Raising Concerns in the Workplace in Health and Social Care

Descriptions

The Commissioner is seeking tenders for research into raising concerns (whistleblowing) in Wales, with specific reference to older people and the health and social care context.A.A written critiqueA bilingual (Welsh/English) report of no more than 30,000 words (excluding references, annexes or appendices), which conforms to the Older People’s Commissioner’s accessibility standards, describing what has been shown to work elsewhere and could work in Wales.The report should include:-the activities, guidance and action that have proven to increase openness within systems and organisations that has consequently led to an increased use of staff feedback and improved patient/resident care and experience.-Suggestions as what would or would not work within health and social care in a Welsh context.-Possible interventions for use within health and social care services and organisations within Wales.B.Engagement Programme (to run concurrently with Part A)Design and run a programme of engagement events and activities between January and March 2014 with the purpose of finding out directly from health and social care staff in Wales what would make it easier for them to raise concerns and what would help their organisation develop an approach of positively assuring itself that the care it provided was safe, compassionate and of high quality.These events would involve a mix of small facilitated focus group sessions and private interviews. They would target a wide cross section of all staff groups in health and social care organisations and also Board members. The aim is to seek the views of a large sample of health and social care staff in Wales with a target of at least 600 respondents from each sector and also to include if possible respondents from the independent healthcare sector in Wales.These events should cover the widest possible cross section of staff from organisations across the whole of Wales. Arrangements need to include the choice of language (Welsh/English) that participants wish to use.Design and run a bilingual web consultation in parallel in order to capture as wide a range of experiences and ideas as possible.The information from these engagement activities and the web consultation must be analysed and summarised and made available to the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales. This information and the outputs from Part A should then be used as the basis for Part C (below).C.Development ProgrammeThis would involve designing a programme to work with health and social care stakeholders (employees, professional groups, regulators, trades unions, older people/carers) to understand how they could consider and implement best practice and interventions to ensure a culture within organisations that is supportive to the workforce in raising concerns about shortcomings in the care of older people and that such concerns were both welcomed and acted on by their employer.The aim is to “co-design” a grass roots system that encourages “vertical communication” and a culture that both raises concerns and listens/values employee concerns to ensure that organisations are taking all possible steps to ensure they are delivering high quality, safe and compassionate care and that this is core to their ‘business’.The outputs should include:-The design and development of a national improvement programme.-A suite of best practice guides.-Other tools and training materials.Copyright for all the products from this work will belong to the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales – please see our standard terms and conditions in Appendix B.NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Sell2Wales Web Site at http://www.sell2wales.gov.uk/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=3047.