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In a week when yet another fire and rescue service is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, with principal officers sharing hateful messages about their own staff, it is timely to consider what makes an organisation a place where staff feel they can speak up without resorting to the media to be heard.
Despite the good intentions of culture reviews with lists of recommendations, poor behaviour still exists and, as we learned from our latest webinar, leaders must commit to change, model the behaviours they want to see and make speaking up business as usual.
David Crawley is from Crimestoppers and his organisation is providing reporting services to many fire and rescue services as well as police forces. He is a strong advocate for anonymous reporting as a tool that enables staff to share information. This can reduce concerns about reprisal, whether that’s a blocker on career progression or how someone will be treated in the workplace, that can inhibit reporting.
Other blockers to speaking up include ‘the power of the pension’ and ‘the barrier of deference.’ Both are capable of preventing senior officers from addressing concerns raised by staff as they may not wish to rock the boat so late in their careers. Conversely, where staff respect the rank of those at that level they may not have the confidence to challenge the status quo as a result.
The conversation in this webinar returned to leadership many times. “Leaders set the tone for the organisation,” says Suzanne. “They need the right training and support to create the reality of a speak up culture and not see it as an aspiration.” She says that from her discussions with senior fire service leaders in her capacity as independent chair of the Fire Standards Board, there is a commitment to developing leaders in this way.
The National Guardian’s Office speak up review of ambulance trusts was published in February 2023 and went on to influence the culture review of ambulance trusts published a year later. Suzanne chairs accountability and liaison board for the NGO and says that speaking up was not normalised in the ambulance service and the action plan that has come out of the 2024 review will see all staff being trained in speaking up. It’s a step change, she says. She also points out that ambulance leaders are now monitoring progress against the action plan and that the healthcare regulators will have an interest here too.
These points are reinforced from David who shares his fire and police experience.
“What works is when you have an approach that removes the barriers, provides dedicated points of investigation, includes communication channels that share information about what’s available and puts in place a meaningful feedback loop.”
He adds that the independence of the those receiving the information is important to gaining trust.
“Speaking up is a gift to an organisation, not a detriment.” Suzanne echoes the words of others who have spoken to her about the topic. “If leaders saw it like that, there would be a more positive view about speaking up.”
“There has been a shift and recognition of the need to do better. The move to a speak up culture is not achieved through one organisation on its own. It needs to be backed by the regulators. It’s a web of partnership.
“Leaders need to stop seeing speaking up as a problem, but be hopeful about it. Just publishing another review with more recommendations isn’t enough. Services know what they need to do, they just need to get on with it.”
Expanding on this point from Suzanne, David advised that leadership should be curious to understand what is happening in their own organisations. If they do that, they will find out what’s really good, but they will also find out what is not working and the problems that need to be addressed. David returns to the power of anonymity for reporting to support this.
By listening to employees, whether through a confidential reporting service is supported by anonymity or not, the point is clear: speaking up should be business as usual, but there’s a long way to go to achieve this ambition.
To hear more from Suzanne McCarthy and David Crawley, watch the Emergency Services Times webinar How to get to a place where speaking up is part of the culture of the emergency services on catch up.
