Freedom to speak up: whistleblowing policy for the NHS

In response to Sir Robert Francis’ Freedom to Speak Up review, Monitor, NHS TDA and NHS England are proposing to introduce a national whistleblowing policy.

We intend for the policy to be adopted by all NHS organisations in England except for primary care providers. We also hope it will be adopted by independent providers of NHS healthcare.

The policy sets out:

• who can raise a concern
• the process for raising a concern
• how the concern will be investigated
• what will be done with the findings of the investigation

We intend that NHS organisations will have their own local process that sits beneath the national policy, and reflects their own size and set up.

Provided the local process adheres to the requirements set out in the national policy, there is room for flexibility locally.

Next steps

Your feedback will help inform the final policy. We will publish a summary of the responses before or alongside the published final version of the policy.