This is the project website for a study evaluating the implementation of a new initiative in NHS England, called ‘Freedom to Speak Up Guardians’, a role designed to help staff to ‘speak-up’ about workplace concerns.
In the NHS, the urgent need for a change in workplace cultures in relation to openness and learning from employee concerns have resulted in a raft of policies and measures seeking to provide legal, structural and social foundations for culture change. Among the policy initiatives is the ‘Freedom to Speak Up Review’ (Francis, 2015) and its formation of the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian (FTSUG) role and the ‘National Guardian’s Office’ as a means of normalising the raising of concerns.
The Review describes the FTSUG role as:
‘a key component in keeping watch over the way concerns are handled, providing support to those who need it, and ensuring the patient safety issue is always addressed. The climate that can be generated by these measures will be one in which injustice to whistleblowers should become very rare indeed, but is redressed when it does occur’ (p.198).
