We welcome the direction set in the 10-year plan and would like to thank Dr Penny Dash for her comprehensive and thoughtful analysis of patient safety organisations set out in the ‘Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape’. The Review makes a number of findings and recommendations about the National Guardian’s Office, the functions of the National Guardian, and the role of Freedom to Speak Up Guardians. We agree with all of these.
The Review recognises the importance of staff voice and recommends that providers and commissioners are best placed to be responsible for the effectiveness of local Guardian arrangements and other mechanisms for speaking up. We believe this brings with it freedom to put in place arrangements that work in practice, rather than focusing on meeting national mandates that have increasingly become out-of-touch with the realities that providers and commissioners face. We know it is possible to put in place arrangements that are more effective, and less costly, than those that have been mandated to date. This is possible at both the organisational and system level. You can read our thoughts on this here.
The review states that ‘ensuring that these functions are happening’ should be a core function of CQC and we hope that they will feel able to go one step further – by transitioning to a focus on impact and not just activity. Culture, and the voice of the workforce, is not measured by the number of Guardians or the number of cases that are handled. It is measured by how staff feel and how that leads to them being able to perform to the best of their ability, every day. We will be publishing more on this shortly.
We understand that change creates uncertainty, but we are here to offer our accumulated expertise to Boards, providers, commissioners and others as they reflect on their speaking up arrangements. We would encourage an approach that goes beyond simply putting in place mechanisms to promote staff voice but instead looks at how an environment can be created where workers can be, and do, their best for patients and service users. That will be a truly transformative step toward improving quality and safety across the health and care landscape.
We are here to listen so please get in touch at information@theguardianservice.co.uk. You can find out more about our services here or sign up for our news updates here.