Health and Social Care - Early Engagement - Freedom to Speak Up Helpline

Early engagement notice for the development of a 'Freedom to Speak Up' Helpline service. This notice is intended to provide interested organisations with the opportunity to gain an understanding of a potential Department of Health (DH) requirement. The DH may ultimately seek tenders for the provision of a service that provides guidance and signposting support to people who may wish to speak up about issues that may or do affect patient safety or quality of care. The objective of the requirement would be to help ensure that staff working in health and social care feel empowered to raise concerns and that employers have access to guidance to help deal with those concerns effectively to improve patient or resident safety. The 'Freedom to Speak Up Helpline' should be a mechanism that is independent from formal employment chains. - The procurement requirement would be for the provision of unbiased, independent, confidential free guidance for health and social care staff. Currently this is provided via a telephone helpline and an email service. - The service currently gives general guidance and signposts people that may wish to speak up to resources that may help them. It also provides support to employers. - The service would not give specific advice on individual cases or act on individual concerns. - The successful organisation would also be responsible for maintaining a website related to the helpline, and potentially for other associated services. It will be a fundamental part of the requirement that the appointed organisation can demonstrate independence and impartiality in relation to providers of health care, social care, the Department of Health and the National Health Service. It is also a requirement that the supplier seeks to constantly improve its service by acting on feedback from people that use the service. In addition, because the law around whistleblowing and what constitutes a 'protected disclosure' is complex, the requirement would be that staff providing the service have access to appropriate and current legal guidance in this subject area. A supplier engagement day will be held with interested organisations. Details of how to attend the day are provided in the section 5. additional text section.