The Crisis of Trust and Safety in the Public Sector
Public services cover a broad range of essential services aimed at supporting citizens. From ensuring they have a safe, healthy and educated life to protecting their rights. These services are carried out by specific professionals on the ground, such as nurses, doctors, paramedics, teachers, social workers, police officers, firefighters and prison officers.
But there is a significant turnover and retention issue across the UK public service workforce. It is a systemic challenge impacting different sectors including the NHS, Civil Service and Local Government with the NHS and Social Care being arguably the most acute area.
The primary drivers for the poor retention rates are staff burnout, stress and low morale. This creates a vicious cycle: Staff leave, vacancy rate rises, remaining staff face increased workload and pressure, leading to lower psychological safety and higher burnout, accelerating the cycle of staff leaving.
An absence of Just Culture means staff don’t believe they can speak up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes without punishment or humiliation. This is a problem which goes beyond HR, resulting in a performance and safety crisis.
In this situation, staff are fearful and don’t speak up, leaving critical mistakes to go unreported, preventing systemic learning and improvement.
Fear of Reprisal
Solving this challenge requires strategic interventions in workload management and creating a supportive culture with a transparent and trusted mechanism for raising concerns. While it isn’t a legal requirement, developing a whistleblowing policy allows organisations to channel concerns constructively and gives workers confidence that their concerns will be taken seriously.
A fear of reprisal can impact staff in a number of ways:
- “Will I be investigated for complaining?”
- “Will I be sidelined or denied promotion after speaking up?”
Many organisations we work with have “Raising Concerns” policies that can be helpful in proactively dealing with issues when they arise, but if they are seen to be ineffective they can instead serve to actively undermine trust.
When HR Isn’t Enough
To move past a damaging cycle of burnout, low morale, and fear of reprisal, public sector organisations need to establish a trusted, external mechanism for airing and investigating concerns. Systemic, lasting cultural transformation requires objective truth which only an independent investigation can provide.
As excellent as an HR team may be, when an organisation is impacted by a culture crisis they are seen as being part of the management structure. This may result in a perception among staff that an internal investigation is designed to protect the organisation’s reputation or its leaders, not to uncover the uncomfortable truth.
Objectivity as the Foundation of Trust
An external, objective investigator has the advantage of having no stake in the organisation, and is unaffected by internal politics, performance reviews or career progression.
This objectivity ensures the investigation is conducted correctly and effectively which helps to create trust among staff. After all, the organisation is sending a message that they are committed to finding the truth no matter who it implicates or how uncomfortable it is.
Using Investigation to Drive Systemic Cultural Fixes
The aim of an investigation isn’t to determine who should be dismissed or which policy was broken, but to understand why the system allowed the failure to occur.
Considering human factors helps to ensure systems are designed in such a way as to account for the fact that humans make mistakes. Human factors can be applied to the culture of a healthcare organisation to make sure effective systems are in place to ensure errors can be reported without fear of being reprimanded.
A vital element of a supportive culture is the willingness of an organisation to conduct an objective investigation to uncover ways in which real and lasting systemic change can be brought about.
Case Study
A hospital experienced a serious incident during routine day surgery resulting in the death of a patient. The death, and the trial and subsequent acquittal of the locum doctor, generated considerable public debate and seriously undermined staff morale and public confidence in the hospital.
Our systematic independent investigation revealed a number of contributory factors including a poor recruitment and induction process, an underdeveloped culture of patient safety, and weak leadership.
Our report contained 30 recommendations, each of them accepted by the hospital, and was used as a catalyst to develop a patient safety culture shared by both managers and clinicians. Examples include the setting up of care quality groups and an integrated governance committee, as well as the introduction of policies and procedures for recruiting.
An independent investigation provided the hospital with an unbiased, evidence-based roadmap for sustainable cultural change.
Summary
When it comes to enacting change, it is the role of senior leaders to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Commissioning an independent investigation is a powerful demonstration of a commitment to driving positive cultural change and creating a supportive environment.
For staff it delivers the trust needed to speak up, for the organisation it provides the unbiased data needed for systemic, lasting culture change, and for leadership it offers a clear mechanism to move beyond reactive HR responses to create a genuinely safe, high-performing environment that retains its best people.
If you need assistance with creating a supportive culture, or would like to know more about our culture management and whistleblowing services, please book a free consultation, or if you prefer, use our contact form, or contact Ed Marsden on 020 7494 5670 or [email protected].
