LHCH Ranked Top for Speaking Up

The National Guardian’s Office has launched a new Freedom to Speak Up Index – a benchmarking tool that enables trusts to understand the importance of fostering a positive speaking up culture.  

Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (LHCH), recently rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission for a second time, is delighted that it has been ranked the top performing acute specialist trust in the country.

The new Index aims to measure the Freedom to Speak Up cultures within trusts and has been developed in collaboration between the National Guardian’s Office and NHS England, based on findings taken from a subset of questions within the NHS Staff Survey.

Dr Henrietta Hughes, National Guardian, said: “A healthy Freedom to Speak Up culture is a reliable indicator of a high performing organisation.

“This was borne out in the results of the survey of Freedom to Speak Up Guardians that my team carried out last year where there was an apparent correlation between CQC rating, and the perceptions of Guardians about the Freedom to Speak Up culture in their organisations.”

Lucy Lavan, Executive Lead for Freedom to Speak Up at LHCH, said: “We are delighted that the new Freedom to Speak Up Index recognises the focus we have had in recent years to embed a culture of openness, honesty and transparency with our patients, families, as well as our staff.

“We believe that speaking up is vital because it helps us to keep improving services for all patients and the working environment for our staff.”