Culture, training and development recommendations

Refresh the Respect Charter.

Progress

Our new Chief People Officer joined the RCN in April, and the plan is to start a culture change programme later in 2024, once they’ve had an opportunity to consider the proposal. The programme is intended to enable us to describe the culture we aspire towards as an organisation and set out the behaviours that each of us will need to demonstrate in order to create it. We’ll be reviewing the commitments of our Respect Charter as part of this work.

To support the People and OD Department to deliver against UR09 and UR30, a working group has been established. Involving representatives from the People and OD department, Complaints team, Governance directorate, Equality, diversity and inclusion team and Internal Communications team, the group are identifying, planning, delivering and evaluating activities that support the recommendations in a joined-up way across the RCN. The work will also support preparation for the culture change programme.

Respect Awareness Month (March 2024)

This initiative placed the spotlight on the topic of respect and encouraged staff to reflect on what respect means to them and how they can bring this to life. It has helped us to further embed the existing behavioural standards set out in the Respect Charter, raising awareness amongst staff of what is expected of both staff and those they come into contact with through their work, and encouraging staff to reflect on their own and others’ behaviours. It has also paved the way for a full review of the Respect Charter and anticipated wider culture change initiatives as part of the culture change programme mentioned above.

During March, the staff intranet had a range of content to share information and stories from staff across the organisation, and signpost to the staff learning management system iLearn where relevant training and resources were curated into a playlist.

Specific activities included: news stories; blogs; a discussion forum and poll; all-staff emails; a panel discussion; e-learning; team respect charters.

The promotion of, and engagement with, intranet content and e-learning modules will continue beyond Respect Awareness Month.

Process review

 We have begun a review of existing processes relating to the reporting and resolution of incidents of unacceptable behaviour. A desktop review and process mapping workshop involving the GMB@RCN branch has captured the "as is" of the RCN's current policies, procedures and guidelines around the theme of respect at work, exploring this from the perspectives of both staff and members raising concerns about the behaviour of staff, members, customers and external stakeholders. It considered the current processes set out in the staff Respect at Work Policy and Managing Unacceptable Behaviour Guidelines (including the specific guidelines for social media incidents) as well as the Member Resolution and Complaints policies.

This exercise is helping to understand some of the gaps and/or overlaps in the current approach, barriers that may exist currently to reporting incidents and action being taken, and opportunities to improve the approach in the future – some of which may be changes that can be made in the short term through the work of the Respect Working Group, whilst others may be longer-term aspirations that can be captured for consideration in the future. There may also be opportunities to embed existing processes around respect at work in the short term and ensure staff are confident the RCN will address issues, and to encourage, enable and empower managers and staff to take action where behaviours fall short of the RCN’s standards.

There are 8 elements to this recommendation, 1 of which has been completed. A further 2 elements are expected to be completed by July 2024. All work on this recommendation is expected to be completed by December 2027.

Develop harassment policies and procedures.

Progress

Work is underway to review some of the existing policies and guidelines that relate to the behaviour of staff, members and others that we come into contact with at the RCN. Through the work mentioned above, we’re exploring the perspectives of both staff and members in terms of the routes available to report and address concerns including through our Respect at Work Policy and Managing Unacceptable Behaviour Guidelines. The RCN is a signatory of the NHS Sexual Safety Charter and the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 will come into force in October 2024.

This legislation introduces a new duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work, although employers already face liability for any harassment at work unless they can show that they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent this from happening, which includes having appropriate policies, training and ensuring incidents are addressed in an appropriate manner. The work on our policies and training will ensure compliance with the requirements of the Charter and this new legislation.

There are 2 elements to this recommendation both of which are expected to be completed by December 2027.

Review, and apply lessons from the decision-making of significant governance events (for example in Northern Ireland and Guernsey) and establish a ‘lessons learnt’ protocol to embed in future practice.

Progress

A lessons learnt protocol for projects and programmes was developed by the Project Management Office (PMO) in November 2022 for projects and programmes which deliver against the RCN’s strategic activity. Our recent Fair Pay for Nursing activity underwent a thorough 'lessons learned' review using these standards and associated templates and guidance.

Lessons Learnt is at the heart of programme and project methodology, and a version of this protocol, template and guidance will be rolled out to all directorates as part of the newly agreed Operational (Ops) Planning reporting cycle – with quarterly updates on lessons learnt provided to PMO as a central repository. It is envisaged that these lessons will be used to inform future directorate Ops Plans / Strategies. Further discussions are underway as to whether further implementation and embedding of a deeper learning culture are required by the College (with ownership agreed).

There were 4 elements to this recommendation, all of which are complete.

Make financial governance part of the integrated approach, promote financial literacy across the organisation and a collective sense of value for money assessment.

Progress

The Centre for Public Scrutiny report in April 2020 recommended that we “make financial governance part of the integrated approach, promote financial literacy across the organisation and a collective sense of value for money assessment”. Council members attended a workshop on financial governance as part of their ongoing learning and development. A financial governance roll-out plan for other staff and member groups is being developed.

There are 3 elements to this recommendation, 2 of which have been completed. All remaining work on this recommendation is expected to be completed by September 2024.