Tell-tales and snitches, holding hands and International Women's Day

Amidst the blanket media coverage on coronavirus, we’ve also had the Priti Patel allegations story.

I certainly don’t want to get political or comment on this specific case, but the heat and noise has sparked a wider debate about a culture of silence in Westminster and whether people working there feel able to speak up.

From the ‘tell-tale‘ at nursery and ‘snitch‘ at school to the ‘super-grass’, the cultural narrative is that those who speak up are sneaks and trouble-makers. Whistleblowing has been portrayed by some as disloyal and even betrayal.

This could not be more wrong. Silence is dangerous. It’s also perverse, as many who raise concerns do so out of loyalty, compelled by a sense of justice and a desire to ‘do the right thing’.

Speaking up is part of good governance and can act as an early warning system for potential risks. That’s how we keep people safe, learn and make improvements. And why we want to encourage everyone to speak up when they have concerns.

We recently had a Board session about our freedom to speak up work where we heard from our guardian and ambassadors. We have done some benchmarking against best practice and those organisations who are really getting it right, and this shows we’re making progress, but that there’s room for improvement.

So, we know we need to continue to focus on this important issue. This includes working with Professor Michael West, a leading national expert on creating work environments of psychological safety and the role that compassionate and inclusive leadership plays in supporting this. Professor West will be talking at our annual Just Culture Conference in April and helping us in our leadership development following the changes to our organisational structure.

It was surprising to hear that three quarters of the cases that Lisa Ryder, our freedom to speak up guardian, deals with are people who initially tried to raise the concern through their line manager.

The speaking up journey begins with a conversation, but we can’t just encourage you to speak up. We need to listen to what you are saying and act on concerns.

It’s not easy. Managers themselves can also feel unsupported or unsure of how to handle concerns from others. It can be difficult to manage our own feelings, especially if we perceive the concern as undermining or even criticising us. We need to have the training and time to be able to sensitively and constructively respond when issues are raised.

Trust is paramount and speaking up will only become business as usual if there are sufficient positive experiences across an organisation.

We’ve also just had LGBT+ training session for all our board members. So, a big shout out to Michelle England who led an engaging and entertaining session. Some of the statistics, which Michelle included in a quiz to test our knowledge and understanding, were pretty shocking.

For example, surveys show that about 50% of LGBT+ people have mental health issues.  For most people, talking about themselves, their lives, their partner is a relatively easy conversation. And yet, for too many LGBT people it means asking themselves: Will I be judged? Will I be treated differently? Will I face hostility?

Research also shows that over two thirds of LGBT people avoid holding hands in public. A simple expression of love and affection is abandoned to save hassle and dodge confrontation.

Everyone will have a different story, but you can appreciate why even these every day “little” things might affect the health and happiness of an LGBT person. ‘Coming out’ isn’t something they have to do once. They do it continually, giving that part of themselves over to new people they meet.

We need to ensure that the needs of LGBT people are considered at all levels. That’s why the work of our award-winning LGBT Network and our launch of the new NHS Rainbow badge scheme is so important.

Everyone should feel welcome, safe, and accepted for who they are. Only then will we improve the lives of people in a real, transformational way in years to come. We have to get this right for people to be able to thrive.

I also wanted to quickly say thanks to everyone who has given feedback on the proposed leadership structure. We’ll be sharing a summary of this feedback and how this has been considered within the final proposals. The formal consultation has just started and we’ll then look at any issues raised during this.

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. This is about building on our already strong platform of leadership to help deliver our new five year plan, with more visible clinical and professional leadership and greater devolved decision making. We really value our leaders and want to get this right for you.

And finally, I just want to finish this blog with a call out to International Women’s Day on Sunday. It feels like coronavirus is the only show in publicity town at the moment (and I do need to plug the sensible and scientifically proven ‘wash your hands’ message), but this is a day of celebration and commitment.

My hope is that one day we won’t need this special day, but sadly many women still face barriers which means society is missing out on the full value that half of the population can make. We want everyone to be able to maximise their potential.

Best wishes,
Claire