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Press release: NHS Employers launches campaign to tackle bullying in the NHS16 Oct 2006 NHS Employers is today launching a new campaign to raise awareness about bullying in the NHS. Campaign packs are being sent to every NHS trust in England containing awareness posters, leaflets and wristbands. Staff will be given information to help them recognise bullying both in others and in themselves, and crucially, given advice on what action they should take to deal with it. NHS Employers head of workplace health Julian Topping said: "Bullying can ruin lives and is a major course of stress and related illnesses. We have already been working with trusts to identify bullying behaviour and to prevent it with clear zero tolerance bullying and harassment statements and frameworks for dealing with incidents among their staff. Our new campaign is targeted at staff and their managers to help them recognise bullying and know what to do about it." The launch coincides with the publication of a joint report on bullying by NHS Employers and information firm Consult Gee. Tackling Bullying in the NHS: Is it on your agenda? gives the results of a survey of HR managers carried out at the HR in the NHS 2006 conference in April. The survey found that 10% of respondents thought bullying was a serious and widespread problem in their organisation. Nurses and midwives were the largest group to be affected by bullying, with 59% of respondents stating that nurses and midwives were being bullied in their trust. Thirty six percent of respondents said line managers were bullied, 15% said junior doctors and 5% said ambulance staff. Other findings from the survey included: * 94.4% of respondents said their trust had a formal bullying prevent policy The most common support method used by trusts was counselling, with 69% of respondents saying this was available in their trust to address bullying. The next most popular methods were internal communications and awareness raising (55%) followed by employee assistance programmes and internal education at 42%. Just under 30% of respondents said their trusts used support groups and regular reviews of possible causes. Two percent of respondents said they were not aware of any support system in their trust that dealt with bullying and harassment. "The survey shows that many trusts are already taking bullying seriously," said Julian Topping. "However, it is essential that they all now start taking a much more proactive approach. Not only should trusts be taking an interest in the welfare of their staff, but two landmark legal judgements earlier this year mean that employers can now be held legally responsible for bullying by their staff, and this can have huge financial implications in terms of payouts if cases are taken to court." Today's campaign is part of an on-going work programme by NHS Employers on bullying and harassment. In April 2006, NHS Employers launched new guidance for organisations and a template for drawing up bullying and harassment policies. The campaign materials, along with guidance for staff, is now available online. We will also be supporting the National Ban Bullying at Work Day on the 7 November.
Related publicationsConsult GEE Research Report 2006 in association with NHS Employers (1704 kB PDF) Notes for editors* Tackling Bullying in the NHS: Is it on your agenda? is based on a survey of HR managers carried out during the HR in the NHS 2006 annual conference. The report is a joint project between NHS Employers and information firm Consult Gee. The report and all bullying campaign materials are available online at www.nhsemployers.org/bullyingandharassment Contact detailsThe press office provides a comprehensive service to keep journalists informed about the work of NHS Employers. If you have a media enquiry, please contact the press office team:
For out of hours media enquiries, please contact the duty press officer on 07880 500726. Last reviewed 16 Oct 2006 |
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