As the government launches a national social care whistleblowing helpline, Roger Kline argues that it needs to do much more to ensure social care staff can safely raise concerns about problems at work.
The repeated scandals in health and social care demonstrate the need for staff to be able to raise concerns effectively without fear of victimisation. So, on the face of it, the
launch of the new health and social care whistleblowing helpline ought to be welcomed.
Although launched with a flurry of publicity by an excited Andrew Lansley, this may not be the great step forward he claims it will be. Whistleblowing helplines can be very useful as the one previously run for the NHS alone showed.
In the wake of repeated scandals in the care of the elderly and ahead of the publication of the report of the
public inquiry into the Mid-Staffordshire Hospital catastrophe, Lansley will need to demonstrate that this expanded helpline is just one part of a larger sustained effort to change the culture of both health and social care.
The effort needs to start by acknowledging the scale of the problem. Many staff still do not raise concerns because of a fear of the consequences of doing so. Despite whistleblowing policies galore, the history of social care whistleblowers is largely one of their victimisation. If social worker
Nevres Kemal had been listened to (instead of being harassed out of her job) in Haringey then Baby Peter's death might have been prevented. Liz Davies (Islington care homes),
Susan Machin (social worker at Ashworth secure hospital), Deborah Rees (Swindon Council)
Simon Bellwood (Jersey) - a roll call of honour for the profession but a shameful indictment of the risks involved in some, possibly many, employers.
Public Concern at Work, the independent whistle-blowing experts, showed nearly two years ago the "
systemic deficiencies that prevent care workers from speaking up effectively to protect vulnerable adults". They found that in half of all cases where other staff knew about a risk, they were too scared to speak up while 40% of whistleblowers in social care said their concerns were initially dismissed by managers.
General Social Care Council research in 2009 showed that almost half of frontline social workers who had attempted to blow the whistle about poor practice by colleagues or workplace problems said their employer failed to address their concerns. Yet all social workers are required by their
code of practice to: use "established processes and procedures to challenge and report dangerous, abusive, discriminatory or exploitative behaviour and practice"; to bring "to the attention of your employer or the appropriate authority resource or operational difficulties that might get in the way of the delivery of safe care"; and to "[inform] your employer or an appropriate authority where the practice of colleagues may be unsafe or adversely affecting standards of care".
If Lansley and his cabinet colleagues are serious about changing the culture in social work, they could start by ensuring every social care employer implements the
Social Work Reform Board employment standards. They could regulate social care assistants, who provide much frontline care, and ensure they are fairly managed and treated. They could strengthen the
Public Interest Disclosure Act, which is supposed to protect whistle-blowers and ensure that employers who victimise whistleblowers are held to account. They could stop the haemorrhaging of resources which makes whistleblowing both more necessary and more dangerous for staff.
Above all we need to move to a presumption that staff are expected to, and supported to, raise concerns without there ever being a need to whistleblow. Good employers welcome and promote whistleblowers instead of shooting the messenger.
The new helpline is welcome if it assists in that work, is sufficiently resourced and has the right expertise. Time will tell.
Roger Kline is social care spokesperson for Aspect, the children's services union, and has written extensively on whistleblowing
The College of Social Work was launched last week and there are probably lots of social workers out there pondering whether to join it.
