Freedom to Speak Up - Interview with the board lead
Deepak Singh is a Non-Executive Director at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, and serves as the board lead on Freedom to Speak Up. The Trust is taking part in the national Speak Up month throughout October 2020, to raise awareness across the NHS of the support available to staff to raise any workplace issues.
What role do you have as Non-Executive Lead for Freedom to Speak Up?
I was appointed as a Non-Executive Director in the newly merged Trust in April of this year and a couple of months ago volunteered to act as the Freedom To Speak Up (FTSU) lead on the board. My main role is to ensure that the Trust fosters an open culture so that staff feel confident to speak up about anything that concerns them. This means that I regularly review the improvement plans that are being put in place and the data that we collect to ensure that the Trust is making good progress and acting on the issues being reported by staff members. In addition, my role is to ensure that our FTSU performance is reviewed at board level and that board itself is encouraged and challenged to embrace the ethos and sentiments behind FTSU.
Why is it important that colleagues feel able to raise any concerns about the workplace or patient safety?
This is a great question. I don't believe that there has been a more important time in our history for staff to be encouraged to speak up. We have seen an unprecedented crisis unfold in which every single member of staff has worked tirelessly to ensure patients receive the very best quality of care and where safety has never been more paramount. For the leadership team, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the profound duty and obligation we have to guarantee safety levels and improve experiences in the workplace. However, we also acknowledge that there will always be further improvements that can be made and so encourage every member of staff to speak truthfully and challenge where necessary to help us identify issues that need to be addressed.
“I don't believe that there has been a more important time in our history for staff to be encouraged to speak up.”
Deepak Singh, Non-Executive Director and Freedom to Speak Up board lead
Why should staff become Speak Up champions?
I am sure that every member of staff wants the very best for their patients and fellow workers and so, by speaking up, show that they care. It has also been shown that trusts that encourage and actively promote speaking up initiatives perform better and deliver improved results, so I can't think of any better reasons for becoming a Speak Up champion.
What kinds of issues should staff be encouraged to speak up about?
The main aims behind the FTSU initiative are to protect patient safety and quality of care, improve experiences in the workplace and promote learning and improvement. This doesn't mean that staff should be discouraged from speaking up if their concerns fall outside any of these categories as there aren't any hard or fast rules. For example, over the past six months the Trust’s FTSU Guardian Service has received calls on a wide variety of topics including COVID-related safety concerns, discrimination/inequality, bullying and harassment, policies and procedures and behaviours/relationships.