Whistleblowing: Guidance for providers who are registered with CQC

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Introduction This guidance is for all providers of health and adult social care who are registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. It tells you: • What whistleblowing is. • Why you should have a whistleblowing policy. • What safeguards the law provides for employers. • The protection the law gives to workers who raise concerns. • The benefits of encouraging workers to raise concerns. • What we will do when we receive information from a whistleblower. Overview 1 What is whistleblowing? Whistleblowing is the term used when: • Someone directly employed by a registered provider, or someone providing a service for the provider, reports concerns where there is: and o harm, or the risk of harm, to people, or o possible criminal activity • The management have not dealt with those concerns by discussing them or by using the employer’s own whistleblowing policy, or • Where the worker does not feel confident that the management will deal with those concerns properly and contacts a ‘prescribed body’, such as a regulator instead. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA) gives protection to a worker who reports concerns about where they work if that worker genuinely believes their concerns are true. PoC 100495 2.00 Whistleblowing: Guidance for providers who are registered with the Care Quality Commission 2
2 Whistleblowing policies 3 Is whistleblowing the same as making a complaint? No. Whistleblowing refers only to situations where a worker raises concerns about where they work, or used to work. People who use services, their relatives or representatives, or others can make complaints about a service using the service's complaints procedure. This is not whistleblowing. (For information on how people can complain about a service and how we deal with any that are made to us, please see www.cqc.org.uk/contactus and select the ‘Make a complaint’ tab. This information also includes guidance on how to complain about CQC.) Why should my organisation have a whistleblowing policy and procedure? A good service provider will create an atmosphere where workers feel able to report concerns and will thoroughly investigate and address such concerns within the service. A good whistleblowing policy is an important tool in creating this atmosphere. Having an open culture will help staff to be more confident about raising concerns. Workers are more likely to raise concerns at an early stage if your policy and procedures are clear and easy to use. It is also easier for you to deal with concerns at an early stage. Your policy and procedure should make it clear to workers that they can go outside their normal line management or accountability arrangements to raise concerns. They should also make it clear to other people who provide services to you that they too can raise concerns and have the protection of PIDA. Your policy and advice to workers should also make it clear that disclosures, whether internal or external, that are malicious or knowingly untrue are not protected under PIDA. If you do not have a whistleblowing policy, staff may be less confident about reporting concerns promptly. This could mean that: PoC 100495 2.00 Whistleblowing: Guidance for providers who are registered with the Care Quality Commission 3
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Whistleblowing: Guidance for providers who are registered with CQC

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