Respect and Resolution

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Through our Big Conversation into what matters most, we heard from colleagues across the Trust that the current Dignity at Work process is broken. The feedback told us it was toxic, weaponised and mistrusted by both staff and managers. 

We have created a Task and Finish group to quickly create a new policy to replace the current Dignity at Work policy. In that group we have members representing staff networks, Trade Unions, EOC, Operations, Corporate Services and People Services.

Our Task and Finish Group have created a new Respect and Resolution policy. The proposed Respect and Resolution policy is a bold step away from the current Dignity at work process. It shifts the focus away from formal complaints and towards informal resolution as the first stage. In particular, it: 

• Merges the existing Dignity at work and Grievance policy and places more emphasis on informal resolution as the first stage. 
• Requires an independent Chair to review the case if the case is unresolved after informal resolution, or this isn’t appropriate to use. The Chair will ultimately decide if the case should go to formal proceedings. This therefore putting the onus on the employee raising the concern to provide the evidence for the chair to consider. 
• If a case is approved to be considered formally, it requires that the Chair will instruct an investigation at this point only. This means the Trust will no longer do initial fact finding or investigations at the earlier stages.

Please help us validate and refine our new Respect and Resolution policy by contributing to this Big Conversation. 

Marika Stephenson, Chief People Officer and Deputy CEO