Speak

up – we will listen

Here at Gateshead Health we strive to foster an inclusive culture that is built on civility and respect, where everyone’s voice is heard, and our people feel proud to be part of the Gateshead team. Wewelcome speaking up and we will listen By speaking up at work you will be playing avitalrole in helping us to keep improvingour services for allpatients and the working environment for our staff.

The NHS People Promise commits to ensuring that “we each have a voice that counts, that we all feel safe and confident to speak up, and take the time to really listen to understand the hopes andfears that lie behind the words”.

Wewant to hear about any concerns you have, whichever part of the organisation you work in. Weknow some groups in our workforce feeltheyare seldom heard or are reluctant to speak up You could be an agency worker, bank worker, locum or student. We also know that workers with disabilities, or from a minority ethnic background or the LGBTQ+ community do not always feelable to speak up.

Freedom to Speak Up is for all workers and we want to hear all our workers’ concerns.

We ask all our workers to complete the online training on speaking up The online module on listening up is specifically for managers to complete and the module on following up is for senior leaders to complete.

Youcan find out moreabout what Freedom to Speak Up(FTSU) is in these videos

What can I speak up about?

You can speak up about anythingthat gets in the wayof patient care or affects your working life. That couldbesomething which doesn’tfeel right to you: for example, a wayof working or a process that isn’t beingfollowed; youfeel youare being discriminated against; or you feelthe behaviors of others is affecting your wellbeing, or that of your colleagues or patients.

Speaking up is about allof these things.

Speaking up, therefore, captures a range of issues, some of which may be appropriate for other existing processes & policies,for example: Behaviour Framework, ICORE Values, Grievance, Bullying & Harassment, Patient Safety, etc That’s fine. As Trust, we will listen and work with you to identify the mostappropriate wayof responding to the issue youraise.

We want you to feel safe to speak up

Your speaking up to us is a gift because it helps us identify opportunities for improvement that we might not otherwise know about.

Wewill not tolerate anyone beingprevented or deterred from speaking up or being mistreated because theyhave spoken up.

Who can speak up?

Anyone who worksin NHS healthcare, includingpharmacy, optometryand dentistry. Thisencompassesany healthcare professionals, non-clinical workers, receptionists, directors, managers, contractors, volunteers, students, trainees, junior doctors, locum,bank and agency workers, andformer workers.

Who can I speak up to?

Speaking up internally

Most speaking up happens through conversations with supervisors andlinemanagers where challenges are raised andresolved quickly. Westrive for aculturewherethat is normal,everyday practice andencourage youto explore this option – it may well be the easiest andsimplest wayof resolving matters.

However, youhave other optionsin terms of who you can speak up to, depending on what feels mostappropriate to you and depending on the size of the organisation you work in:

• Freedom to Speak UpGuardian & Champions

Ghnt.ftsu@nhs.net

The Guardian can support youto speak up if youfeelunable to do so byother routes. The guardian will ensure that people who speak up are thankedfor doing so, that the issues theyraise are responded to, and that the person speaking up receivesfeedback on the actions taken.

As a Trust, we have also developed an internal Freedom to Speak Up network of Champions to raise awareness and promote the value of speaking up, listening up and following up. The Champions help to address challenges posed by the size of the Trust, number of colleagues and to help Guardians support workers, especially those who may face barriers to speaking up.

There are a number of other roles within the Trust that can support with Speaking Up issues.

• Head of Risk and Patient Safety

• Local counterfraud team (where concerns relate to fraud)

• OurPOD team

• Oursenior lead responsible for Freedom to Speak Up

• Executive Director of People and OD

• Our non-executive directorresponsible for Freedom to Speak Up

Allcontactdetailsareavailableonstaffzone–https://staffzone.ghnt.nhs.uk/freedomtospeakup/

Speaking up externally

If you do not want to speak up to someone within the Trust, youcan speak up externally to:

• Care Quality Commission (CQC) for qualityandsafety concerns about the services it regulates – youcan find out moreabout how the CQC handles concerns here

• NHS England for concerns about:

- GP surgeries

- dentalpractices

- optometrists

- pharmacies

- how NHS trusts andfoundation trusts are beingrun (this includes ambulance trusts and community and mental health trusts)

- NHS procurement and patient choice

- the nationaltariff

NHS England may decide to investigate your concern themselves, ask your employer or anotherappropriate organisation to investigate (usually with their oversight) and/or use the information you provide to inform their oversight of the relevant organisation. The precise actiontheytakewill depend on the natureof yourconcern and how it relates to their various roles.

Please note that neitherthe Care Quality Commission nor NHS England can get involved in individual employment matters, such asaconcern from anindividual about feeling bullied.

• NHS CounterFraud Agency for concerns about fraud andcorruption, using their onlinereporting form or calling their freephone line 0800 028 4060

If you would liketo speak up about the conductof amember of staff, youcan do thisbycontactingthe relevant professional bodysuch as the General Medical Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council, Health & Care Professions Council, General Dental Council, General Optical Council or General Pharmaceutical Council.

Appendix C contains information about makinga ‘protected disclosure’.

How should I speak up?

You can speak up to any of the people or organisations listed above in person, by phoneor in writing (including email).

Confidentiality

The most important aspect of yourspeaking up is the information youcan provide, not your identity

You have achoice about how youspeak up:

• Openly: youare happy that the person you speak up to knows your identity and that theycan share this with anyone else involved in responding.

• Confidentially: you are happy to reveal your identity to the person youchoose to speak up to on the condition that theywill not share this without your consent.

• Anonymously: youdo not want to reveal your identity to anyone. This can make it difficult for others to ask you for further information about the matter andmay make it morecomplicated to actto resolve the issue. It also means that youmight not beable to access any extra support youneed and receive any feedback on the outcome.

In allcircumstances, please beready to explain as fully as you can the information andcircumstances that prompted youto speak up.

Advice and support

You can find out about the local supportavailable to youat [eitherlink to organisation intranet or reference other locations wherethis information can be found] Your local staff networks[include link to local networks]can bea valuable source of support.

You can access arange of healthand wellbeingsupport via NHS England:

• Support available for our NHS people.

• Looking after you: confidentialcoaching andsupportfor the primary care workforce.

NHS England has a Speak Up Support Schemethat you can apply to for support.

You can also contactthe following organisations:

• Speak UpDirect provides free,independent, confidential adviceon the speaking up process.

• The charity Protect provides confidential andlegal advice on speaking up.

• The Trades UnionCongress provides information on how to join a tradeunion.

• The Law Society may beable to point you to other sources of advice andsupport.

• The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service gives advice and assistance, includingon early conciliation regarding employment disputes.

What will we do?

The matter you are speaking up about may be best considered undera specific existing policy/process; for example, our process for dealing with bullyingand harassment If so, we will discuss that with you If you speak up about something that does not fall into an HR or patient safety incidentprocess, this policy ensures that the matter is stilladdressed.

What youcan expect to happen after speaking up is shown in Appendix B.

Resolution and investigation

Wesupport our managers/supervisors to listen to the issue youraise andtakeaction to resolve it wherever possible In mostcases, it’s important that thisopportunity is fully explored, which may be with facilitatedconversations and/or mediation.

Where aninvestigation is needed, this will beobjective and conducted bysomeone who is suitably independent (this might be someone outside your organisation or from adifferent part of the organisation) and trained in investigations. It will reach a conclusion within areasonable timescale (which we will notify you of), and areport will be produced that identifies any issuesto prevent problems recurring.

Anyemployment issues that have implications for you/your capability or conduct identified during the investigation will beconsidered separately.

Communicating with you

Wewill treat you with respect at alltimes and will thank youfor speaking up. We will discuss the issues with youto ensure we understand exactly what youare worried about. If we decide to investigate, we will tell you how long we expect the investigation to takeand agree with youhow to keep you up to date with its progress. Wherever possible, we will share the full investigation report with you (whilerespecting the confidentialityof others and recognising that some matters may bestrictly confidential; assuch it may be that we cannoteven share the outcome with you).

How we learn from your speaking up

Wewant speaking up to improve the services we provide for patients and the environment our staff work in. Where it identifies improvements that can bemade, we will ensure necessary changes are made, and are working effectively. Lessons will be shared with teams across the organisation, or more widely,as appropriate.

Review

Wewill seek feedback from workers about their experience of speaking up We will review the effectiveness of this policy andour local processannually, with the outcomepublished and changes made as appropriate.

Senior leaders’ oversight

Ourmostsenior leaders will receive areport at least annually providinga thematicoverview of speaking up byour staff to our FTSU guardian(s).