Lead Freedom to Speak Up Guardian

Job overview

We are seeking an exceptional and compassionate leader to join our Quality Directorate as Lead Freedom to Speak Up Guardian (FTSU).

This is a pivotal role responsible for leading and shaping the Trust’s Freedom to Speak Up function. The post holder will provide strategic leadership and operational oversight, ensuring colleagues feel safe, supported and empowered to raise concerns. The role plays a vital part in promoting a transparent, inclusive and learning-focused culture, directly contributing to the safety and wellbeing of both colleagues and patients.

Working independently and impartially, the Lead Guardian will operate at both strategic and frontline levels, engaging with colleagues across the organisation while influencing senior leaders and the Trust Board to strengthen a positive speaking up culture.

Main duties of the job

• Provide strategic leadership for the FTSU service, ensuring it is accessible, inclusive and trusted

• Promote and embed a positive speaking up culture through visibility, engagement and training

• Offer confidential, impartial advice and support to colleagues raising concerns

• Ensure appropriate escalation and timely action where concerns impact on patient or staff safety

• Lead the development and delivery of the FTSU strategy, aligned to national guidance and Trust priorities

• Analyse themes and trends from FTSU data and provide assurance reporting to senior leadership and the Board

• Build strong relationships with senior leaders and act as an expert advisor on FTSU policy and practice

• Support organisational learning and continuous improvement from concerns raised

• Provide leadership and support to the FTSU Guardian team and Ambassador network
• Please note that this Job Description is currently indicative pending a job evaluation review.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for the FTSU provision, ensuring it is accessible, inclusive responsive, trusted, and continually improving, with line management responsibility for FTSU Guardian and supporting the oversight of the Ambassador network.
• Ensure the safe recording of case notes aligned to Data Protection and GDPR principles and be the lead of the WorkinConfidence platform to ensure colleagues have a space to raise anonymous concerns.
• Promote and embed a proactive Speaking Up culture across the organisation through leadership, visibility, communication activity, training, engagement, and targeted initiatives to reduce barriers for all staff groups.
• Offer confidential, impartial advice and compassionate support to colleagues who speak up, ensuring concerns are handled effectively, escalated appropriately, and responded to without detriment.
• Ensure timely action where concerns indicate potential risks to patient or colleague safety, working collaboratively with leaders and corporate teams to support rapid resolution and organisational learning.
• Lead the development and implementation of the Trust’s FTSU Enabling Strategy, aligning it with national guidance, organisational priorities, and other cultural, people, and safety strategies.
• Develop and maintain governance and assurance mechanisms to monitor the effectiveness of FTSU processes, including triangulating FTSU data with patient safety, quality, HR, and staff experience insights.
• Act as a subject matter expert for FTSU policy and practice, interpreting national guidance, advising on policy interdependencies, and ensuring the Trust maintains compliance with NGO/NHSE requirements.
• Build strong collaborative relationships with senior leaders, includes the Chief Executive, Chair, Executive Directors, Non‑Executive Directors, People Directorate colleagues across the organisation providing expert advice, challenge, and support.
• Lead organisational approaches to identifying, preventing, and responding to detriment, coordinating relevant subgroups and ensuring robust review, monitoring, and learning from reported cases.
• Oversee FTSU communication, awareness, education, and training, ensuring all colleagues and managers understand how to raise concerns and their responsibilities when responding to them.
• Ensure a robust framework for learning from FTSU concerns is developed. Ensuring that there are mechanism that provide assurance that  actions taken place,  and provide constructive feedback to individuals and sharing learning across the organisation to drive cultural improvement.
• Attend and contribute to the Just and Learning Culture Forum.
• Produce high‑quality reporting and assurance, including bi‑annual Trust Board reports and relevant committee reports, demonstrating performance, trends, learning, risks, and system improvements.
• Support external engagement, networking, and regional collaboration, including active participation in the Southwest Regional Guardian network, and the National Ambulance Network (NAN) to share best practice and contribute to system-wide improvement.
• Lead the planning and delivery of events and activities that promote FTSU, including induction, FTSU Week, and other organisational and cultural engagement opportunities.
• Provide oversight and management of the Trust’s anonymous reporting mechanisms, ensuring accessibility, safety, data quality, timely review, and appropriate follow-up.
• Contribute to business planning and resource requirements for the FTSU service, ensuring capacity and capability support the delivery of Trust and national expectations.
• Work with the Executive and NED leads for FTSU to ensure effective operation of the FTSU Steering Group, providing oversight, assurance, and continuous improvement of Speaking Up processes.
• Be responsible for the NGO self-assessment and reflection tool collation and engagement, and deliver findings to the Board every two years, ensuring the improvement plans are monitored through governance routes.
• Support the sexual safety workstream.