To date, more than 270 organisations have signed the NHS Sexual Safety Charter, including all 215 NHS Trusts and 10 ambulance bodies in the UK their commitment to improving sexual safety in the NHS. If you’re part of one of those organisations, you already understand the scale of the problem and by signing the charter have made a commitment to improving sexual safety and other unwanted behaviour in your Trust such as sexual misconduct, violence, microaggressions, bullying and harassment. Tackling these harmful behaviours headfirst will contribute to driving systemic change across the NHS making it a safer, happier place to work.
The NHS Sexual Safety Charter outlines 10 clear principles that align with the additional duties placed on employers by the Worker Protection Act and whilst we’ve seen great work already happening in many NHS Trusts to begin activating these principles, there is still a long way to go to eradicate sexual misconduct and other harmful culture-damaging behaviours across the NHS.
If you’re one of the people who have been tasked with overseeing, implementing and embedding the Sexual Safety Charter in your Trust, then you will already be aware of the need to provide appropriate reporting methods for NHS staff to report their experiences of unwanted behaviour. You will also be aware of the requirement to take reports of sexual misconduct seriously and in a timely manner, with responses to reports including the provision of or signposting to appropriate support for those who have experienced harmful behaviours.
We understand that as part of the NHS Sexual Safety Charter, the NHS has offered the option of rolling out an anonymous reporting form, however, the Trusts we have spoken to have all identified similar challenges with the anonymous reporting form, people are concerned about where the reporting data is stored when some makes a report using the form and who has oversight of the data collected. There is a lack of understanding of who will be following up with the reports submitted and investigating each report.
Some Trusts have repurposed their clinical incident reporting software and are currently trying to use this as a way of capturing sexual safety incidents, monitoring the data in the process. However, we know from speaking to some of you that this has come with its own challenges, resulting in low levels of trust in the system and the reporting process. This reporting software does not offer a way to report anonymously, which is important when it comes to reporting sexual misconduct and NHS Trusts are experiencing difficulties in being able to follow up effectively with reports of sexual misconduct submitted on this platform as it does not provide a centralised case management system.
Current reporting mechanisms make it difficult to collect and understand any of your own data in relation to sexual misconduct, and the process of gathering data is often a time-consuming, manual process in a sector that is already grossly overworked.
So, whilst you are trying your best to drive change and align your organisation with the Sexual Safety Charter, the tools you have to hand are not fit for purpose and certainly aren’t a long-term and robust solution to encourage NHS staff to speak up and drive cultural change across the NHS. To be able to understand the reality of sexual misconduct in your NHS trust, you need to be able to hear from your people on the ground and their experiences. In order to do this, you need to have a reporting mechanism that your people can trust- to increase the number of reports you receive and in turn, you can better understand the picture of sexual misconduct in your workplace.
The team at Culture Shift have worked with many organisations over the last decade to build safer, more inclusive environments through practical solutions. You might be relieved to hear that you are not the only one experiencing the practical challenges of finding a reporting mechanism which can effectively drive culture transformation.We have worked hard to build a comprehensive, user-friendly reporting platform that provides a way for people to report harmful behaviours anonymously, or with their name and contact details, if they feel comfortable to do this. Our reporting platform has built-in, centralised case management tools to enable organisations like yours to prevent and respond to incidents of harassment, bullying and abuse effectively. Additionally, our platform offers data-driven insights which you can use to inform your culture transformation strategies and make positive cultural changes that are informed by employee experiences.
The value of anonymous reporting
Anonymous reporting increases the reporting rate of unwanted behaviour and helps to cultivate a culture of speaking up.
In fact, 62% of people would be more likely to report harassment and discrimination at work if they had an anonymous reporting option.
Often, there is a culture of fear around reporting unwanted behaviour – fear of the repercussions, fear of not being believed, fear of retaliation, fear that nothing will be done, fear that they’re unable to prove the behaviour took place.
Anonymous reporting recognises that there is a fear culture around reporting and provides a mechanism for overcoming this, removing any unwanted barriers to speaking up. Organisations without anonymous reporting channels are missing key information on the reality of their organisation’s culture.
How to implement effective anonymous reporting
One of the first steps to understanding what is truly happening in your NHS Trust, rather than the wider NHS, is to implement an effective anonymous reporting method to increase confidence in the reporting process amongst your employees, increasing your reporting levels and your ability to respond quickly and proactively to unwanted behaviour. It is crucial to understand the cultural challenges that are unique to your individual NHS Trust, and to not assume that all NHS Trusts experience culture-damaging behaviours in the same way.
Whilst the data from the annual NHS Staff Survey is helpful, it doesn’t allow you to drill down into systemic behaviours occurring in your Trust specifically, and it does not allow you to be targeted in your approach to preventing harmful behaviours in your individual institution or to put in appropriate support for your staff
In our opinion, an anonymous reporting platform is the best solution for NHS Trusts to respond to the Sexual Safety Charter. We explore why in more detail below.
Anonymous reporting platforms are fit for purpose
The major benefit of implementing an anonymous reporting platform is that they are completely fit for purpose, built by software companies who have centralised user needs when developing their platform. They have been developed with the purpose in mind to allow and encourage people to speak up about harmful behaviours that may be difficult to talk about, whilst also considering the needs of the people responding to reports.’
A good anonymous reporting platform like the one provided by Culture Shift makes it simple and straightforward for your staff to report sexual safety incidents and other unwanted behaviour, but it’s also easy for your HR team or Freedom to Speak Up Guardians to respond to reports and understand at a glance the types of behaviours that are occurring in your Trust.
At Culture Shift, we have spent over a decade working in culture transformation,collaborating with our partner organisations to drive their culture transformation strategies, so not only is the platform built to a high specification, but our experts are on hand to provide culture transformation advice, from providing training and best practice guidance, to supporting your team to roll out the platform, offering solutions to improve your reporting rates and your response process to reports. We can provide campaign materials to support you in raising awareness of your reporting platform within your Trust. We are committed to continuous improvement and welcome our partner organisations feedback to develop our platform on an ongoing basis to improve user experience’
Our anonymous reporting platform is safe and secure, and ensures that reporters remain truly anonymous.
Integrated case management
All-in-one anonymous reporting platforms integrate reporting and case management into one straightforward system, making it easy for your team to manage and respond to the reports coming in, centralising the case management process.
One of the major benefits of having a centralised case management and reporting system is the ability to manage cases consistently, assigning cases to appropriate team members and the ability to monitor case progress from submission to resolution, in one transparent, auditable reporting platform. It minimises the likelihood of reports being lost, forgotten about or mismanaged, bringing your Trust in line with the NHS Sexual Safety Charter.
Implement standard processes and investigations
When you lack a clear process for responding to incidents it can lead to inconsistent case management but with an all-in-one reporting and case management system like the platform provided by Culture Shift, you can build robust processes and standard procedures to improve your response to handling incidents. This ensures incidents do not go unfollowed up, prevention methods are put in place and the appropriate support is provided to those experiencing the harm. When people know that reports are dealt with consistently and effectively, it helps to build trust and encourages higher levels of reporting.
Powerful in-built analytic capabilities
Our anonymous reporting platform has powerful in-built analytic capabilities which removes the manual process of reporting. With real-time dashboards you have instant access to reporting trends and insights which means you can identify and address issues proactively, monitoring trends over time.
With our dashboard view, Trusts can understand and report on culture-damaging behaviours at an aggregated level, identifying spikes in reports of harmful behaviour, allowing you to prioritise cultural strategies.
When you collect your own data in relation to your Trust and aren’t reliant on the annual NHS staff survey, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your culture and proactively put in place prevention and response strategies.
Whilst driving long term cultural change and eliminating sexual harassment from the NHS and other healthcare settings goes far beyond anonymous reporting, implementing a safe and secure way for NHS staff to speak up is the first step to solving a much larger problem.
Once you give people a way to speak up about their experiences and begin collecting your own data for your NHS Trust, you can then start to refine your response process, and implement targeted prevention methods to improve your culture and improve sexual safety within you Trust.
How Culture Shift can support NHS trusts
Culture Shift’s all-in-one safe and simple platform provides anonymous reporting and case management tools to enable NHS Trusts to respond effectively to incidents of harassment, bullying and sexual misconduct. By providing data-driven insights and user-friendly reporting systems we can empower you to foster positive cultural change.
- Streamlined reporting
- Effective case management
- Powerful in-built analytics
- Ongoing support from our team of Culture Transformation Experts
To learn more about how we’re helping NHS Trusts click here.
