The National Guardian have published their annual freedom to speak up index report. Our briefing summarises the report’s key findings and conclusions.

Key points from our briefing are also detailed below:

• The National Guardian’s Office (NGO) has published a report on a new freedom to speak up (FTSU) index, which monitors ‘speaking up culture’ in the NHS based on four questions from the annual NHS staff survey.

• The purpose of the index is to enable trusts to see at a glance how their FTSU culture compares with others, promote the sharing of good practice, and enable trusts that are struggling to ‘buddy up’ with those that have higher scores. 

• Nationally, the median FTSU index score has improved since 2015, and this pattern is reflected for all trust types.  The report finds that 180 trusts (82%) have made it easier for staff to speak out since 2015. There was a decrease in the index score over the same period in 40 trusts.

• The report includes case studies from the best performing trusts of each type and those that have made the most significant improvement. These case studies detail the changes that trusts have made to engage with their workforce and develop a positive speaking up culture and the impact that this has made.