Confidential Contacts

Staff who have concerns about bullying and harassing behaviours or whistleblowing concerns are encouraged to make contact with the person on the list who they feel is most appropriate for them. Often the selection is random, but staff seeking support can approach a contact in another division for confidentiality reasons or if they feel more comfortable with this.

Initial contact can be by telephone or email. Discussions take place either face to face or over the telephone, depending on the preference of the individual seeking support.

The contact will usually spend some time listening before exploring the nature of the complaint. Typically, the contact will determine the staff member’s preferred course of action and provide them with information about appropriate workforce policies.

If appropriate, the member of staff will be encouraged to approach other sources of more formal support such as the EAP, their manager or their trade union representative.

In most cases the staff member will be supported by the contact for 1 or 2 meetings, but sometimes the support may continue over a longer period, depending on the circumstances and the wishes of the staff.

Confidential contacts do not represent or provide advice to staff, and will not act as intermediaries in disputes, and do not provide any counselling or therapy services. They also do not accompany individuals in hearings or meetings about their complaint.

They will outline the extent of support they are able to offer over the discussion with the member of staff who contacted them.

• Confidential Contacts Booklet
• Health and Wellbeing Hub
• Independent National Whistleblowing Officer 
• NHS Scotland Policies and guides

If you are interested in becoming a Confidential Contact, or if you want more information before deciding to apply, please contact:

Jane Christie-Flight, Employee Director

Jenny Pope, Deputy Director of HR

NHS Golden Jubilee is proud to support and encourage an environment where employees can raise concerns about patient safety, malpractice and other forms of harm.

In April 2021, a new process was implanted for raising these concerns, with a new focus on:

• Helping staff raise concerns as early as possible, and
• Supporting and protecting staff when they raise concerns.

A 3 stage process has been developed by the Independent National Whistleblowing Officer (INWO), with the procedures detailed in the National Whistleblowing Standards. The first two stages are for NHS Golden Jubilee to deliver, with INWO acting as a final independent review stage. If the individual remains dissatisfied, they are able to escalate this for external review to the Independent National Whistleblowing Officer.

This process gives staff the support and protection needed to feel confident raising concerns if they see something wrong. Full details can be found at this link. Confidential contacts can provide key support in relation to this policy. In particular, they are required to:

• work with the whistleblowing champion to ensure that all staff are aware of the arrangements for raising concerns within their organisation
• promote a culture of trust, which values the raising of concerns as a route to learning and improvement
• through direct contact with frontline staff, ensure they are aware of and have access to the support services available to them when they raise concerns
• assist managers in using concerns as opportunities for learning and improvement
• work with the chief executive and those they have identified to oversee application of the Standards, to ensure the Standards are functioning at all levels of the organisation. 

Alternatively, full information about the responsibilities of staff across the organisation is available here along with FAQs