Freedom to Speak Up at Combined Healthcare
At Combined, we strive to create an open and inclusive culture for our workforce.
Our people are our most valuable resource, so providing safe spaces for them to have their voices heard is critical for supporting their wellbeing, which ultimately leads to better patient care.
It is essential therefore, that we ensure any concerns or issues raised by our people, are heard, taken seriously, investigated and supported with actions.
Our primary focus will always be to encourage our people to raise any issues or concerns within their immediate management team or with the patient safety team if it is safety related, but we recognise that in some cases, speaking up using this approach may feel uncomfortable.
We therefore take pride in providing our people with alternative options to be able to share their voice or to raise a concern, using our well-established routes, to ensure people do feel heard, with their concerns explored and supported.
Freedom To Speak Up (FTSU) Concerns
Freedom to Speak Up aims to work alongside senior leaders and local leadership teams to support a more open and transparent place of work and approach with communication and behaviours, where colleagues are actively encouraged, enabled, and supported to speak up freely and safely, while feeling heard and supported.
Any FTSU activity remains confidential between the individual raising the concern and the FTSU Guardian, apart from a FTSU champion, if an individual chooses to reach out to a champion for any initial engagement.
Any action to support an individual who has raised a concern will be supported by the Trust’s FTSU Guardian, with actions agreed and progressed by the Guardian on behalf of the individual.
Our people have the option to raise a concern in a number of ways through FTSU:
- Openly
- Confidentially
- Anonymously
Concerns raised through FTSU are escalated and supported using different approaches, depending on their content and sensitivity.
Freedom to Speak Up Guardian and Champions
Our Freedom To Speak Up Champions are also available for any member of staff to discuss any matter they feel are concerning them. Champions have been allocated to each directorate, but staff are able to speak to any Champion.
They are, of course, free to choose who they feel most comfortable with having that initial conversation if not with our Guardian.
Contacting our Freedom to Speak Up Guardian and Champions
Our Freedom To Speak Up Guardian is Marie Barley. Marie can be contacted at marie.barley@combined.nhs.uk
Details of our Champions and the Guardian are available to all our people via the Trust Intranet.
A confidential email address is also available speakup@combined.nhs.uk
This email is only accessed by the Freedom To Speak Up Guardian.
Any member of staff using this facility will be contacted by the Guardian to arrange a time that is convenient to them. This space will be their opportunity to safely and confidentially share their concern. Together, we work to agree any next steps of support for them
We value and appreciate each and every person that works for or contributes to the services we provide at Combined.
Everyone is valued and appreciated at Combined and everyone has the right to feel safe at work, have a positive work-life experience and feel that they belong.
“We each have a voice that counts” is one of the people promises in the ‘NHS People Plan and forms part of the National Staff Survey questions each year. This people promise is critically important. We will continue to work with all of our people to ensure that they have a safe speaking up provision available to them.
Lead Non-Executive Director for Freedom to Speak Up
In addition, Martin Evans, Chair of our People, Culture and Development Committee, also serves as the Non-Executive Lead for Freedom to Speak Up.
Please note Freedom to Speak Up is an internal function for our staff only and not for use by members of the public. If any member of the public has any concerns or complaints about the services we provide, they can can use our complaints and PALS functions, which can be accessed via the links on our main contacts page.