DHU’s Freedom to Speak Up programme has new Board level support.
Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU) is an essential part of ensuring DHU colleagues are supported in raising a concern about patient care, services or the working environment if the usual channels of reporting aren’t available.
DHU currently has 10 FTSU Guardians and 16 FTSU Champions, a relatively new role that supports our colleagues in raising a concern, promote awareness of the programme and direct people to their nearest Guardian.
And after stepping down from her position as Non-Executive Director for FTSU, Sue Glew replaces Gillian Adams to ensure there is Board level support for our Guardians and Champions to help strengthen and take forward DHU’s commitment to creating and maintaining an open, honest and inclusive culture.
"Critical part of a safe, trusted and listening organisation"
Sue told us: "After joining DHU in April, I am really pleased to be taking over as the Non-Exec Director for Freedom to Speak Up. It’s a very familiar concept to me, having been a FTSU Board lead for several years in previous roles and my intention is to be a champion and advocate.
“I believe it's a critical part of a safe, trusted and listening organisation and can already see that DHU has made excellent progress in the last few years. There’s always more that we can do to learn and improve to ensure every single colleague across DHU has the confidence to speak up, knows how and when to do so, feels safe to raise a concern, has faith in the process and understands the right channels.
“Over the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to meeting our guardians and champions to hear first-hand about how FTSU works with us at DHU and how together we can build on all the good work that has already been done."
Following the expansion of the number of Guardians from two to ten last October and the introduction of our FTSU Champions, this role and commitment underlines DHU’s CARE values, vision (“With you and for you in everything we do”) and mission to support our people to deliver compassionate, high quality patient care.