May 2024 Update

In the NHS priorities and operational planning guidance 2024/25, NHS England is asking every organisation to implement the actions in the sexual safety in healthcare charter to improve safety at work.

Dear colleagues,

Sexual safety in the NHS: survey results and update on charter implementation

I am writing to you following the publication of the NHS Staff Survey and the National Education and Training Survey results. For the first time, these include data on the experience of our workforce and healthcare trainees and students in relation to sexual misconduct and unwanted behaviour.

The important work that the NHS is doing to address domestic abuse and sexual violence in the healthcare sector, as part of its Sexual Safety Charter, will now benefit from new data. The NHS Staff Survey is the largest of its kind in Europe, and these results are the largest ever collection of official statistical data on the prevalence of this issue in one staff body.

Together, both surveys provide a critical insight into the experience of staff, trainees and students who have encountered sexual misconduct that our organisations and the rest of the public sector can draw on. The findings reveal 58,000 staff reported unwarranted sexual approaches from patients or other members of the public last year – that’s 1 in every 12 NHS workers. 1 in 26 reported experiencing similar harassment from work colleagues.

The findings of the surveys for the first time put survivor voices front and centre, and we must ensure they are not just heard, but listened to. It is critical that our workforce and colleagues who have experienced or witnessed these crimes feel empowered to speak up, report and call out this behaviour.

They will help us build a more nuanced view of its prevalence and inform the next steps of our policy and operational response.

As this is the first time the question has been asked, we will be sharing our analysis and insight with you in the coming months. However, you will note there is variation in the degree of prevalence, with some settings experiencing higher trends – for example, ambulance and mental health trusts, and women – experiencing these crimes at a disproportionate rate. This will inform our strategy as we go forward.

We will use this as a measure of progress. It provides an important benchmark along with NHS England’s sexual safety charter which is identified as best practice in well-led guidance for trusts published recently by the Care Quality Commission and NHS England.

More than 270 organisations have already signed up to the Sexual Safety in Healthcare Charter launched by NHS England in September 2023, which commits to 10 key actions including taking a zero-tolerance approach to any unwanted, inappropriate or harmful sexual behaviours within the workplace.

In the NHS operational planning guidance 2024/2025 (published 27 March 2024), we are asking every organisation to implement the actions it sets out to improve safety at work. So if your organisation has not signed up to the charter, please do so.

To support implementation of the charter, NHS England will be providing for local adoption or adaptation:

• policies on both sexual misconduct and domestic abuse developed by an expert advisory group including trade union representation
• training materials, including on how to respond appropriately to disclosures of sexual misconduct or abuse
• improved support offers for staff
• a toolkit signposting to sources of further support following a disclosure

Last year, all trusts and integrated care boards (ICBs) were asked to appoint a domestic abuse and sexual violence (DASV) lead, and there are now more than 300 in place across England, including in every ICB.  Your DASV lead will work with you to understand your organisation’s survey results and to support a review of your organisation’s policies in relation to sexual misconduct and domestic abuse.

If your organisation has not appointed a DASV lead, we urge you to do so as quickly as possible.

To support DASV leads with this work, NHS England will host a webinar to talk through the findings of the survey in relation to the question focusing on sexual misconduct.

I also continue to urge colleagues to join the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence FutureNHS platform.

For any further queries relating to NHS England’s work on domestic abuse and sexual violence, please contact the programme team: england.DomesticAbuseSexualViolence@nhs.net.

This is a crucial opportunity for the NHS. I look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure the healthcare system is a place in which sexual misconduct, violence, harassment and abuse are not tolerated. Our healthcare system must be a place of safety, offering a safe space for victims and survivors of sexual misconduct to seek support.

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

Yours sincerely,

Steve Russell, Chief Delivery Officer and Senior Responsible Officer for Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence, NHS England.