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<p>Speaking up and raising concerns should be routine in business in the National
Health Service and is a key part of ensuring patient safety and improving the quality
of services. The NHS should support and welcome all staff to raise concerns wherever
they spot them, without prejudice to any personal feelings regarding those speaking
up.</p><p> </p><p>NHS Improvement has developed the national integrated whistleblowing
policy, which acts as a minimum standard for NHS trusts, and has been designed so
as to minimise the chance of personal feelings influencing the way that people who
speak up are treated.</p><p> </p><p>The National Guardian’s Office has advised the
Department that all NHS trusts are required to have a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian
to provide safe, consistent, person-centred support for speaking up, whether the individual
would qualify for protection under the law or not. Freedom to Speak Up Guardians are
trained by the National Guardian’s Office to support all individuals equally. They
also work within their organisation to improve all aspects of speaking up so that
individuals receive the same quality of support irrespective of the route that they
use.</p><p> </p><p>Their training also routinely includes an assessment of their organisation’s
speaking up / whistleblowing policies so that aspects of policies that may act as
a barrier to speaking up are identified and changed.</p>
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