Zero tolerance ‘won’t fix sexual harassment of staff’

“Cultural transformation” rather than “zero tolerance” is required to overcome widespread sexual harassment by ambulance service staff and patients, according to the person leading national efforts to make improvements.

The comments to HSJ from Bron Biddle, the lead for reducing misogyny and improving sexual safety at the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, follow the publication of the 2024 NHS staff survey results.

These found 1 in 12 reported unwanted sexual behaviour from colleagues or other staff in the past year – more than double the figure across all sectors and a slight increase on 2023.

When reporting unwanted sexual behaviour at work from patients, relatives or the public, the figure totals a huge 29% of ambulance staff nationally — slightly higher than 2023 and massively above the national average for all NHS staff of under 9%.

Despite the huge issue, HR specialist Ms Biddle, who has been running a programmme to tackle the problem for several years, said rooting it out required a “reset” of cultural norms, as well as social change.

“If we just reinforce things like zero tolerance and stamping it out, we are missing the nuance of why this is happening in the first place,” she told HSJ. “It is easy for us to think of someone as a bad apple, but are they bad apples, or are we complicit in the environment they are operating in? And this is why wider culture transformation is so important if we want to prevent sexualised behaviours in the first place.”

It means action taken against perpetrators should be “proportionate” rather than always hard-line, she said, and drew a distinction between predatory and exploitative behaviour, and that exhibited by someone who is capable of adapting their behaviour.

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Source: HSJ, 28 March 2025