Achieving good governance through Freedom To Speak Up 

Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDASH) set out to achieve improvement in risk identification and to establish enhanced patient safety pathways from a multi-provider perspective specifically linked with ICS, STP and PCN developments.  

The trust’s board of directors defined that taking this integrated approach was essential to meet the priorities initially in the 5 year forward view and more recently defined in the NHS long term plan.  

The Ttrust achieved this by: 

• Restructuring existing teams for cultural improvement  
• Dispersed leadership and introduced Freedom To Speak Up (FTSU) champion roles, from a diverse skill mix, seniority and geographical location enabling appropriate visual leadership. 

This approach and implementation of FTSU role has resulted in a number of benefits for patients, staff and also joint working, which include: 

• A 41.5% increase in early patient safety incident reporting 
• A 24% reduction in patient complaints, with an increase of 21% in the use of the Patient Advice and Liaison Service indicating earlier resolution is being sought
• Clear escalation systems have been developed  
• Reporting systems regularly reviewed to ensure continual service improvement  
• Sharing of good practices on FTSU with neighbouring Trust to making systematic improvements to patient care internally and outside organisational boundaries 
• Development of people has been provided in a cost effective manner encouraging partnership working. 

The Trust was awarded the HSJ FTSU Organisation of the Year Award in November 2019.