Meet the Team
Jane has been the Staff Guardian at the Trust since May 2017. She has over 22 years service within the organisation and has been instrumental in facilitating cultural change winning an HSJ award for 'Creating a supportive staff culture' along with her wellbeing colleagues. She is extremely passionate about Freedom to Speak Up and giving the staff the opportunity to raise concerns and embed this culture throughout the whole organisation. Since her appointment, over 650 staff have approached Jane to raise concerns and have had their concerns listened to and addressed and have been thanked for doing so.
Nicola has been the Deputy Staff Guardian within the Trust since August 2019. Nicola has over 12 years’ experience of working in the NHS in a variety of roles and has dealt with over 100 cases to date. She has a true passion for Freedom to Speak up and loves to see how speaking up empowers staff and facilitates real change. Nicola is honoured to have a role that protects our staff and the safety and care of our patients.
What is Freedom to Speak Up?
In 2015, Sir Robert Francis published the Freedom to Speak Up review which set out advice and guidance on how to deal with concerns raised by staff including recommending that all NHS organisations needed a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian who remain an independent and impartial source of advice to staff.
Therefore East Lancashire Hospitals set up the Staff Guardian Service and this has since grown into a team compromising of a Staff Guardian, a Deputy Staff Guardian and 10 Freedom to Speak Up Champions who all encourage and support staff to speak up. Concerns are dealt with openly, professionally and confidentially ensuring any lessons are learnt by the Trust. They ensure that safety is not compromised; the case is handled appropriately, investigated promptly and issues addressed and that there are no repercussions to the person who raised it.
At East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, we want to ensure that we deliver Safe, Personal and Effective care and we encourage all our staff to raise concerns or issues at work, as shown by our ‘See Something, Say Something’ campaign widely visible throughout the Trust.
We are very proud that ELHT has achieved 81% in the National FTSU Index, which gives an indication of how free staff feel to speak up, which is available to view here. However, we are always striving to improve on this and work towards promoting the service and an open and transparent culture who welcomes hearing from its staff.
Our Executive Director with responsibility for freedom to speak up is - Kevin Moynes, Executive Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development.
Our Non-Executive Director with responsibility for freedom to speak up is - Naseem Malik, Non-Executive Director.
For more information please contact staffguardianoffice@elht.nhs.uk