To be outraged they got sacked for this?

[Publicsectorsucks]

Relative working in public sector on temp contract. This particular job involved working with vulnerable people but I won't go into specifics in case outing.

They began working more with a permanent colleague who'd been there for many years but observed some concerning behaviours from said colleague and had safeguarding concerns.

These concerns were shared by other colleagues, although no one had raised the issue with leadership or seemed to want to do so.

My relative decided (perhaps naively) to raise concerns with leadership themselves and had a meeting to discuss.

Long story short, relative got labelled as a trouble making and as a temp worker was easy to sack and now lost job. The other colleagues who apparently shared these concerns were all comiserating with relative afterwards yet they managed to keep themselves out of firing line.

The whole situation has my blood boiling. To get sacked for raising safeguarding concerns about vulnerable people and cast off as a troublemaker? Perhaps they went about it in wrong way but intentions were noble and other colleagues felt the same.

is this what they do in certain sections of public sector when someone tries to call out an issue? Maybe I'm generalising too much but if this sort of thing was raised to HR in my private sector job, I can't imagine anyone getting sack.

YABU - it's not a public sector issue/ relative was naive to wade in

YANBU - terrible way to treat employee with legitimate concerns

Hard to judge, but I’d say are You sure they got let go for whistle blowing in the public sector?

Whistleblowers are protected. Are they in a union. Do they want to get their job back. They can report safeguarding to social services if management are not taking concerns seriously.

Can relative prove they were sacked because of the disclosure?
www.gov.uk/whistleblowing

They need to contact the whistle blowing line for the organisation.

If they've been dismissed for raising legitimate concerns I think they can go to employment tribunal for unfair dismissal, think there's quite a short time to do that though. Hopefully someone will be along soon who's more knowledgeable.

We need a lot more information to have any idea who is being unreasonable here.

I'm not sure there's any written proof. It was all discussion based and they definitely don't want job back now. They were thinking they could perhaps put concerns on record in writing so it's noted officially in case anything bad does happen in future

Can't really give specific details due to nature of role. I suppose they technically were a whistle-blower here and have been swiftly shown the door because of it

If mental health, I work in a similar area. Your relative should email the organisation’s Speak Up Guardian or equivalent. Should be details of them under whistleblowing or safeguarding on the organisation’s external website. Also consider contacting the Chief Executive or Chair who would be duty-bound to investigate both the allegation around safeguarding and any unfairness around your relative’s dismissal. Keep the information factual and brief with dates and names. Good luck to them.

Was it a local authority they worked for? There should be a section on their website for whistleblowing and who to contact to make a complaint. I'm sure other places will have similar on their sites

Unfortunately, without those specific details, no one here can do any more than guess as to whether you’re being unreasonable. Based on what you’ve said, your relative could’ve been a temp nurse who saw another nurse murdering patients or a temp TA who thinks that allowing Y11s to make copper oxide is a safeguarding risk - or anything in between.

Agree. Were they actually sacked or just didn't have contract renewed?

Your relative could have raised concerns with the Care Quality Commission.

The CQC doesn’t cover the vast majority of public sector job roles.

Perhaps they went about it in wrong way

I think this might be the heart of the matter. Whistleblowing is really protected in public sector organisations, if your relative has already lost their job then it might be worth them making a bit of a fuss, especially if vulnerable people are at risk.

It’s a terrible way to treat a whistleblower- sacking them for raising concerns internally with management. But you are generalising far too much by thinking it is a public sector thing and doesn’t happen in the private sector. A quick look at employment tribunal cases would have informed you that whistleblowers are frequently sacked, denied promotions/pay raises, constructively dismissed, bullied and so on both in public and private sector organisations.

I would suggest whistleblowing if the colleague that is a concern from a safeguarding pov is still working with vulnerable people and management are not doing anything about it, they must be subject to some sort of overseeing body if they work with vulnerable people.

The reason there is a whistle blowing policy is because of this kind of bad practice, its not bad enough that 1 person does wrong and vulnerable people are hurt by it, but then another 10 people learn it's best to look the other way. It's really common with "rotten boroughs".

I don't blame them for not knowing to go through whistle blowing, because if you are temporary and don't have a solid induction you wouldn't know unless you looked for it. If they were feeling robust enough, i would write the whole situation out and send it to HR and the person in charge of commissioning the service, rather than the manager. Keep just to the facts and a timeline, specifics on when and who were involved in the conversation and what happened next.

I hope your relative isnt too bruised by this, its a horrible thing to go through.

Apologies, I missed out a key bit, if your relative can't find the whistleblowing policy then document to HR and the commissioner.

I think this is really unlikely to be true but if it is relative should persue it. They have nothing to lose now so they should make sure the vulnerable people are protected. Whistlblowing is protected, so they'd likely win any employment case too. If it's true

Are whistle blowers protected?

Your colleague has been treated at detriment because of whistleblowing. Those should have been protected disclosures. They need to speak to their union, ACAS or Protect the whistle blowing charity. There is lots of information online about it.

Report through the whistleblowing process, copy to a key councillor - chair of the relevant committee, for example. It will become very unpleasant for the manager involved.

Sorry it won't get your relative their job back. I think they've had a lucky escape tbh, who wants to work in an env that is a blame culture?

Hope they find something better soon.

Thanks all. They are going to take further action and they've arranged to meet with someone in another part of the leadership structure that is interested to listen. Not to get job back now, they don't want to work there anymore but want concerns documented for sake of vulnerable people

They used to be part of a union but didn't renew so probably no use but I sent them whistleblowing link so they can look at more options

In theory yes, in practice, no.
I survived a 3 year campaign of lies, disinformation and bullying after making protected public interest disclosures.
I simultaneously escalated adult safeguarding and death of a vulnerable adult concerns, systemic institutional provider failure (vulnerable adults), triggered enhanced reviews of LD homes and requested a protective suspension (in writing) to the Director of Social Services. When that failed I reported my concerns directly to the (then) HCPC.
One grievance was partially upheld, the rest were not upheld, on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence-this was in spite of emails, case records, supervision notes etc over a 2 year period.
My manager and three colleagues lied on record.
I left on my own terms a year later
I was a senior social worker-adult safeguarding.
If she reports to the CQC, and says that the matter has not been reported yet to safeguarding or the police, the CQC will investigate.

They could try the Protect hotline - it's the publicly funded service supporting whistle-blowers of all kinds and the case handlers are great.

An option is to make a disclosure to the regulator through Protect, and then walk away in good conscience.

Your relative needs to take the complaint higher. If vulnerable adults there will be an ofsted type inspection/regulations. I would report it that way. I would also take it the to highest manager I.e if social care take it to the leading manager. Make sure they do it all in writing so they have a paper trail.