NHS Highland's response to MSP's call for debate on bullying

NHS Highland has expressed its disappointment over yesterday's demands for a debate into the Sturrock Report on bullying and harassment cases.

As the Strathy reported, the First Minister was challenged by Highland MSP Edward Mountain to keep the Scottish Government’s ‘twice-made promise’ to debate the findings of John Sturrock QC’s report into bullying within NHS Highland.

The demand came as he highlighted new figures showing there had been a near 50% increase in the number of bullying cases nationally in the NHS over the last five years, while in NHS Highland cases rose from 5 in 2017-18 to 40 in 2020/21, before dropping slightly to 35 in 2021/22.

Today, Fiona Hogg, director of people and culture at NHS Highland, said the board was disappointed to read the statements about bullying and harassment cases as presented in the press.

"It is regretful that the numbers do not have any context behind them and so do not set out the current situation for NHS Highland accurately," she said.

"We are concerned as to how this affects colleagues across the organisation and on the confidence of our patients and communities, as we seek to recover from the impact of the pandemic.

"It is really important to emphasise that we will continue to be clear in our zero tolerance of bullying and harassment in the workplace and that we have and will continue to encourage people to speak up and report any experiences they have where they believe this has occurred.

"We have many channels through which concerns can be raised confidentially now.

"It is important to note that we have been active in encouraging people to come forward for the past three years since the Sturrock Report findings were shared. So we would absolutely expect an increase from 2017 numbers.

"We do, however, operate a large organisation whose key asset is the 10,500 plus colleagues who work for us. This is a people-based organisation and as such relational issues can and will likely continue to emerge."

The director believed the route to reporting to be of the utmost importance: "And then how this is then responded to, with early resolution and improved relations as key makers of success, with the option of full investigation always there where this is necessary."

The figures provided reflected the number of people who raised concerns that they experienced with relationships and behaviour at work, under the Once for Scotland Bullying and Harassment policy, over a 12-month period, she pointed out.

"From April 2021 to March 2022, 35 individual raised concerns through this route, a statistic which NHS Highland has previously shared, as part of demonstrating the effect of our long term work on creating a culture where colleagues can speak up and have issues addressed.

"Whilst 35 cases were reported in 2021/22, 30 of these were initially addressed using Early Resolution processes, another significant step forward which reduces the need for people to face adversarial processes to resolve their differences. 14 cases were resolved at this stage, needing no further action."

Ten cases are still working through early resolution.

"Of the 11 cases which went to investigation, five have concluded and two of these are proceeding to a conduct hearing, the others led to no outcome or learning outcomes only."

The remaining six are still in the investigation process.

Ms Hogg continued: "We provided figures setting out a comparison over cases raised which shows that 35 cases were raised in 2021/2, which is a reduction of five from the 40 cases were raised in 2020/21, and 26 cases in 2019/20, with only 16 raised in 2018/19 and 5 in 2017/8.

"Given that the Whistleblowing that led to the Sturrock Review took place in 2018, it is likely that low levels of reporting in that period were driven by cases not being reported and progressed, rather than by there not being any issues present.

"We take confidence that increasing numbers of people are reporting concerns and welcome colleagues increased trust in our processes, which has been robustly addressed by NHS Highland since 2019, through investing significantly in our culture transformation work and introducing Scotland’s first Independent Speak Up Guardian service and other ways of encouraging colleague to raise concerns and have them addressed."

The director recognised there was still "much work to do," especially with the increased pressure all boards are experiencing with unprecedented demand for services, challenges with recruitment and retention, and the impact of the pandemic on a workforce which had been so resilient over the last two years.

"We have been publicly reporting on our Culture programme and our unique and bespoke Healing Process at every Board meeting since July 2019 and have a further meeting this month dedicated to this priority for the board.

"We will update on progress with the recommendations of the Independent Review Panel of the Healing Process and their final reports and to outline the further work that will be taking place over the coming years, as an integral part of our Together We Care five year strategic plan."

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