Staff across the Royal Free London are standing together and sharing messages of kindness as part of Anti-bullying week 2021.

National Anti-bullying week runs from Monday 15 to Friday 19 November and this year’s theme is ‘One Kind Word’.

Staff and teams from across the trust are sharing examples of kind acts or words they’ve experienced, please take part and share your words of kindness too.

The RFL is committed to stamping out bullying and harassment and does not tolerate any form of aggression or hate.

Crystal Akass, group chief people officer, explained: "Bullying in the workplace is absolutely unacceptable. We want to make sure the Royal Free London is a safe place to work for everyone. Kindness underpins our trust values to be positively welcoming, actively respectful, clearly communicating and visibly reassuring.

"I joined the trust in early November and to see that we have invested in training for over 100 speaking up champions is fantastic. This network of champions provides immediate support and advice to staff raising concerns. There are also resources and videos available on Freenet which explore the impact of negative behaviours on staff, developed as part of the trust's commitment to stamp out bullying and harassment."

The trust has a bullying and harassment group, which is looking for further representation from across the trust to help put forward recommendations. There are various networks staff can access to find support if they have experienced or witnessed bullying and harassment in the trust, including:

  • Employee relations service 
  • Speaking up champions
  • Wellbeing champions
  • Nobullying - no bystanders group