Posted on: 25 September 2023
A letter to staff from Rob Webster CBE, CEO for NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and CEO Lead for West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership; Cathy Elliott, Chair of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Kate Sims, Director of People for NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
We have been considering our response to the recent research into the extent of sexual misconduct within surgery in the UK NHS workforce in the last five years. Although this research focuses on the surgical workforce, we know that this behaviour affects other staff groups too.
Our immediate action was to work with the medical directors in our six acute trusts (WYAAT). They have written a personal open letter to their colleagues offering their support as identified leaders who pledge to listen to any concerns raised. We are now writing to set out next steps across the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, in support of our Integrated Care System.
The research and reports make for difficult reading. They also present clear evidence of why we must act here in West Yorkshire.
We are committed to ensuring that our West Yorkshire health and care system is a place in which sexual misconduct, violence, harassment or indeed abuse of any kind is not tolerated.
This is a priority for us and we are asking our partner organisations to sign up to the new NHS Sexual Safety Charter that commits all of us to taking and enforcing a zero-tolerance approach to unwanted, inappropriate and/or harmful sexual behaviours within the workplace. We want all our health and care workplaces to be safe spaces. This was discussed at the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board meeting on Tuesday 19 September 2023, as part of a verbal update.
We are also taking active steps to share good practice to prevent sexual harassment and sexual assault from happening across our Partnership. This includes ensuring there are safe spaces for people to share their experiences, which may need to be outside of their organisation, and to consider how we support leaders to address what needs to happen next.
If you want to report an incidence or pattern of sexual misconduct, we urge you to contact your line manager or local Freedom to Speak Up Guardian. Their contact details are listed on your workplace intranet. The West Yorkshire ICB Freedom To Speak Up Guardian is Kate Sims kate.
- Freedom to Speak Up www.
england.nhs.uk/ ourwork/ freedom-to-speak-up - Yorkshire and Humber Deanery www.
yorksandhumberdeanery.nhs.uk - GMC www.
gmc-uk.org/ ethical-guidance/ ethical-hub/ speaking-up - BMA Raising a concern: guide for doctors (bma.org.uk)
Additional support
We know that some people will have been affected in West Yorkshire. If you have experienced sexual misconduct in the workplace, no matter how long ago, there is additional help available. Our Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub is free for everyone who works in health and care in West Yorkshire, including volunteers. The service is completely independent and confidential – Hub staff will not share anything that you disclose to them with anyone else in any organisation without your permission. You can call the Hub’s message-taking service on 0800 183 1488 or self-refer for therapy here.
If you work for the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, you can also contact the organisation’s Employee Assistance Programme or Occupational Health department. Alternatively, NHS sexual assault referral centres (SARCs) offer medical, practical and emotional support to anyone who has been raped, sexually assaulted or abused.
To find your nearest SARC, visit www.