We have recently been contacted by whistleblowers / others involved in a whistleblowing process, such as a witness or colleague, who have been advised to contact the INWO directly regarding unfair treatment, even though the original concerns had not been raised under the National Whistleblowing Standards (the Standards) with the local organisation.
Concerns about how someone has been treated (known as detriment) must relate to previously raising a concern through the Standards. This is because protection under the Standards cannot apply otherwise. We encourage anyone concerned about unfair treatment to raise this with the organisation in the first instance.
Example:
An NHS employee raises a concern about patient safety with an organisation who are a prescribed person. That organisation handles their concern and makes improvement recommendations to the local organisation. Some weeks later the same NHS employee is concerned that they are experiencing unfair treatment as a result of raising the concern. They are advised by the organisation that they raised the concerns with, to contact the INWO about unfair treatment (detriment). The INWO advise that they cannot look into a complaint about detriment as the patient safety concerns were not raised under the Standards but instead raised with a prescribed person under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA).
Raising concerns locally:
- gives the organisation the chance to respond, learn, and improve
- ensures the individual (and anyone else involved) can access the support and protection provided under the National Whistleblowing Standards
- is the only route through which whistleblowers can be protected from unfair treatment under the Standards.
We ask all confidential contacts and support staff to be aware of this and to signpost individuals to the Standards, especially where there are concerns about how someone has been treated. There is a case study on detriment issues in our training materials for Confidential Contacts.