Campaign Against Unnecessary Suspensions and Exclusions in the NHS (UK)

Web site:www.suspension-nhs.org

E-mail:enquiries@suspension-nhs.org

Campaign Co-ordinators: Julie Fagan, Craig Longstaff, Andre Downer,
and Elsie Gayle (midwifery spokesperson)
Kate Wynn (Scottish spokesperson)

CAUSE in Scotland
Progress Report by K. Wynn
May 2007.

The Scottish arm of the campaign was launched on 13th April 2006, with the document entitled “TIME TO END UNNECESSARY NHS SUSPENSIONS IN SCOTLAND” (Appendix 1) being distributed to a large number of MSPs, Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD) officials, Trades Unions, members of the press and various other bodies. This ‘launch’ brought some results, most notably in the form of publicity in two local newspapers - the same ones that had originally published the fact that I had been suspended from my NHS job in 2004.
As a result of these two extensive, but local - and rather personal - articles in 2006 several additional people made contact with me because they had suffered in similar ways. Unfortunately despite my best efforts and some dialogues with other reporters, I was not able at that time to persuade any larger publications to run a story.
Other results were letters from my Westminster MP and several MSPs, a reply from Audit Scotland and surprisingly, one from the Department of Health in England. More than one MSP contacted the then Scottish Health Minister, Andy Kerr on my behalf and I now have several letters from Mr Kerr on file. Unfortunately none of the letters I have received are of any real help.
I persevered for several months, attempting again to contact those individuals and organisations that did not reply to me, and I also used my own case – which has never been resolved to my full satisfaction – to try to get answers about why the systems are so poor and what those in authority are going to do about it. This resulted in my successfully establishing, at least for a time, two-way correspondence with various SEHD officials including Paul Martin - Chief Nursing Officer - as well as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), but again no discernable changes have come about as a result to date. I also obtained, via an MSP, further letters from my employing authority regarding my own case but these letters were of no more help than those from Mr Kerr – and I am still waiting for the apology for the way I was treated that I have repeatedly requested.
Many organisations, including the Nursing and Midwifery Council, have not even done me the courtesy of replying despite several further attempts to contact them.

The official line in Scotland from the SEHD is that all matters relating to employment procedures, including capability or disciplinary issues and decisions to suspend staff, are the responsibility of each individual employing authority. If you write to the SEHD asking them to investigate your case, or to complain about how you have been treated, they will obtain your employer's view on the matter – whether you ask them to or not. They will then write back to you in a standard format stating the relevant Health Board’s position, which of course you knew anyway and were attempting to disagree with! Others who have also shared with me the contents of their own correspondence with the SEHD have confirmed these facts although to be fair, one individual has received a slightly more helpful response from one particular official.

In July 2006 and thanks to the efforts of other CAUSE campaigners, The Daily Mirror published an article on NHS suspensions. There was slightly less coverage in the Scottish Edition than in England, but I am glad to say that after I spoke with the reporter Matt Roper, he did obtain and include some Scottish data in his report. However CAUSE believes that the figures quoted are far too low. The main article can be read at:
Mirror.co.uk - News - EXCLUSIVE: 500 DOCS & NURSES OFF ON FULL PAY
There were also several smaller related news items published last year, largely in the nursing press and not specifically Scottish. Additionally there was a fair bit of media coverage on the subject of bullying of healthcare staff, and among these was an interesting article in the Scottish Sunday Express (25/06/2006) – significant because the journalist made the point that while he had obtained evidence that allegations of bullying in the NHS were rising dramatically, “there are fears some staff may be becoming unfairly persecuted by dubious claims as only 19% of claims were upheld”. The reporter Tom Martin mentioned CAUSE, but unfortunately not by name.

There was an excellent radio article by Eleanor Bradford on BBC Radio Scotland on 31st January this year, with a shorter piece on Reporting Scotland on TV on the same day. Details can be seen at:
BBC NEWS | Scotland | 'Too many' NHS staff suspensions . Naturally, BBC News reached a wider audience in Scotland, and I believe that more people contacted me as a result. The BBC reports came about as a result of a second document that I had produced months earlier and circulated to the media entitled “NHS SCOTLAND IS NOT CARING FOR ITS OWN STAFF” (Appendix 2).
It is not easy persuading reporters to publish material, or for them to obtain consent from their editors, and it tends to take a long time. I have had a significant amount of interest from others in the media but it often doesn’t last long enough for anything to get into print.
I attended this year’s RCN Scotland Conference in Edinburgh recently, where I asked a question of the panel of MSPs. In my persistent optimism I hope it will follow that unnecessary suspensions will soon achieve further media coverage and even Parliamentary attention in Scotland. My question to the MSPs is attached (Appendix 3).

I intend to continue to campaign on behalf of CAUSE at least for a second year, although I am restricted by time so cannot do as much as I would like to. I also continue to welcome e-mails from people who have been affected by suspension from NHS Scotland jobs and will try my best to answer anyone who e-mails me, usually within a few days. If you or someone close to you has been unfairly suspended from any NHS Scotland post and you have not previously contacted me, I would like to hear from you. The more affected people we know about, the more likely the campaign is to succeed.
I can make suggestions for anyone who may wish to assist with the campaign, or indeed with ideas that might help you with your own case - just ask, but please see also the other pages on this website as Julie Fagan has already put a wealth of information on there.
The first thing I would suggest to anyone in Scotland who has been unfairly suspended is to contact an MSP. If you don’t already know, you have the right to make contact with any one – or more than one – of your 8 regional MSPs. As well as this raising general awareness of the subject among MSPs, they can often give help with individual cases. They are bound by a code of confidentiality unless you give them permission to take matters to anyone else. From experience I would suggest that face-to-face contact has the biggest impact on the MSP but you can also contact them by various other means. You can find out who your regional MSPs are and their contact details at:
The Scottish Parliament - Current Members – it has been updated since the recent election.
Because the NHS in Scotland is a devolved matter and is managed entirely within Scotland, MSPs are most likely to be able to help. However as the suspension problem is UK-wide there could be benefit from contacting your Westminster MP also – it certainly can do no harm.

Finally and most importantly, although I am the ‘face’ of the campaign in Scotland, there are several other people who have been active in the background and who need to remain anonymous. Many of those who have not had the strength or the will to join the campaign in an active manner have been very strong in arguing their own cases with their Health Boards and improving their own outcomes, which is another way of taking positive action. Everyone who has contacted me has spurred me on to keep going, so to all those people THANKYOU for your help and support – I could not have achieved the small successes to date without you, but I wish with all my heart that you weren’t out there needlessly suffering too.

For further information contact: kwynn@ecosse.net

Appendix 1.

TIME TO END UNNECESSARY NHS SUSPENSIONS IN SCOTLAND

In England the Department of Health has introduced Directions, which apply to NHS doctors and dentists, in order to ensure that suspensions or exclusions of staff are used only as a last resort and usually only when there is a question of patient safety. Other NHS staff south of the border are campaigning to have similar procedures put in place. (see www.suspension-nhs.org)
Clearly there are occasions when suspension is the only safe and responsible option open to managers, but inappropriate and unnecessary suspension in the NHS costs the taxpayers while removing front line health workers from patient care. Even more importantly it is a devastating experience for those subjected to the process – often likened to bereavement – it is damaging the health of valuable, highly-trained staff that are frequently lost to the NHS and the taxpayer as a result of the experience.

Unfortunately in Scotland this problem is not even recognised.

During parliamentary questions in January 2005 Scottish Health Minister Andy Kerr said that the Scottish Executive did not collect figures on how many NHS clinical staff are excluded from work or have restrictions placed on their activities. Nor did they hold information on the additional costs of providing cover for excluded staff; including salary costs, management time, and legal expenses and it seems unlikely that the situation has changed. At the same time Mr Kerr stated that: ‘NHS staff may be suspended or excluded from their duties if their personal or professional conduct or competence has raised concern for the safety and interests of patients and other staff.’

What the Minister meant by the ‘interests of……..other staff’ is not clear, but from my own and others’ NHS experiences, this not infrequently includes a knee-jerk response when a member of staff brings any sort of disagreement, grievance or grudge against a colleague (whether justified or not) to senior management. The response of senior managers, it seems, is too often to suspend first and ask questions later!

I am only one of a large but unknown number. Unfortunately, many others have strikingly similar stories to tell but I hope that my story will illustrate the point:

My name is Kate Wynn and I am a highly qualified Registered Nurse. Until September 2004 I had a successful and unblemished 29-year NHS career and was in a senior clinical position, directly managing around 50 people when I was suddenly suspended and accused of bullying and harassing staff - but I was not told what the allegations were. I was told my immediate manager didn’t think the allegations very serious but that according to policy he would have to suspend me, unless I took sick leave – and I was asked to choose between the two. I was not sick.
My suspension was splashed across the front page of one of two local newspapers and reported in the other together with details of my job and where I live.
It was an incredible three months before I was interviewed, having received the allegations in writing just four days before that interview. Following an investigation, and after nearly 16 weeks of exclusion from work, I was told that there was no requirement for a disciplinary hearing and my suspension was duly ‘lifted’.
Ironically, this only meant that I was put on enforced ‘special leave’ – still at full pay – which continued for a further 20 weeks until I was finally allowed back to work after more than eight months. Restrictions placed on me during ‘special leave’ were even more isolating than during the first sixteen weeks, and by the eighth month I felt returning to my previous post had become untenable and I was found a new post within the organisation.
My employers have refused to apologise for suspending me despite conceding that an alternative to suspension could have been pursued.
Because of the embarrassing publicity given to my suspension, I also asked my employers to issue a public statement giving the facts: i.e. that there was no evidence to substantiate any allegation made against me and therefore no misconduct, but they have refused to do this too.
My family and friends were appalled by these events, which have taken their toll on my health as well as significantly affecting others around me. Friends, who also work for the NHS, now feel differently about their employment as a result of my experience.
Frankly, I only continue in NHS employment because of my pension benefits. If I were considerably younger I would almost certainly have left by now and I will probably retire earlier than I would have done otherwise – thereby depleting an experienced, but already stretched workforce, by yet one more.

It is important that my story and the experiences of a significant number of other health workers are heard and changes must be made to the current suspension culture. Health Service Managers need to learn how to deal with staff issues appropriately and confidently without resorting routinely to the draconian and unproductive option of suspension.

The current NHS Scotland recruitment campaign is unlikely to have a lasting effect on staffing or to benefit the health care of the public if the service’s senior managers are fundamentally unable to use much more effective and already existing measures to resolve their staffing difficulties.

13th April 2006.

Appendix 2.

NHS SCOTLAND IS NOT CARING FOR ITS OWN STAFF
Suspension policies in NHS Scotland are not working, says Kate Wynn the Scottish spokesperson for CAUSE (UK) – Campaign Against Unnecessary Suspensions and Exclusions in the NHS. She states that while the ‘Partnership Information Network’ (PIN) Policies recognise that suspension of staff should not be undertaken lightly, often the Policy is not followed. She also does not think that the policy even comes near to recognising the detrimental effects caused to an individual - and to those close to them - by a suspension which is carried out inappropriately and unnecessarily.
Although the Policy does state that "the use of suspension is not part of the disciplinary procedure", that is not how it feels to the suspended person; that person is deprived of their self-esteem and of the right to make their contribution to society. The NHS work culture dictates too that colleagues will believe that someone who is suspended must be guilty of something and therefore in reality suspension is a disciplinary sanction, often imposed where no disciplinary sanction is warranted.
Suspension is being used regularly and far more frequently than it should be by some managers and, in other words, not in accordance with the Policy. Suspension of staff members prior to an investigation even being carried out into allegations - which may be false - is not an infrequent occurrence. Clearly of course there are occasions when immediate suspension is the only safe and responsible option open to managers but these occasions are rare, and unnecessary suspensions could be avoided if the policies were actually being followed.
In England the Department of Health has introduced Directions in order to ensure that NHS doctors and dentists are suspended or excluded only as a last resort, and usually only when there is a question of patient safety. We should have a similar system in Scotland but it should apply to all NHS staff including doctors, dentists and all other clinical as well as non-clinical staff.
Why is it that NHS Scotland (and indeed the NHS UK-wide) cannot admit that, because they are organisations of human beings, they inevitably make mistakes - as we all do? Why is it that they refuse to apologise when mistakes have been made and that they do not make some realistic attempts to put things right? There is a lot of talk about a no-blame culture but it is a long way from the reality. There is a serious systems failure regarding the use of suspension/exclusion of staff in the NHS and this failure needs to be addressed.
15th August 2006.

Appendix 3.

QUESTION TO MSPS ASKED AT RCN CONFERENCE, MARCH 2007.

My name is Kate Wynn and I used to be the senior nurse and manager of a Community Hospital, until I was suspended – and the fact reported in the local newspapers. I was excluded from my duties for a very painful and distressing 8 months, despite there being no case to answer.
The PIN guidelines are useless in this respect because they did not prevent my unnecessary suspension.
Hundreds of other NHS Scotland staff also suffer the same fate – Many skilled personnel are so damaged that they never return to NHS work – this not only costs the individual dearly in health and emotional terms, it also traumatises their families and friends and it costs the taxpayers, the Health Service, and patients.

What is the panel going to do about it in the third term of the Scottish Parliament?

For further information contact: kwynn@ecosse.net

CAUSE (UK)
Campaign Against Unnecessary Suspensions and Exclusions in the NHS (UK)
Web site:www.suspension-nhs.org E-mail:enquiries@suspension-nhs.org
Campaign Co-ordinators: Julie Fagan, Craig Longstaff, Andre Downer,
Elsie Gayle (midwifery spokesperson) and Kate Wynn (Scottish spokesperson)

Disclaimer
CAUSE (UK) provides its services and resources on an informal basis only. Members of CAUSE (UK) providing services and resources have no formal legal training or qualifications. Except for publicly available official publications, material and correspondence, the information provided by or on behalf of CAUSE (UK) is based on individuals’ experience(s), recognising that every situation and circumstance is unique and thus needs to be judged on its own merit(s). You are advised to seek independent advice from a qualified and registered professional before taking any formal action. CAUSE (UK) will not be held responsible for any consequence resulting from ignoring this disclaimer.