Staff working at NHS trust report racism and bullying

The Freedom to Speak Up report for Q4 in the 2023/2024 period saw 11 cases of bullying and/or harassment as well as 15 cases of inappropriate behaviours or attitudes reported by staff working within the North Cumbria Integrated Care trust (NCIC).

According to the report, the main concerns within these incidents were focused on racism and 'management's inability to tackle poor behaviour.'

Examples of poor behaviour included 'individuals being rude to colleagues in front of others, individuals with a disregard for the team and their workload, or permitting discriminative behaviours and/or attitudes.'

Jason Cram, deputy chief nurse and co-chair of the trust's equality, diversity and inclusion committee, said: "We do not accept that any of our staff members should be subject to any form of abuse or discrimination at work, within or outside of work.

"What we try to do from our point of view is we actively encourage our staff to speak up, report issues and raise their concerns."

12 per cent of NCIC's workforce is made up of black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) people which is high for a region where BAME staff typically make up about two per cent of the workforce.

International nurses spoke up about their experiences of racism which included claims of reduced opportunities for promotion due to a perceived lack of experience as well as bullying and harassment.

The report added that chief nurse Jill Foster addressed nursing staff to make it clear that 'racism is not tolerated' and she has encouraged work within the trust to address racism after a staff member shared concerns about this.

Mr Cram said: "We know that colleagues with protected characteristics report that they are more likely to be discriminated against.

"Many of our international staff have moved their lives and their families to work in north Cumbria to be integrated within our organisation.

"We couldn't deliver services if we didn't have internationally trained staff, whether that's nurses, medics, our allied health professional teams, either, or other staff within the organisation."

One of the images to be used in an internal campaign tackling bullying and harassment within the NCIC. (Image: North Cumbria Integrated Care)

Staff members can report issues in a number of different ways which includes raising it with their line manager, submitting an incident report, or by sharing it through the Freedom to Speak Up scheme.

Where these issues are raised, NCIC, and Ms Foster, are very clear in taking a "very hard line" to resolve them.

Mr Cram added: "It will not be tolerated within this organisation. So if there are any concerns that are raised, it's instantly tackled within the areas where it's raised."

Some of the ways in which the trust is seeking to address concerns of racism includes working with Anti-Racist Cumbria, establishing links with Cumbria Police for instances of hate crimes, and holding cultural awareness and allyship training.

A lot of the work being done looks at encouraging staff members to look at things from a new perspective and if they're not sure how to handle a situation, to feel comfortable enough to ask for advice from somebody who does.

More than 1,000 members of staff have taken part in psychological safety training which shows them how to tackle poor and harmful behaviour when it happens and how this behaviour can impact on others.

Mr Cram said: "You can't change who you are but you can change how you view things, you can change your optics and you can change how you look at it to then change your perspective about how it might be for somebody else to be in that position."

The next step for NCIC is launching an internal campaign which includes real-life examples of what staff members have experienced from their colleagues.

It aims to show how poor behaviour can affect people.