and feel confident that their concerns will be addressed in a constructive way.
We promise our staff that where they identify a genuine patient safety concern, we shall not treat them with prejudice and they will not suffer any detriment to their career. Instead we will support them while we fully investigate and, if appropriate, act on their concern. We will also provide feedback about how we have responded to the issue they have raised.
The trust has a speaking up policy which has been revised in conjunction with our trade union colleagues and incorporates the recommendations from the Sir Robert Francis QC’s final report following the Freedom to Speak Up review. It demonstrates the trust’s commitment towards tackling malpractice and wrongdoing to ensure that all staff feel comfortable and safe in speaking up and raising concerns within their workplace. The policy includes a clearer framework to encourage staff to speak up and raise concerns and sets out a pathway which includes six different routes that staff can follow to raise their concerns. It also signposts to various sources of support (internal and external to the trust) that are available to staff who wish to raise concerns.