Classification: official

To:

• Integrated care board (ICB):
  • domestic abuse and sexual violence leads
  • chief nursing officers
  • medical directors
  • chief people officers and human resources directors
• NHS trust and foundation trust:
  • domestic abuse and sexual violence leads
  • chief nursing officers
  • medical directors
  • human resources and organisational development directors
• Regional human resources and organisational development directors

cc:

• ICB:
  • chief executives
  • chairs
• NHS trust and foundation trust:
  • chief executives
  • chairs
• NHS arm’s length bodies:
  • chief people officers
• NHS England regional:
  • directors
  • chief nursing officers
  • medical directors
  • human resources directors

Dear colleagues

Sexual misconduct in the NHS: Launch of new framework, training and communications campaign

As the leadership community in the NHS we are united in the mission to create a safe place where staff come to work every day to provide compassionate care and support to others. There is absolutely no place for sexual misconduct or abuse of any kind within the NHS and we must not allow it to be tolerated. 

That is why today, in the first ever policy of its kind in the NHS, NHS England has published a new national policy framework on sexual misconduct.

This builds on our first ever sexual safety charter the NHS launched last year, which all integrated care boards (ICBs) and NHS trusts, along with other partners across the health system, have signed up to.

The national policy will help colleagues right across the NHS to ensure they are taking the right steps to recognise, report and prevent sexual misconduct at work, and by introducing the option of anonymous reporting we are making it easier for staff to come forward to report serious issues – it marks our serious commitment to stamping out this horrendous behaviour.

All trusts and ICBs have already been asked to appoint a domestic abuse and sexual violence (DASV) lead and should have this in place.

This is supported by:

• NHS England’s own sexual misconduct policy,which we will be implementing within our own organisation, and which you can see as an example of how to implement
• e-learning for all staff on sexual misconduct, which will help raise awareness and develop understanding of this issue
• an assurance framework for charter implementation, which boards can use to keep track of progress

From 26 October, the Worker Protection Act 2023 strengthens protection from sexual harassment for workers. It means that employers have a legal duty to be proactive and take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees. The resources we have published today will support you in meeting that duty.

Endorsed by Surviving in Scrubs, We Are Survivors, the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery (WPSMS) Rights of Women, and others, these products have been produced with a wide range of partners across the NHS and beyond, including people, safeguarding, training and education, and Freedom To Speak Up teams, trade unions, staff networks, experts by experience, charities, academic experts, royal colleges and regulatory bodies.

To further support you, we are improving data collection of incidents of sexual misconduct by investing in the development of a national domestic abuse and sexual violence data infrastructure.

We also encourage colleagues to join the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence FutureNHS platform to share learning.

For anyone who has experienced sexual abuse or misconduct at work, it is an extremely distressing and isolating experience, and so we must do everything in our power to ensure our staff feel able to speak up, and have absolute confidence that they will be given the support they need when they do.

This is a crucial opportunity for the NHS to ensure that all our staff know where to access support relating to sexual misconduct, and how to report an incident of sexual misconduct safely when it is experienced or witnessed.

While this is just one of the first steps to ending harmful sexual behaviour in the NHS, and more action is needed, we strongly encourage every leader across the NHS to look at how they adopt these measures from today, to ensure that when our staff come to work, they feel safe and supported – together we can make a difference.

For any further queries relating to NHS England’s work on domestic abuse and sexual violence, the team is happy to help and be contacted at: england.DomesticAbuseSexualViolence@nhs.net

Thank you for all you are doing to help achieve this.

Yours sincerely

Amanda Pritchard, NHS Chief Executive 

Steve Russell, Chief Delivery Officer 

Dr Navina Evans CBE, Chief Workforce, Training and Education Officer 

Catherine Hinwood, Director, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Programme

Publication reference: PRN01561_v