Culture is a patient safety issue: A summary of speaking up to Freedom to Speak Up Guardians (National Guardian's Office, 18 July 2024)

Summary

Listening to the voices of workers is essential for a safe and effective healthcare for workers, patients and the public. Freedom to Speak Up Guardians provide an opportunity for organisations to learn from these voices which may not otherwise be heard. Freedom to Speak Up Guardians are required to report non-identifiable information on the cases they receive both locally to their boards and senior leadership and to the National Guardian’s Office. This report summarises the data shared by Guardians about the speaking up cases they received between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

Content

There were 32,167 cases raised with Freedom to Speak Up Guardians in 2023/2024. This is the highest number of cases recorded, a 27.6% increase from 2022/23.

Other key headlines from this report include:

• 18.7% of cases raised included an element of patient safety/quality (a marginal drop compared to 19.4% in 2022/23).
• 19.8% of cases reported included an element of bullying or harassment (a 2-percentage point fall compared to 2022/23).
• One in every three cases raised (32.3%) involved an element of worker safety or wellbeing (an increase from one in every four cases in 2022/23).
• Two in every five cases (38.5%) involved an element of inappropriate behaviours or attitudes.
• 9.5% of cases were raised anonymously.
• Detriment for speaking up was indicated in 4% of cases (the same as in 2022/23).

Related reading

Patient Safety Learning, We are not getting safer: Patient safety and the NHS staff survey results, 26 March 2024.