Freedom to speak up Deputy Guardian | Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

Are you passionate about creating a culture where every voice is heard and valued? At Frimley NHS Foundation Trust as a Deputy Freedom to Speak Up Guardian you can play a crucial role in safeguarding patient safety, improving staff experiences, and driving continuous improvement. Acting independently and objectively, you will support colleagues in raising concerns, promote learning from feedback, and work with senior leaders to strengthen the Trust's speaking-up culture. Working closely with the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian and Executive Lead, you will help identify and address barriers, ensuring all staff feel empowered and supported to speak up. This is a unique opportunity to make a meaningful impact, champion openness, and contribute to a culture of trust and transparency across our organisation.

• Foster a Speaking-Up Culture: Promote an open, supportive environment where staff feel safe and confident to raise concerns about patient and staff safety.
• Provide Independent Advice: Act as an impartial adviser on speaking up, addressing barriers, and building trust in processes.
• Support Staff: Listen to concerns, provide guidance, and ensure safety and quality issues are effectively addressed.
• Manage Concerns: Handle cases within personal scope under FTSU Guardian guidance, following best practices and legal standards.
• Address Detriment: Identify and act on instances of detriment experienced by staff who speak up.
• Deliver Training: Facilitate training for staff and managers to promote speaking up and ensure effective support for raising concerns.
• Analyse and Improve: Use data analysis, audits, and feedback to identify trends and drive improvements in speaking-up arrangements.
• Supervise FTSU Network: Support and oversee the network of champions and ambassadors, ensuring they are skilled and empowered to promote speaking up.
• Communicate Effectively: Share good practices, update policies, and provide clear feedback while maintaining confidentiality.
• Collaborate Strategically: Work with senior leaders to develop and deliver strategic plans that align with Trust values and national guidance on speaking up.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is committed to being an inclusive and disability confident employer and has been awarded the Gold for the Armed Forces Employment Recognition Scheme. We provide first class development opportunities for all staff and have a wide range of professional, management and leadership, and clinical skills training available. Here at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, we know how important it is to have a healthy work life balance; this benefits not only individuals but the patients we care for too. We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service and its users. Frimley Health Trust benefits on Vimeo The Deputy Freedom to Speak Up Guardian(s) role is to help protect patient safety and quality of care, improve staff experience at work, and act independently, impartially, and objectively in managing their caseload of concerns, with support from the FTSU guardian. Promotelearning and continuous improvementwhile working with the FTSU team on themes and trends and amplify the voices of individuals, groups/networks to support the speaking up culture with the senior leadership team on the speaking-up culture and agenda across the trust. Working with the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian and Executive Lead responsible for FTSU, ensure that workers are supported in speaking up while identifying and supporting barriers to be addressed and fostering a positive speaking-up culture. KEY TASKS & Responsibilities: · Cultivate an open, listening culture where staff feel safe to raise concerns about patient and staff safety and experiences. · Act as an independent adviser and expert on speaking up, addressing barriers and building confidence in internal and external processes. · Exemplify the importance of speaking up in line with trust values, ambitions, and National Guardian's Office guidance. · Support staff who speak up by listening, signposting resources, and ensuring safety and quality concerns are addressed. · Manage concerns within personal scope and under FTSU guardian guidance, adhering to best practice, legal standards, and guidance. · Address and act on issues of detriment experienced by staff who speak up. · Engage with the national FTSU network, implement NGO guidance, and analyse and act on review recommendations. · Facilitate formal and informal training on speaking up, ensuring managers support staff effectively. · Utilise improvement processes, data analysis, and audits to enhance speaking-up arrangements and address identified trends. · Demonstrate compassion and uphold the Trust's values, ambitions, and the NHS Constitution, prioritising patients, and staff. MANAGERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES · Collaborate with the FTSU Guardian(s), the Executive lead for FTSU, in creating and delivering strategic plans supporting the speaking-up culture. Ensure alignment with the Trust's values and strategy while maintaining the NGO guidelines of the role. · To support and supervise the FTSU network of champions and ambassadors across the trust, working with other subject matter experts in maintaining the skills and knowledge needed to undertake the roles. · Lead on recruiting and retaining the FTSU network of champions and ambassadors. · Act as a role model, demonstrating effective and compassionate leadership, challenging or escalating poor practices or behaviours, and maintaining the FTSU service as a place of trust to raise concerns. · Foster good working relationships while providing challenges to support identifying, raising, and addressing barriers to the trust speaking up culture. ADMINISTRATION RESPONSIBILITIES · Maintain an accurate log of speaking up concerns, following the NGO's and Trust's guidance around data management, confidentiality, and support in developing reports from an FTSU data source, including feedback and learning. · Deputise for the FTSU guardian(s) in meetings, submit data and analysis, and provide a voice for those who have spoken up and the barriers or detriments they have faced. · Contribute to the reports needed for assurance to the trust committees and board. · Work with the FTSU guardian(s) to review, propose changes, and maintain trust policies related to the speaking-up culture within the trust. · To regularly seek feedback from others on speaking up and accessing the FTSU service to ensure a culture of continuous improvement, along with personal development and learning, is embedded into the role and function. COMMUNICATION · To receive/listen to and interpret sensitive and complex information and support it being shared via the most appropriate route and level within the organisation. When applicable, act on behalf, or in the best interest, to protect patients and staff safety within the boundaries of trust governance, legal guidance, and safeguarding principles. · Promote awareness, complexity, and value of Speaking up as part of business as usual and, when unsafe or appropriate, the FTSU service. · Educate and use the FTSU champion/ambassador network to promote the importance, barriers, and impact of speaking up and encourage this to happen via business-as-usual or alternative routes. · Share good practices and learn from concerns raised to FTSU, connect with our staff networks and forums, and support our diverse staff and patient population so that they have a voice that counts. · Review and support updating the speaking-up arrangements, so they are visible, accessible, and in a style that supports and values speaking up. · Listen to concerns without judgment, ensure feedback is given around the processes for addressing concerns, and be able to recognise and take action to protect patient, staff, or trust safety concerns. · Follow the principles and policies in maintaining confidentiality and its role in supporting a safe culture when staff can speak up.

Freedom to speak up Deputy Guardian | Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust