Public Board of Directors papers 27.01.22

3.2 Bullying and harassment The Trust’s Positive Working Relationships Policy defines bullying and harassment as f ollows: “Bullying: Of fensive, intimidating,maliciousor insultingbehaviour. It is oftenanabuseormisuseof power throughmeans intended to undermine, humiliateor injure the recipient”. “Harassment: Unwanted conduct that has thepurposeor ef fect of violatingpeople’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. This conduct may be related to a relevant protected characteristic: age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religionor belief , sex, sexual orientation. This conduct may alsobe related to political affiliationand tradeunionmembership”. 3.2.1 Types of incidences A number of respondents described incidences of bullyingand/or harassmentwithin theR&IDivision that could be considered to fall within these definitions. Examples ranged f rom feeling minimised or excluded when they raised any concerns, unfair criticisms and a generally unkind culture to more severe cases of one-to-oneharassment including criticisms andaperceptionof unfair performancemanagement, abuseof positional power, the threat of withholding fixed term contract extensions and being spoken to inappropriately or harshly in f ront of other colleagues. It should benoted that someof the individualswho raised concerns of bullyingbehaviour towards them were also described as bullies by others, withexamplesof their behaviour provided tous. The review team noted the considerable recent work undertaken with the Respect Campaign to raise awareness and to try to address this issue. This demonstrates theTrust’s commitment to zero toleranceof inappropriatebehaviours, andwehaveheard f rom leaders how important this is. However, disappointingly only around 150 peoplehad signed up/made thepledge to thiscampaign in the f irst 10months and it was reported that there was a perceived lack of senior leadership engagement of this agenda with the exceptionof theWorkforceDirector. Some staff reported feeling that theRespect Campaignwas tokenistic and lacked thedepthof attentionand stewardshipneeded. In July 2020Unison issued a “Noticeof Awareness” to theChief Executive regarding the lack of leadership and action to address inappropriatebehaviours. When staf f raised issues withHRtherewas a tendency to advise that mattersshouldbeput inwriting or raise a f ormal grievance rather than seek to resolve the issuemore informally. 3.2.2 Observation There was a view amongst some senior leaders, that there is a saf eenvironment inwhich staff feel comf ortable to speak up and that bullying is tackled effectively. It is important to recognise that all organisations will have incidences of inappropriatebehaviours and bullying, and leadershipneeds to constantly reinf orce its lack of tolerance. 3.2.3 Recommendations • The Trust should consider whether it would be of value to initiate widespread organisational development/cultural interventions withinR&I to identifyand address underlyingbehavioural issues. • The Trust areadvised to review their PositiveWorkingRelationshipsPolicyparticularly in relation to the intent of the alleged perpetrator. Current ACAS guidance around harassment states that harassment must have violated aperson’sdignitywhether it was intended or not or created ahostile environment f or the person whether it was intended or not. This is consistent with the Equality Act 2010 which makes it clear that it is not the intent of the perpetrator that is important but how the individual was made to feel. • It would be benef icial for the organisation to consider the introduction of Bullying and Harassment Champions or supporters so staff have someonewho they feel they canapproach f or informal support and adviceother than HR who may have to deal with any f ormal processes. 3.3 Concerns about racist behaviours The review team has received concerns f rompeopleworking inTheChristiewho haveexperienced orwitnessed racist behaviour. Sadly, racismexists in societyand occurrences which couldbe considered racist,wherepeople

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