Public BoD papers 28.04.22

Appendix 2 - Freedom to Speak Up – National Staff Survey 2021 Introduction

For the 2021 survey the questions in the NHS Staff Survey are aligned to the People Promise which set out, in the words of NHS staff, the things that would most improve their working experience, and is made up of seven elements. One element is “We each have a voice that counts”. The questions relating to Freedom to Speak Up within this element are: • 17a. I would feel secure raising concerns about unsafe clinical practice • 17b. I am confident that my organisation would address my concern • 21e. I feel safe to speak up about anything that concerns me in this organisation • 21f. If I spoke up about something that concerned me, I am confident my organisation would address my concern The Trust also took the opportunity to add a question relating to barriers to speak up, along with the opportunity to give comment on what could be improved with a view to identify topics for further scrutiny and discussion. The comments are not yet available. Results The charts below show the results both as a comparison against other specialist trusts and by ethnicity, long lasting health conditions or illnesses and sexual orientation. The results are shown as percentage of respondents who selected agree or strongly agree for each question. Conclusions For all four questions The Christie is above the average for all acute specialist trusts. For feeling secure to raise concerns about unsafe clinical practice and being confident that the organisation would address concerns the results have improved from 2020 and the previous downward trend. For feeling safe to speak up about any concern the results from 2020 to 2021 have shown a small fall. There is no year on year comparison information for confidence that the organisation would address the concern as this is a new question for the survey, however the result is above the acute specialist trust average. For all the Speak up questions, staff with protected characteristics report they feel less secure to raise concerns; and were less confident that their concerns would be addressed. The main barriers identified that stop people speaking up were • Don’t want to upset colleagues (40%) • Worry about being treated badly by colleagues or managers as a result (39%) • No point as nothing will be done about it (36%) • Belief that they would not be able to raise their concern in confidence scored high at 25%. Next steps These results, along with the suggestions and comments from staff on how speaking up can be encouraged will be discussed with the Workforce team and the Unions with a view to including speaking up and listening messages in wider Workforce activity. The report will be shared with the Equality and Diversity team and staff networks for discussion of action that could be taken to reduce barriers and increase confidence.

17a. I would feel secure raising concerns about unsafe clinical practice

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