Employers urged to open up

Social care organisations should enable staff to raise concerns
about practice in an open way, Public Concern at Work deputy
director Anna Myers has urged.

Myers told delegates that employers should create a working culture
which encouraged their staff to speak out honestly.

“There is a career to be made from identifying problems and solving
them, and people who do this get promoted,” she said. “This is only
cast as whistle-blowing when the point raised is not
welcome.”

Myers said that although employers should respect workers’
confidentiality staff should be encouraged to come forward; not to
remain anonymous.

“If issues are raised anonymously staff cannot be protected in the
workplace because employers don’t know who they are and can’t ask
them for further detail,” she said.

Freedom to Care national co-ordinator Geoffrey Hunt told delegates
that he had blown the whistle on a previous employer 11 years ago
and had “paid the price” for doing so.

He said: “You do have a responsibility of leadership. You have to
understand how to change an organisation you are in in a
non-confrontational manner.”