October is Speak Up Month, a time to raise awareness about the NHS “Speak Up / Listen Up” goals, and to highlight the important role that Freedom to Speak Up Guardians play in the NHS. What is speaking up? Speaking up is simply sharing something that’s causing you problems while you’re trying to do your…

The first key question asked by the CQC is “Are services safe?”. By safe, they mean are people protected from abuse and avoidable harm? If we look at the description of safe from a quality statement perspective, it states: “Safety is a priority for everyone and leaders embed a culture of openness and collaboration. People…

The number of incidents of staff receiving abuse from patients or their relatives has risen in the last couple of years. According to a recent Pulse FOI request, this includes the number of crimes committed at GP practices that involve violence or harassment and the number of public order offences at GP practices. Of course,…

Effective care navigation helps people understand what options are available to them, enabling them to access the most appropriate service to meet their health and social care needs. With the recent news that the NHS is funding one person per practice, what about training for the rest of your team? It’s important that the people…

We all know just how important safeguarding is, yet it seems to be a subject often surrounded by confusion. Many questions are asked about what GP practices are required to do, in order to demonstrate that they’re complying with CQC regulations. Here are eight essentials that will help you become and remain compliant. Safeguarding policy …

On June 28th 1969, police in New York City raided a bar frequented by LGBTQ+ patrons. These kinds of raids were common on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1960s where lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people routinely faced discrimination and marginalisation. This time however, the patrons fought back. The Stonewall Riots (named after…

Did you know that every year in the UK almost two million people suffer from domestic abuse? Abuse can take many forms and it can affect anyone from any background, regardless of their gender or sexuality. One in four women and one in six men will suffer domestic abuse at some time in their lives,…