Introduction from Damian Green, Chair, Social Care Foundation

For senior managers and executives among care providers, knowing that they are providing a high-quality service is a key driver. A bad CQC report can be a disaster, so having the right early warning signs of something going wrong is vital. One contribution to this is honesty from front-line staff, and confidence to come forward if there is a problem. Here are some important insights from the company “Say so”.

The view from “Say So”

After conducting reviews into 125 ‘serious care failures’ that revealed in 65% of the cases staff in care homes had knowledge of underperformance, poor quality care and even misconduct in the period leading to allegations of abuse or neglect of vulnerable people, Shaun Keep and Paul Adams decided to do something about it.

They found that care staff generally had a significant fear of speaking up – losing their job/career, being sidelined, labelled a troublemaker and even being bullied by colleagues were found to be the core reasons for not reporting when things are going wrong. The common speak up or whistleblowing policies adopted by most care providers and happily ‘signed off’ by CQC just didn’t perform – speaking direct to their employer was a risk staff were unwilling to take.

Shaun and Paul had spotted a gap in information, a gap in service, a gap in need to be filled. The benefits in doing so would be obvious. Fewer serious care failures means more vulnerable people kept safe, which in turn means better protected care businesses and therefore jobs protected and financial savings. All stakeholders from business owners and shareholders through to care staff and service users are better protected – it would be a win, win, win win.

Say So is an independent Speak Up service created by these two safeguarding professionals who are dedicated to keeping vulnerable people safe.

From their start up days in 2017 they have worked hard to become a leading provider in the social care and emergency services sector and due to their unique approach to building trust and confidence are growing in all directions. Being independent from employers, providing a two-way comms channel (even with anonymous concern raisers), always providing feedback and most importantly visiting workplaces to talk to the staff means they are building that trust and confidence that is getting results. The information Say So receives about risks and concerns is provided exclusively to the host organisation Nothing goes external and this is something many care providers find attractive as it is ‘best of both worlds’ – an attractive independent service contracted to keep business sensitive detail secure.

Why is Speak up important to businesses? So much risk information remains unknown to senior leadership teams because they do not afford their staff a safe and trusted route to raise risks or other workplace concerns.

Say So has now proven concept and fills the information gap enabling its member organisations to turn ‘silence into safety’, reduce risks, identify issues early and avoid costly failures. All it takes is mindset change at leadership level and with many examples of positive outcomes Say So is gaining traction.

Shaun and Paul are willing to tell their story of how they are making a difference to businesses and people’s lives. All it takes is mindset change at leadership level and ‘buy in’ to Say So principles. They are ready to help any business.

Notes

Say So currently has 24 organisations as members with circa 15000 employees able to safely raise their concerns.

Say So is currently working in social care, healthcare, emergency services (Fire/Police) and hospitality sectors.

Since inception we calculate (conservatively) that we have saved our member organisations a total sum approaching £20m by identifying problems early and preventing the costs associated with worst case scenario had the problems continued unabated.

Say So Sherlock is gathering data of concern categories, locations, reasons for anonymity, outcomes at an ever-faster pace as our service grows.

This data is becoming so key to identifying patterns, emerging threats and enabling optimal risk management across organisations, sectors, regions and nationally.  When anonymised/de-identified this volumetric and statistical data can be shared to afford comparisons, benchmarking and risk alerts meaning that member organisations benefit even more as a collaborative group. This is something rarely found in business.

Website: www.say-so.co.uk
contact: info@say-so.co.uk