Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department uses the expertise of big companies that have implemented a successful grievance and anti-bullying mechanism for sharing best practice in that field with hospitals.

The Department commissioned the national Social Partnership Forum (SPF) to lead the Call to Action, a campaign to tackle bullying in the National Health Service. During the development of the Call to Action the Department and the SPF liaised with other sectors for examples of good practice. This included BT and Royal Mail from the private sector and Durham, Cardiff and Newcastle universities.

The SPF also identified a wide range of expertise in tackling bullying across the NHS and has used these case studies to form the basis for sharing best practice with hospitals and other NHS organisations.

The information gained in the development process ensured that the SPF’s Call to Action is based on compelling evidence and front line experiences, establishing evidence-based effective interventions at individual, organisational and system level.