Publish date: 29 September 2022
Last night BBC Panorama aired an investigative documentary filmed undercover in a local NHS mental health hospital trust. Earlier this month Greater Manchester Police launched an investigation into the allegations of abuse and mistreatment of patients. More information is available on their website https://www.gmmh.nhs.uk/bbc-panorama-and-the-edenfield-centre.
If you have been affected and need some support, there is lots of help available:
- Psychological therapies support emails and phone calls are responded to Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm
- Our Wellbeing Hub on YourSpace
- Cheshire and Merseyside Resilience Hub is available between 9am and 5pm
- Crisis Lines remain open 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
The delivery of professional, high quality, compassionate care is something that should happen all of the time as part our service delivery. We all have a role to play in making sure this happens on every occasion, for all users of our services.
When things go wrong, we need to make sure lessons are learnt and things are improved. If we think something might go or be wrong, it’s important that we all feel able to speak up so that potential harm is prevented. It’s our right, but it’s also our responsibility.
Our Restorative Just and Learning culture has helped us to be better at this. We have tools in place to help you, in module three of our training you can see how to challenge inappropriate behaviours in the workplace.
Even when things are good, but could be better still, we should all feel able to make a suggestion and expect what we say to be listened to and used as an opportunity for making improvements. Speaking up is about anything that gets in the way of providing good care.
The best place to start to raise concerns or ideas is with your line manager. If you feel unable to do this, or if you have tried this before and things have not changed, our Freedom to Speak Up Guardians are here to help. They will discuss your concerns and help you decide how best to go forward. You can remain anonymous, although you wouldn’t receive any feedback. Your confidentiality will be respected at all times.
Our Freedom to Speak Up Guardians understand how difficult it can be to be the only person to raise a concern and how much courage this can take. They will help and support you, even if you are not sure what you want to do or how you feel about your experiences. They will work with you in your time and help you to make the right decisions.
We know we have a workforce that is committed to delivering the highest standards of care and we remain proud of the way you care for our patients, services users, carers and communities.