Creating a safe space to speak up

October marked ‘National Speak up Month’, led by the National Guardian's Office, with the aim that speaking up becomes business as usual (https://tinyurl.com/ftvpnc9v). Every NHS trust in England (and any organisation providing services under the NHS Standard Contract) must have a Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU) guardian to give independent support and advice to staff who want to raise concerns (National Guardian's Office, 2021: 7). Guardians work with all staff to help NHS trusts become more open and transparent places. Employees are encouraged to ‘speak up’ without fearing the consequences. The key metric for organisations to assess their speaking up culture is the FTSU Index, which is published annually by the National Guardian's Office. The FTSU Index is based on the percentage of staff who ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with four of the questions in the annual NHS Staff Survey.

I am hugely supportive of the role of the FTSU guardians, and the alignment of these questions to patient safety—however, I do feel that we must strive towards a consistent environment where colleagues are able to raise concerns with their direct line managers and feel listened to, respected and confident that they will be heard.