We believe in honesty and openness in everything

We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of honest, openness and accountability and ensuring our services are places where people can feel safe from abuse and fear of exploitation. We support our colleagues to play an active part in this. If anyone has concerns about something they’ve witnessed, we encourage them to call a whistleblowing helpline or speak to our Freedom to Speak Up Guardian.

Our colleagues are essential to enabling us to achieve and sustain our standards, and they have a responsibility to tell us if they witness any unacceptable behaviour. This behaviour may have been aimed at them personally, a person we support or another colleague.

Consensus will not tolerate criminal activity or abuse of any sort towards the people we support or our colleagues. If a colleague has concerns about something they’ve witnessed, they should tell a senior person or our Speak Up Guardian.

They can also call a confidential free helpline that we provide via Health Assured. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Team members or supported individuals can phone if they are worried about anything that they see in their service and they do not have to leave their name or details. They will speak to a real person who will log their concerns and pass them to the appropriate person within Consensus.

Examples of unacceptable behaviours include:

• Financial, sexual, psychological or physical abuse
• Bullying, harassment, neglect or victimisation
• Non-compliance with legal obligations
• Actions that endanger the health or safety of the people we support, colleagues or the public
• Actions that cause damage to the environment
• Actions that attempt to conceal any of the above.

We’re determined that Consensus and its services are places where people – whether they’re the people we support, or our colleagues – can feel safe from abuse and fear of exploitation. This determination led us to create the role of the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian.

The Freedom to Speak Up Guardian is an objective and independent Consensus colleague who any colleague can go to in confidence if they want to highlight any concerns they have, including if they’re worried about the potential for harm to be caused by something they’ve seen or experienced.

The Freedom to Speak Up Guardian will then respond to the information they’ve been given to ensure that it’s used as an opportunity for improvement.

Consensus is currently one of over 500 UK organisations (and one of the first social care providers) to have a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian.