Job Description
The Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU) Guardian is an essential role within Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) for ensuring that our staff, students and volunteers are supported in speaking up, that any barriers are addressed, a positive culture of speaking up is enabled and fostered and that issues raised feed into learning and improvement across the Trust.
Greater Manchester Mental Health is currently embarking on a journey of improvement. The creation of a full time Freedom to Speak Up Guardian is just one significant step in a multitude of actions that the Trust are working through to support the creation of an open and listening culture.
This role will operate independently, impartially and objectively alongside the Trust Executive Management Team and Care Group Leadership Teams to support transparency and actively engage and enable all staff to speak up. The role has responsibility for developing the FTSU vision and strategy to ensure a Trust wide FTSU culture is embedded supported by the Deputy Freedom to Speak Up Guardian and a network of FTSU Champions, which are to be developed.
The FTSU Guardian will provide confidential support and advice to individuals who need to speak up.
The post holder will support and contribute to the regional and national FTSU Guardian networks and comply with National Guardian Office guidance. Working with the Chief Nurse and Director of HR & OD the Guardian will also have the responsibility for triangulating data from different sources. Creating reports and presenting findings to the Board on a regular basis.
The FTSU Guardian will provide line management support to the Deputy Freedom to Speak Up Guardian
Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) Foundation Trust employs over 6,400 members of staff, who deliver services from more than 160 locations.
We provide inpatient and community-based mental health care for people living in Bolton, the city of Manchester, Salford, Trafford and the borough of Wigan, and a wide range of specialist mental health and substance misuse services across Greater Manchester, the north west of England and beyond.
Greater Manchester is one of the world's most innovative, original and exciting places to live and work. From the beauty of the surrounding countryside to the heart of the vibrant inner city with great shopping, entertainment and dining options.
Wherever you go you will experience a great northern welcome with people famed for their warmth, humour and generosity.
Our people enjoy their work, have opportunities to learn and develop their skills and are encouraged to generate new ideas that improve care for our service users.
- Upholding the core values of the FTSU Guardian which are: -• Courage – speaking truthfully and challenging appropriately;
- Impartiality – remaining objective and unbiased;
- Empathy – listening well and acting sensitively;
- Learning – seeking and providing feedback and looking for opportunities to improve.
- Operating independently, impartially and objectively whilst working in partnership with key stakeholders and groups across the organisation.
- Ensuring all staff are aware of the processes for speaking up and how to access mechanisms and channels.
- Supporting a culture of speaking up, listening and following up that is instilled through the organisation.
- Ensuring all staff are supported appropriately when they speak up or support people who are speaking up.
- The Board are fully sighted on FTSU matters and issues that are raised by people who are speaking up.
- Ensuring effective alignment with the National FTSU processes and best practice guidance supporting, and contributing to the National and Regional Guardian Network.
- Develop and deliver communication and engagement programmes to increase visibility of the FTSU Guardian amongst all staff.
- Reinforce and embed Speak Up programmes celebrating speaking up and the impact it is having in the organisation.
- Develop and then support a network of Freedom to Speak Up Champions to ensure that FTSU reaches all parts of the organisation and that everyone has easy access to someone outside their immediate line-management chain who can advise and support them.
- Work with HR professionals, Communications and others to ensure that speaking up guidance and processes are visible, clear and accessible, reflect best practice, and address any local issues that may hinder the speaking up process.
- Assess the effectiveness of Speak Up processes and the handling of individual cases, intervening when these are failing people who speak up, and making recommendations for improvement.
- Ensure that local processes and polices are clear and readily available to all staff, meet minimum standards where they are set and are regularly reviewed and updated.
- Be responsible for the Trust-wide systems for FTSU ensuring that they comply with national guidance, including case management and recording.
- Regularly gather feedback on policies and processes to ensure that they are continuously improved and meet the needs of staff.
- Provide alternative routes to progress cases that may otherwise present a FTSU Guardian with a conflict.
- Assess barriers to speaking up and prioritise areas for improvement.
- Establish systems and processes to drive continuous improvement and measure effectiveness and impact.
- Provide effective and compassionate support to all staff.
- To provide line management support for the Deputy Freedom to Speak Up Guardian.
- Develop a network of FTSU Champions to ensure suitable and sustainable reach across the organisation.
- Support a culture whereby people that speak up are thanked and do not suffer as a result of speaking up.
- Information that indicates a potential risk to safety of service users or staff is acted up on immediately, advising Trust leaders as appropriate.
- Provide the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills, both verbal and written with the ability to develop collaborative working relationships at all levels internally and externally.
- Effectively manage the communications across the Trust about FTSU including feedback on matters that workers are speaking up about (always respecting confidentiality) and the action taken to respond to them.
- Develop and deliver communication and engagement programmes to increase visibility of the FTSU Guardian, Deputy FTSU Guardian, and FTSU Champions (when developed) amongst all staff.
- Measure the effectiveness of communications to staff, ensuring all frontline staff are aware of and have access to support ot help them speak up.
- Deliver targeted campaigns to staff who may face particular barriers to speaking up.
- Able to process and refine highly sensitive information and deliver to senior leaders with recommendations for further actions to be taken
- Meet with the Chair, Chief Executive, Executive Lead for Speaking Up and Non-Executive Lead for Speaking Up on a regular basis providing a report and precise of current FTSU arrangements that includes information on the number and type of cases being dealt with, any barriers to speaking up and details of opportunities and learning and improvement. Consider what other details can be shared with other senior leaders.
- Develop strong and open relationships with key senior leaders, in particular the Chief Executive.
- Ensure that the Board are fully aware of their responsibilities and requirements for FTSU via the Executives Lead for FTSU.
- Attend Board and / or Committee meetings as required to present reports of FTSU activities including sharing data and trends.
- Ensure all staff have appropriate training and easy access to the knowledge and support they need to speak up and support others to speak up taking action to increase knowledge and understanding if needed.
- Build key FTSU messages and explain the Guardian role during the induction process.
- Ensure FTSU training is integrated into training programmes, including leadership, induction, board development and mandatory training.
- Assess the knowledge and capability of staff to speak up and to support people when they speak up.
- Ensure that all staff have the relevant skills and knowledge to enable them to speak up effectively, and those supporting, managing or investigating speaking up issues have the capability and knowledge to do this effectively.
- Ensure that groups of staff and individuals who may find it difficult to speak up are given particular support.
- Ensure that information and data are handled appropriately, and personal and confidential data are protected.
- Ensure that individuals receive appropriate feedback on how issues that they speak up about are investigated and the conclusion of any investigation.
- To take every reasonable opportunity to maintain and improve self-development including professional knowledge and competence.
- To participate in personal objective setting and review, including the creation of a personal development plan.
- Responsible for ensuring ongoing successful implementation of the FTSU Guardian role across the Trust, in line with national Guardian Office guidelines.
- Develop the FTSU vision and strategy to support Trust wide FTSU culture.
- Work with the Deputy Freedom to Speak Up Guardian to ensure the appropriate allocation of resources.
- Provide high level organisational skills and cover all FTSU management of cases over a broad range of issues.
- Lead the local FTSU processes and sources of support and guidance.
- Expand and galvanise the network of FTSU Champions, working closely with them to make speaking up becomes business as usual at GMMH.
- Take action to ensure that groups who may face particular barriers to speaking up have the knowledge and support they need.
- Be able to demonstrate a clear link between the FTSU work and patient safety and clinical outcome