Whistleblowing Policy
Introduction
Nature Base believes in openness and honesty. We are committed to the highest standards of accountability; In line with our core values; we expect staff and others that we deal with who have serious concerns about any aspects of our work, to come forward and voice those concerns. You may feel worried about raising a concern, and we understand this. In accordance with our values; we are committed to creating and upholding an open and honest culture. We will look into your concern and prioritise providing you with access to the support you need while this is happening.
The purpose and aims of this policy are to:
· remind all employees and volunteers of their duty to report serious concerns
· ensure that all of our employees and volunteers feel confident about raising serious concerns at an early stage
· provide clear guidance to employees and volunteers about how to raise a serious concern and how the process will operate
· reassure employees and volunteers that if they raise concerns in the public interest and reasonably believe them to be true, we will not tolerate any reprisal against them and will treat such reprisal as a disciplinary matter
· ensure that employees who raise concerns are provided with feedback on any actions taken and are aware of the options available to them if they are dissatisfied with the response.
When does this policy apply?
Not all concerns are whistleblowing concerns; therefore it is important to read this policy in order to understand whether your concern should be dealt with under this policy.
If your concern is a personal concern, it may be better dealt with using one of our other internal processes. The policies that may be relevant are:
· Grievance Procedure
· Bullying and harassment
· Inclusion and Equality
If your concern cannot be resolved through our internal processes and your concern is in the public interest, this policy may apply
What is Whistleblowing?
Whistleblowing is where an employee raises a concern about an activity or inactivity within the organisation that has a public interest aspect to it. The ‘public interest’ relates to the welfare or well-being of the general public and not to an individual or group.
Sharing a concern with us can be the first step in helping the organisation identify problems and improve our practices.
If in the public interest to disclose, the following are examples of what may constitute a concern:
· fraud, in or by the organisation
· financial irregularity
· offering, taking or soliciting bribes
· malpractice
· damage to the environment
· health and safety risks, including risks to the public as well as employees
· gross waste or mismanagement of funds
· misuse or abuse of authority
· neglect of people in our/their care
· attempts to conceal information relating to any of the above.
(Please note that this list is not exhaustive)
You must reasonably believe that your concern is true and that raising it is in the public interest.
Whistleblowing does not apply to personal grievances concerning an individual’s terms and conditions of employment, or other aspects of the working relationship, complaints of bulling or harassment or disciplinary matters. These complaints are personal, relating to your own employment and do not have a public interest element, therefore would not fall within this policy. They will be dealt with under existing policies and procedures such as Bullying and harassment, Disciplinary or Grievance policies.
All employees and volunteers may raise a concern under this policy. This includes permanent and temporary employees.
Staff and Volunteer protection
The decision to report a concern can be a difficult one to make. Provided that you are acting honestly, you will be doing a duty to the organisation and to the wider public and it will not matter if you are mistaken or if there is an innocent explanation for your concern.
Nature Base will not tolerate any harassment or victimisation (including informal pressures) nor will we tolerate any attempt to bully you into not raising a concern. Any such behaviour is a breach of our values as an organisation and we will take appropriate action to protect you.
We are committed to ensuring that you feel fully supported at all stages of this process. You can seek help and support from our Lead Practitioner and the local Safeguarding Partnership Board.
We hope that you will feel comfortable raising your concern, but we appreciate that you may want to raise it confidentially, therefore all concerns raised will be treated in confidence, which means they will only be disclosed when necessary.
Every effort will be made not to reveal your identity, however, at the appropriate time you may be asked to come forward as a witness because a statement may be required as part of evidence.
You can choose to raise your concern anonymously, without giving your name; however, anonymous disclosures are generally more difficult to investigate, as we will not be able to contact you should we need further information.
Once a complaint has been made you should not discuss the concern with any of the subjects of your complaint. You must not attempt to conduct any interviews or investigations of your own.
You must not discuss your concerns with any third parties, such as the press, however you may discuss your concern with e.g. trade union representatives, or a workplace colleague should you need to.
Anyone who has an identified role within this policy, for example a Designated Person or a Commissioning Manager should ensure confidentiality and discretion and safeguard the identity of the ‘whistleblower’ should they wish to remain anonymous.
The earlier you raise your concern, the easier it is to take action. You should normally raise concerns formally or informally with our Nature Base Lead Practitioner as the Designated person.
Receiving Concerns
If you receive a concern in person or over the telephone, listen to the employee or volunteer carefully and allow them to explain their concern fully. Take a note of any meeting you attend in order that you can refer back to what was said and by whom. Ensure that you have a full understanding of the concern, ask questions and repeat back what you have heard to provide the employee with an opportunity to clarify anything you may have misunderstood. You should ask the employee to submit a report of their concern.
If you feel they need help or support, you can offer help by doing this together with them. Please note: if you do offer to help, you should not influence their submission at all.
The employee is likely to require support at this early stage. You should keep in contact with them to ensure that they are coping well, offer to speak with them privately should they need and also provide them with the details of the support we can offer.
How Nature Base will respond
Concerns should be raised using the methods set out within this policy. This ensures there is a uniform and consistent log of all whistleblowing concerns.
If you need support to do this, we can offer to help you with this. We need to make sure that we do not influence your submission, it must be in your own words.
Please be ready to explain as fully as you can the information and circumstances that gave rise to your concern.
You are not expected to prove beyond reasonable doubt the truth of the allegation, but you should be able to demonstrate that there are reasonable grounds for your concern.
If you have any personal interest in the subject matter of your concern, then you must raise this at this stage.
We are committed to listening to employees and volunteers, learning lessons, and improving the services we provide to the public. Whoever you choose to raise your concern to, your concern will be dealt with the in same way.
Concerns will be managed by our Lead Practitioner who will have overarching responsibility for your concern. This Designated Person has specific responsibility for ensuring that concerns raised are addressed appropriately.
Dependent on the nature of the concern it may no longer be appropriate to remain as an internal process, it may be necessary to refer to external agencies, such as; the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) or become the subject of an independent enquiry. The assigned Designated Person has responsibility for making this referral.
If it is appropriate to remain as an internal process, the Designated Person will appoint a ‘Commissioning Manager’ to assist in the process. They may be ‘Third party’ to the organisation due to the small size of Nature Base as an organisation. The Designated Person will receive and follow advice from The Safeguarding Partnership Board and other signposted organisations where appropriate.
The Commissioning Manager will write to you within two working days to confirm that they have received your concern, unless the concern has been raised anonymously The Commissioning Manager will consider the content of your concern and will decide how best to proceed. If further information is required, you may be invited to a meeting in order to gather as much information as possible. You may be accompanied by a recognised trade union representative or workplace colleague/volunteer.
The Commissioning Manager will write to you within ten working days of your meeting in order to summarise your concern. You will be informed whether an investigation will be carried out and of the timescales within which we will aim to complete the investigation. If any of our proposed timescales change, we will keep you updated.
We may decide that your concern would be better looked at under another policy, for example our Bullying and Harassment policy. If so, we will discuss this with you.
Where a concern relates to our Lead Practitioner then you should speak directly to the Local Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub, if you are unsure of how to proceed at any stage; you can also contact the Local Safeguarding Board for advice.
Action Points
Designated Person:
As soon as you receive a concern, whether verbally or in writing, you should log the details of the call.
Appointed Commissioning Manager:
You will receive the details of a concern from a Designated Person. You must write to the employee/volunteer within two working days of receiving their concern confirming that you are the Commissioning Manager and why you have been asked to represent this role. Consider the information that has been provided and if you feel that you need further information, invite the employee/volunteer to a meeting in order to provide this. Confirm where the employee/volunteer meeting will be held, highlighting that this can be changed as a venue if they have any objection to the designated place. Confirm that they may be accompanied by a recognised trade union representative or workplace/volunteer colleague. Take notes during this meeting in order to ensure that you have a full record of the concern.
You should use the information you have gathered in order to assess whether an investigation should be carried out. If you feel an investigation is required, confirm this with the Designated Person.
Following the meeting, you should write to the employee within ten working days to confirm:
· a summary of the concern
· whether an investigation is to be carried out
· proposed timescales for the investigation (discuss this with the Lead Practitioner)
· whether the concern may be better dealt with under a different policy (ie. where the concern is not a whistleblowing concern - see the definition set out earlier in this policy.
If the concern relates to the Designated Person and you have not already done so, then you should raise this concern to the Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and or speak to Jersey Designated Officer (details can be found on the Nature Base Safeguarding Policy ‘Flow chart’).
Investigation
In order to protect those who have been accused, initial enquiries will be made by the Commissioning Manager to decide whether an investigation is appropriate, and if so, what form it should take. Some concerns may be resolved by agreed action without the need for investigation. The overriding principle we will have in mind is the public interest.
When it is decided that an investigation is required, we will ensure that it is carried out following our Investigation Framework. This framework is used not only for concerns relating to Whistleblowing but also for issues related to other workplace concerns, for example disciplinary matters or grievances. The investigation will be objective and evidence-based and will produce a report that focuses on identifying and rectifying your concerns, as well as learning lessons to prevent issues reoccurring. Lessons will be shared with teams across the organisation, or more widely, as appropriate in the future. Investigators should be free from bias or judgement and independent from those involved.
The Commissioning Manager, with the support of Designated Person, will appoint investigator(s). These may be ‘Third party’ to the organisation due to the size of the organisation.
· There is a case to answer
· There is no case to answer
· The complaint was untrue or malicious.
Subject to any legal and personal information constraints, you will be informed of the outcome of any investigation.
If the concern is a potential criminal offence, then the Designated Person will seek further advise whether it is appropriate to proceed with an investigation. Care should be taken not to prejudice any criminal investigation.
Action Points
Commissioning manager:
Confirm to Designated person that an investigation is required. When you receive the investigation report, consider the contents and conclude the outcome.
Advise the employee/volunteer of the outcome, in writing. Inform Designated Person of the outcome.
You should ensure that any lessons that can be learned in order to prevent issues re-occurring are reported to the Designated Person.
The investigator(s) will report their findings to the Commissioning Manager, and wherever possible and appropriate (dependent on the nature of the investigation these outcomes may not be appropriate) who will conclude one of the following outcomes:
Person with overarching responsibility for the original concern in order that they can share these more widely within the organisation.
Recording Monitoring and Review
The outcomes of your concern will be recorded within the case reporting system at Nature Base, so that the organisation holds a complete record of all concerns raised. We will use this to identify similar behaviours or practices and areas for improvement across the organisation.
We will review the effectiveness of this policy and local process annually and changes will be made as appropriate.
Taking your concern further:
The aim of this policy is to provide you with an avenue within the our organisation to raise concerns and we hope that you will be satisfied with any action taken. If, after the internal procedure has been exhausted, you still feel that your concern has not been addressed, you may contact the Designated Person assigned to your concern.
The Designated Person will review your concern together with the investigation report and the decision of the Commissioning Manager. They will assess all of the information and reach a conclusion as to whether the outcome of the investigation was correct. They may seek further third party advice and support around this decision.
The decision of the Designated Person is final. You will receive confirmation of the decision in writing.
Action Points
Designated person:
Write to the employee to confirm the outcome of the appeal, update the case reporting system and inform the Commissioning Manager.
Untrue Allegations
If you make an allegation in good faith, but it is not confirmed by the investigation, no action will be taken against you. However, if during the investigation it is found that you made an allegation frivolously, maliciously or for personal gain, disciplinary action may be taken against you.
Everyone within the organisation should
Report serious concerns as soon as possible through the channels set out within this policy. This applies to all employees and volunteers regardless of seniority.
Commissioning Managers should:
· deal promptly and fairly with any concerns raised under this policy
· ensure that the employee’s concerns are appropriate for consideration under this policy. If they are not, the employee should be referred to the correct policy
· support the employee throughout the Whistleblowing process
· maintain confidentiality throughout any proceedings
· as far as possible, withhold the identity of the employee who has raised the concern, if the employee has requested confidentiality.
· keep the employee updated as to progress in investigating and resolving their concerns
· advise the employee that they have a right to bring a recognised trade union representative or workplace employee or volunteer colleague to any meetings under this policy
· implement any actions or recommendations arising from the investigation into the concern
· ensure that the employee who raised the concern suffers no detriment as a result of raising their concern.
Employees and Volunteers should
· raise concerns in confidence at the earliest possible moment
· never carry out their own investigation
· as far as the employee feels it is possible, assist with any investigation into their concern, including attending meetings, replying to requests for further information and providing signed statements as appropriate
· immediately pass any information to the investigator when requested
· follow the stages of the procedure in sequence
· always act honestly and in good faith when raising and pursuing concerns under this policy
· inform the investigator if you have any personal interest in the matter under investigation.
Withdrawal of the concern
Occasionally, individuals decide to withdraw their concern. Withdrawal of a concern must be done in writing to the person to whom the concern was initially raised. If we feel the circumstances warrant it, we reserve the right to continue to investigate any concern that has been withdrawn.
Action Points
Designated person:
If you receive a withdrawal of a concern, a decision should be made as to whether to continue to investigate the concern.
Links to Other Policies:
Other policies and documents which may be helpful when considering this policy are:
· Inclusion and Equality
· Bullying and Harassment
· Code of Conduct
· Grievance Procedure