If not, why not?

Yet another NHS Trust has been ferociously criticised by an Employment Tribunal. Last autumn I wrote about the scandalous case of Richard Hastings who was awarded ￡1 million pounds after Kings College Hospital NHS Trust tried to wreck his career. https://www.dhirubhai.net/post/edit/bias-discipline-enough-really-roger-kline 

I had previously summarised the shameful treatment by Imperial NHS Trust of nurse Amin Abdullah which led to his committing suicide. https://www.dhirubhai.net/post/edit/elephant-room-roger-kline

Now it is the turn of East of England Ambulance Trust. Their treatment of vehicle mechanic Gordon Flemming whose case of unfair dismissal was upheld by a January 2019 Employment Tribunal, led to the Tribunal stating (Para 26):

“The tribunal comment that in our combined 60 years’ judicial experience we have not before seen such an appalling response. We use the word ‘appalling’ advisedly. An employee having indicated that he was seriously contemplating suicide was told not to write accordingly otherwise such letters would be referred to the Trust’s solicitor.” https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c52d4f1e5274a492b57f3fa/Mr_G_Flemming_v_East_Of_England_Ambulance_Services_NHS_Trust-3400184-2016-Judgment.pdf

The Employment Tribunal

Gordon Flemming, a vehicle mechanic whose previously very mild mental health issues were greatly damaged by the Trust’s behaviour, took the Trust to court. He did so in a year (2017) when 45% of Trust staff with disabilities (n=280) told the NHS national staff survey said they had experienced “harassment, bullying or abuse from staff in last 12 months”

The Employment Tribunal noted the following (para 19.47)

On 13 June at 12:41 am Colin Flemming wrote to the PA to the HRDirector. He started as follows

“I am suffering from a severe and crippling mental illness Mr Henry as everyone knows already… I have had enough are you really interested in what has happened to me Mr Henry, corporate bullying on such a scale that I have contemplated ending it all does nobody care about that?”

The Tribunal then noted

“There was a response from Ruth McAll on 14 June 2015. This was quite a remarkable email from the Director of HR who is responsible for the direction of Human Resources and a key figure in determining the culture of the organisation. We repeat the contents of the email in full as follows,

“Dear Gordon, I appreciate you may have mental health problems, but this letter is not acceptable. In future do not write to anyone else in the Trust except me. If you continue to write such letters we will refer them to our solicitors. Ruth”

The ET judgment included evidence from a covert recording of the senior dismissing manager. A private conversation between the Trust senior managers overseeing his disciplinary hearing in an interview room during a break in the proceedings included this:

“Robert Ashford, then deputy director for operations and still understood to be employed by the trust, was one of those recorded. He said: “I mean getting up and pummelling it into him [Mr Flemming] with my fists is probably not appropriate in terms of policy, is it?”

The judgment added in regard to Mr Ashford’s comments:

“It seems to us beyond belief that someone conducting a disciplinary hearing would have felt it appropriate to use the language that he did”.

The Tribunal noted

"The respondent has and had comprehensive policies and procedures, was and remains a public body and was well provided for in Human Resources. It seems to us though, the policies were viewed in isolation and there was a tendency to view issues according to a particular policy, for example grievance or ill health management, rather than take a holistic view of the workplace difficulties experienced by the claimant. In correspondence to the respondent he repeatedly challenged the approach taken by the respondent which in many regards appeared to have little effect. The impression we gained was that there was a mechanistic approach to the issues that the claimant raised or presented to them by reason of the claimant’s employment. There were nine Occupational Health reports and again, for reasons we do not understand, the contents or recommendations were not dealt with adequately or with insight".

The Trust

In such an environment, policies and procedures become a means of defence for the Trust not a means of proactively addressing concerns. They become a means of “individualising” concerns rather than considering if there are wider issues.

This is Trust has had a troubled recent history. Former Health Minister Norman Lamb said, last year, the service had a "toxic culture". The CQC in rating the Trust as “requires improvement” noted that "People working at the trust described a culture of late shift finishes, frustration at not being able to provide the service they wanted to and disengagement between front-line staff and the senior management team". In that trust 45% of disabled staff reported they were bullied, harassed or abused at work in the previous 12 months in the year.

As with Richard Hastings of Kings College Hospital, Gordon Flemming has had his career wrecked by managers whose values are a million miles from those the NHS espouses. In this case we have senior managers directly contributing to the worsening ill health of a member of staff at a time when we know NHS staff suicides. It beggars belief.

Implications

The then HR Director Ruth McAll has left the Trust. I contacted the Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD - the professional body for HR professionals) to ask how I could make a complaint as she appears to have breached the CIPD Code of Conduct. I discovered that the Register of CIPD members is not public. Instead, to even find out if this former HR Director is a member of the CIPD (so I could then make a complaint) I was told that

 “In order to verify the membership we would require three pieces of information on the person in question so that we can ascertain that we sufficiently search our Database. These details may include name, membership number, DOB, address, work organisation, email address etc”.

I don’t have that information – and why would I? However I asked Twitter followers if they knew and two HR directors contacted me to say they thought she was a CIPD member.

Lots of good people in the NHS are CIPD members. I use some of the excellent CIPD publications.

This Tribunal ET decision is a public document, widely reported. The CIPD will certainly know about it. Her action appears to breach their Code of Conduct. Surely the CIPD should investigate the case themselves, if she is a member?

Whether or not she is a CIPD member it appears she has got off scot-free and may, at this very moment, be applying for other HR jobs in the NHS. Either way it is hard to see why there should not be some form of regulation of HR Directors working in the NHS.

The Minister and the mental health of NHS staff

I spend much of my life being positive, optimistic, trying to support good initiatives and trying to help improve ones that are not so good. I am a strong believe in a just culture where learning trumps blame. But those who drive good people out of the NHS often appear to live in an accountability free zone.

Three weeks after this Employment Tribunal decision was published, Health Education England sent the report of the NHS Health and Well Being Commission to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Its preface stated  

If we are caring and compassionate, then we should be able to demonstrate those values as employers in the way we look after our employees. https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/mental-wellbeing-report

If Matt Hancock, Dido Harding and Simon Stevens mean what they say about improving the treatment of NHS staff, it would be good if they intervened to help Mr Flemming and Mr Hastings, and then inquired what accountability means for the HR teams who drove Mr Hastings and Mr Flemming out of the NHS.

If not, why not?

Roger Kline is Research Fellow at Middlesex University Business School