Learn more about a restorative justice culture and what it means for us in Mersey Care. Just and Learning is endorsed by the Trust's Board of Directors as one of our quality improvement priorities.It is being led by staff ambassadors. We've learned from experts and applied it to our work to deliver accountable care to our service users.
- 2019: The Care Quality Commission highlight Just and Learning Culture as an example of "outstanding practice".
- 2020: Highly commended at the HSJ Value Awards.
Following feedback, we have created a new one day RJLC programme. The training includes our journey so far, how we can be ambassadors in our team. Additional training on the four Step Process and Restorative Conversations are also available to managers and leaders through our Arrive and Strive Programmes. For more information, contact OrganisationalEffectiveness
Free elearning resources:
- Start with Module One
- then Module Two.
- Module Three was released in the summer with contributions from NHS national leaders
- Module Four is now live and interactive!
The new Supporting Colleagues policy was an important milestone in our Just and Learning journey.
This policy follows discussions with staff and unions as to how to best support you after an incident. It will also promote staff support already available. It recognises that sometimes we may need compassionate help and both as individuals and as organisation we can provide that.
The policy is central to our vision of Just and Learning. We want everyone to feel supported by their colleagues and we want them to know they can access free and confidential services such as counselling and physiotherapy. There’s a toolkit which includes a simple discussion checklist for managers to use when supporting a colleague after an incident. There is also a discussion paper for teams to explore during their regular meetings. It’s a great opportunity to talk about what ‘support’ looks like.
This policy recognises that individuals may react differently to events and that ultimately being both supportive and supported improves everyone’s wellbeing.
Please read the Staff Hub for more about how to support colleagues and watch the short videos on these pages from the Chief Executive and the Director of Workforce. You can read the full policy on our website.
Members of the team and the ambassadors have been out and about in wards and workplaces to promote it and remind everyone about this website. They are also making sure staff are aware of the free and confidential counselling, physiotherapy and psychological support available from Health and Wellbeing at Work on 0151 330 8103. If you’d like more information please speak with your team’s HR practitioner.
Professor Sidney Dekker is a widely respected academic
and has also been a First Officer on 737s in Europe. In Sweden, he was Professor of Human Factors and System Safety and in Australia Sidney founded the Safety Science Innovation Lab.
Sidney is based at Griffith University in Brisbane and is also Honorary Professor of Psychology at The University of Queensland.
His book "Just Culture" has become a standard text for organisations across the world who are redefining what accountability means, offering a way for workplaces to respond to mistakes and restore relationships and trust.
This year the Respect and Civility Team has made a major revision to their ‘jigsaw’ of behaviour types which they created some years ago. It still has examples of good and poor behaviours on opposite sides, but it revised by the team as our restorative journey develops and is now shaped like a wheel, to more closely associate it with the way we present Trust values and aims elsewhere. The 2023 version includes how to respond to our Care Goal of zero tolerance of discriminatory behaviours. This tool will help colleagues deal with difficult behaviour in the workplace – and we have FTSU Guardians and many channels to support you as well to call out bad behaviours.
Transforming Organisational Culture
In 2022, Mersey Care’s Chief Executive and Exectuvie Director of Workforce presented a detailed half hour discussion of the Trust’s progress “from retribution to restoration” to international colleagues.
They describe how the trust put into practice the concepts of Professor Dekker and other academics, and the need to build psychological safety into how a complex organisation operates.
