Trust which runs Chesterfield’s Walton Hospital celebrates success in new report

The findings – published by the independent National Guardian’s Office for Freedom to Speak Up – place Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust eighth out of 229 NHS trusts nationally, and best in the Midlands, for the way it fosters a healthy open culture where people are listened to.

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Jackie Rawlings, the trust’s Freedom to Speak Up guardian, said: “This finding is very encouraging for us, knowing people feel comfortable to let us know when we can do things better.

“We have 4,300 staff and that’s a brilliant resource of eyes and ears to help us keep our services running as smoothly as possible and putting things right if we need to.”

Tracy Allen, the trust’s chief executive, added: “We are delighted to see this report.

"It is huge credit to everyone within the trust who has really taken the importance of this to heart, in creating an open culture and removing any barriers which might prevent someone feeling able to express their concerns.

"We are lucky to have Jackie in the lead on this for our trust and we’ll be working hard to improve our score even further next year.”

The findings, published in the Freedom to Speak Up Index Report 2020, used data from the national NHS Staff Survey.

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