This October, organisations across the healthcare sector celebrated Speak Up Month.
This year’s theme was Speak Up, Listen Up, Follow Up. Speaking up can only flourish when managers listen up and leaders follow up. Speak Up Month is an opportunity to raise awareness and encourage everybody to show the part that we all play in making speaking up business as usual.
Freedom to Speak Up Guardians and their organisations promoted Freedom to Speak Up in a range of creative ways. There were buildings lit up green, Freedom to Speak Up flags, a ‘SpeakUpulance’, a basketball game (Shots Up for Speak Up), a mobile Freedom to Speak Up tree, ‘green days’, and the welcome return of Freedom to Speak Up cakes. The hashtag #SpeakUpListenUpFollowUp was used over 3,500 times and you can watch some of the activities in this video.
The Speak Up, Listen Up, Follow Up theme provided an opportunity to promote the Freedom to Speak Up e-learning which is available to anyone, wherever they work. Nearly 6,000 completed the Speak Up module and almost a thousand completed the Listen Up module. Over 300 made a Speak Up Pledge on the NGO’s website, and the #SpeakUpPledge hashtag was used over 1,000 times.
A third module – Follow Up – aimed at senior leaders is in development and will be launched soon. For Speak Up Month, senior leaders shared their Speak Up Pledge including videos of support from Maria Caulfield MP, Minister for Patient Safety and Primary Care; Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive, NHS England and Improvement; Prerana Issar, Chief People Officer, NHS England and Improvement; and Dr Navina Evans, Chief Executive of Health Education England.
We explored the themes of Speak Up, Listen Up and Follow Up with four virtual events, blogs and case studies which highlight the critical role which Freedom to Speak Up plays, both in worker experience and for the safety of patients. Catch up in the links below.
Inclusion is essential for a healthy speak up, listen up and follow up culture. Last month, we also published a case review, and a research report as we continue to seek to identify learning to improve the speaking up experience of workers. The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Black and minority ethnic health workers has highlighted how vital inclusion is for worker safety and wellbeing. You can read about these reports below.
We all have our part to play to foster a Speak Up, Listen Up, Follow Up culture.
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Catch up on our Speak Up Month events
Throughout Speak Up Month, the National Guardian’s Office hosted four events on the theme of Speak Up, Listen Up, Follow Up.
The first event, ‘Speak Up’, discussed what happens when you contact a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian. Sara Gorton, National Secretary for Health at Unison and Staff Side Chair at the Social Partnership Forum, chaired a panel discussion with Freedom to Speak Up Guardians Joyful Chigiga, Celina Mfuko and Helen Turner.
The next event, ‘Listen Up’, was chaired by Jon Restell, Chief Executive of Managers in Partnership, in conversation with Megan Reitz – author of ‘Speak Up: Say what needs to be said and hear what needs to be heard’ – and David Cain, Senior Consultant Advisor to the Manchester University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The panel focused on listening when people speak up, and the role of managers in the process.
The third event, ‘Follow Up’, explored the role of leadership in fostering a culture where people can speak up and be confident they will be listened to. Jacqueline Davies, NHS Director of Leadership, chaired the event alongside Elizabeth Nyawade, Chief of People and Culture at Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and Angie Smithson, Chief Executive of Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Our final event - ‘Speak Up, Listen Up, Follow Up’ - brought together all of these themes. Mark Chambers (Associate Director at the Institute of Business Ethics) chaired a panel of senior leaders in health and other sectors. Katy Steward (NHS E/I), Helen Smith (HSBC) and Sara Weller (BT) discussed how to embed a speaking up culture.
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Compassionate Leadership Enables Speaking Up by Professor Michael West
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If leaders are willing to ensure action is taken when concerns are raised, then workers will have more confidence to speak up. In a guest blog, Professor Michael West CBE explores how compassionate leadership can support a culture which values its workers’ voices. Professor West identifies four elements of compassionate leadership: attending; understanding; empathising; helping. When these elements are role-modelled by leaders within the organisation, workers will feel supported to speak up.
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Difference Matters: The impact of ethnicity on speaking up
There has been little research into the impact a person’s protected or other characteristics have on speaking up. The National Guardian’s Office commissioned research into people’s experiences of accessing their Freedom to Speak Up Guardian and whether ethnicity has an impact.
The research was produced by brap – the equalities charity – and Roger Kline OBE. An accompanying report from the NGO provides additional data collated by the NGO and details our next steps in response to this research.
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Safety Through Learning: Creating a Speak Up, Listen Up, Follow Up Culture by Ian Trenholm
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Ian Trenholm, Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission, considers the role everyone plays in creating this culture, involving promoting ‘safety through learning’ to drive continuous improvement.
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Case Review: Blackpool Teaching Hospitals
The National Guardian’s Office has published a report analysing the themes and learning for the whole health sector from the review of the speaking up culture at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals.
We received information indicating that a speaking up case may not have been handled following good practice. The information received also suggested black and minority ethnic workers had comparatively worse experiences when speaking up.
Based on focus groups and interviews with trust workers, and analysis of internal processes and data, the report reviews information about the trust’s speaking up culture and arrangements and the trust’s support for its workers to speak up.
The report makes recommendations for actions which national bodies and the healthcare system as whole can take to support organisations, including bringing national guidance into line with good practice and make that guidance universally applicable.
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Changing culture in the NHS and beyond by Rob Behrens
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Rob Behrens, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, discusses how organisations can develop a learning culture through listening up and what leaders can do to bring about change through following up.
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Time to level up for speak up by Liz Gardiner
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Liz Gardiner, Chief Executive of Protect, the whistleblowing charity, explores how better listening up and better treatment of those who speak up can help healthcare workers to have confidence that their concerns will be addressed.
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Freedom to Speak Up in the Independent Healthcare Sector
There are over 100 Freedom to Speak Up guardians in independent healthcare settings.
Dawn Hodgkins, Director of Regulation at the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), emphasises the importance of embracing speaking up. Dawn urges independent healthcare workers to continue to raise awareness of Freedom to Speak Up, fostering a culture where workers feel able to speak up and feel confident that they will be listened to.
As part of our 100 Voices campaign, Tim Graveney, Freedom to Speak Up Guardian at HCA Healthcare, shares an example of how speaking up alerted those in a position to listen up and follow up. Poor behaviour was challenged, and the organisation was able to share learning.
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Speak Up, Listen Up, Follow Up: An Integral Part of a Values-Led Organisation by Lorraine Heaton
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Lorraine Heaton, Freedom to Speak Up Guardian at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, shares the tool they have devised to show how the principles of Speak Up, Listen Up, Follow Up align with her organisation’s values.
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“To achieve excellence as a healthcare organisation, speaking up, listening up and following up well must be an integral part of everything we do, how we communicate and how we identify what needs to change.”
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HSJ column: Listen when people speak up
In a column for the Health Service Journal, Russell Parkinson, Head of Office and Strategy at the National Guardian’s Office, considers the potential barriers to speaking up, and some simple steps to overcoming these barriers. When someone speaks up, they should be thanked, action should be taken, and feedback should be provided.
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