Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Develop a system to disseminate whistleblowing good practice across civil service and smaller bodies.
Conclusion
There is a lack of joined up thinking when it comes to sharing good practice across the civil service. There are some examples of good practice across the civil service but the Cabinet Office needs to do more to promote and disseminate good practice to help drive improvement and learning. The Government People Group has an online hub where it shares summaries of the department whistleblowing statistics. This is a step in right direction, but there is an opportunity to share central insights on this platform as well. Furthermore, smaller government bodies deal with whistleblowing cases less frequently and so can be less familiar with the necessary procedures and protocols. They could benefit from easily accessible information on good practice and support from their parent departments. But departments are Investigation into whistleblowing in the civil service 7 inconsistent in how much responsibility they take for ensuring their arm’s-length bodies have good whistleblowing practices in place. There is a need to ensure that good ways of working both reach and are implemented in smaller bodies. Recommendation 5: a) The Cabinet Office should work with departments to develop a way of disseminating good practice across the civil service. Within this it should pay specific attention to how this will include smaller organisations and arm’s-length bodies. b) It should do this work within 6 months and implement new practices shortly thereafter. 8 Investigation into whistleblowing in the civil service 1 Whistleblowing arrangements in the civil service
Government Response Summary
The Cabinet Office will build on existing work to share best practice, explore how mature models can be shared across government, and continue working with departmental leads to ensure organisational learning. It will also explore agencies' expectations, how larger organisations can support smaller ones, and develop a mentoring system for Nominated Officers, with a target implementation by end of 2024.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the recommendations. Target implementation: end 2024 5.2. The Cabinet Office will build on the existing work to share insight and best practice. The Raising a Concern self-assessment tool (formerly the health check) provides a solid framework for departments to embed a culture of speaking up. The Cabinet Office will work with those organisations that have a mature model and explore how the experience to maturity can be shared across government. The department will continue to work with and share the Raising a Concern work with departmental leads to ensure that a senior leader in each organisation has oversight of cases and can provide assurance on the Raising a Concern process. The Cabinet Office will work with departmental leads to explore, but not limited to, where wrongdoing has been found, to ensure organisational learning, policies and procedures are in place and action is taken where required. The Cabinet Office has built a community of practitioners across government to ensure events, such as the annual whistleblowing conference being planned for Spring 2025 and opportunities for sharing learning and best practice across organisations. The department will work on refining the online hub to support the sharing of best practice and to build a strong practitioner community. The department will engage with other organisations in the public sector and wider to gain insight into the whistleblowing landscape and whether different approaches can be brought into the civil service. The Cabinet Office will also consider and respond to the Department for Business and Trade’s review of the whistleblowing framework. It has been recognised and noted that the nature of the relationship between departments and agencies can vary. Through departmental leads and the working group, the Cabinet Office will explore what agencies expect from their department and vice versa. And how bigger organisations can support smaller ones where whistleblowing cases may be fewer. As part of the 2023-2024 data collection, departments have been asked to confirm if they are responding on behalf of their agencies or not. This has formed part of the assurance conversation by the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office will also explore the development of a mentoring system for Nominated Officers with the community of practitioners so they can support and learn from each other.