High profile inquiries ‘show bodies must act on early warning signs’ – watchdog

The Grenfell and Post Office scandals shared “common themes”, highlighting the need for the public sector to act faster on warning signs, the head of a sleaze watchdog said.

The independent Committee on Standards in Public Life said some bodies have failed to identify and address emerging issues before they escalate and must learn from previous mistakes.

It said in a review that it wanted to see processes in place to recognise “red flags” and a culture where “speaking up” are seen as a “personal duty” rather than a “David and Goliath type battle”.

Public sector failure

The committee’s chair, Doug Chalmers, highlighted recent public inquiries such as Grenfell, Windrush, Infected Blood and Post Office Horizon IT which he said “laid bare the catastrophic impact of major public sector failure on human lives”.

He said the “common themes” included failures to listen and act on concerns, learn from similar incidents, and identify and share emerging risks.

Mr Chalmers said there is “value” in taking a step back to consider what more public sector bodies can do to spot problems at the earliest possible stage and “avert a disaster”.

Risks

He went on: “Our evidence shows there are things organisations can do to increase the likelihood of risks and issues being uncovered.

“When leaders are committed to advocating the benefits of an open culture and listen with curiosity when staff raise concerns, or offer suggestions for better ways of doing things, organisations can spot risks and make improvements.

“It is not always easy to speak up – it requires moral courage to be the person who says, ‘I’m not sure this is going to plan’. But in doing so, we honour the basic contract that holders of public office have with the public we serve.

“We want this report to bring change, stimulating leaders across the public sector to reflect on how they can better equip their organisations and people to identify and respond to the early signs of a problem and achieve better outcomes for the public.”

‘Doubled down’

Des Collins, whose firm Collins Solicitors advised people affected by the infected blood scandal, said: “The infected blood scandal is certainly an example of where instead of openly listening to issues and problems which emerged with blood products, the NHS and in turn the Government doubled down on avoiding lessons, obfuscation and even outright denial to avoid liability.

“Whilst this approach may have sheltered the public purse from financial risk in the short term, we can now see how the problem festered and ended up being such a huge national scandal both in health terms and in terms of the shocking political response over decades.

“Whilst I am cynical that scandals like this won’t happen again in the health sphere or otherwise, anything which can be done to encourage the public sector to have a more open culture when it comes to complaints from staff and the public about policies followed, must surely be a good thing.”

A Post Office spokesperson said: “We will examine the report and any learnings in detail. The Post Office has made a number of cultural changes in recent years including the appointment of serving postmasters to the board and we operate a ‘Speak Up’ whistleblowing service enabling our employees and postmasters to raise concerns in confidence and anonymously if preferred.”

A Government spokesperson said: “We will carefully consider the report from the Committee on Standards in Public Life and would encourage leaders of all public sector organisations to do the same.”