Estelle Myers – our new freedom to speak up guardian lead

Freedom to speak up (FTSU) guardians’ role is to support the Trust to continually build a healthy culture where all staff feel safe and confident to raise concerns at work. They also are able to provide confidential advice and support to staff in how to raise their concerns about patient/service user safety and/or the way their concerns were handled. In our Trust we have a network of guardians, Estelle Myers is taking up the position of lead guardian full-time from 1 December 2020.

“As  I take up my new post as FTSUG lead I am looking forward to the new challenges the role will bring. Speaking up is about anything that gets in the way of providing good care. When things go wrong, we need to make sure that lessons are learnt and things are improved.

“If we think something might go wrong, it’s important that we all feel able to speak up so that potential harm is prevented. Even when things are good, but could be even better, we should feel able to say something and should expect that our suggestion is listened to and used as an opportunity for improvement. Speaking up is about all of these things.

“As part of the role I attend welcome events to help to introduce the role to new starters within the trust, they are our fresh eyes and can help see where things can be improved. The role involves working across the trust meeting staff and helping to find a way to resolve their issue. It is about creating links within the organisation and helping to create a just culture where anyone can speak up about anything without fear of suffering a detriment. When things go wrong it is about looking at what systems can be improved.

“If we all start from a position of kindness and compassion this helps us to be our best. As always the FTSU team are here to listen to your concerns and help to find a solution”

Our Freedom To Speak Up guardians 

Our FTSU guardians are our staff Governors on the Members Council and representatives from our staff network. We have discussed with them how this role can help to encourage staff to feel confident to raise concerns. They are:

• Estelle Myers
• Adrian Deakin
• Paul Brown
• Debbie Teale

Contact a guardian:

Get in touch by calling 07795 367197. If we can’t answer you can leave us a message. Our voicemail isn’t monitored 24/7 but we will get back to you as soon as possible.

You can contact the guardians via the confidential email address below. Emails will only be seen by them. You can contact the guardians via the confidential email address below. Emails will only be seen by them.

Email us guardian@swyt.nhs.uk​​

You can write to us (anonymously if you need to) to outline your concerns at the following address:

FTSU Guardians

Block 7

Fieldhead Hospital

Ouchthorpe Lane

Wakefield

WF1 3SP