Freedom to Speak Up Guardians

[CrossMorris]

Hoping to get a bit of reassurance here!- has anyone (NHS) had to use the Freedom To Speak Up guardians at their trust? If so how did you find them ?Did they maintain confidentiality? Did the situation get resolved without you having to leave your job?
Am in two minds about going to them or just leaving.

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No idea I'm afraid OP, but bumping your post for you

Mine failed. It was included as part of an inquiry into systematic problems in the organisation. The concept is good but it didn't work in practice for me unfortunately. Confidence was not kept and no action was taken.

I had a bit of a rant to mine about the second most senior person's behaviour.

CEO spoke to them about it. Improved a bit.

No idea if confidentiality was kept....I suspect it probably was.

Thanks for your answers everyone. Just had enough now but don’t want to let the situation go on any longer as it’s affecting me and my colleagues and ultimately the patients. Will have to think about it some more

For me it came down to did I have anything to lose. Long term I don't regret what I did.

You can whistleblow to NHS England. I whistleblew to NHS Improvement (but they are now NHSE). Others at my organisation had done the same, and part of what NHSI did was point the CQC in specific areas and we received a very damning report six months later.

I did and it did make a difference - and I am as sure as I can be that confidentiality was maintained.
I raised a concern along with 2 other colleagues, it was an internal bullying issue.
The situation was partly resolved which was a realistic outcome. The main ‘perpetrators’ denied all knowledge but I gather there was some fairly firm reflection with them. I think they were advised that even if they claimed to be unaware of the situation, senior managers and the guardian had uncovered issues of concern. They were advised to change their behaviour going forward which did happen to a reasonable extent. It was explained to me that the investigation obviously couldn’t ‘force’ them to confess.

Oh and further along the line I was promoted and had professional dealings with the guardian in my new role for example she would attend meetings to explain her role to the team.

Neither she nor my new manager ever hinted/alluded to the investigation which also reassured me about the confidentiality issue.

I used mine and the system worked perfectly. My concern was addressed and new ways of working out in place

It’s good to hear some positive stories
I am going to go ahead and just hope that it all works out as something has to change
Bullying is endemic in the NHS and it’s really not helping the patients