Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Acknowledged
Cabinet Office shares whistleblowing good practice through annual conferences and online community hubs.
Conclusion
We asked the Cabinet Office how it currently shares good practice. The Cabinet Office told us it holds an annual conference where it brings together nominated officers (who support whistleblowers) and policy leads (who are responsible for the policy) and HR professionals.53 It also has an online hub community of department whistleblowing leads where the Government People Group share statistics of the centrally collated data.54 DWP said it welcomed the approach that the Cabinet Office has taken in recent years to provide a network for whistleblowing across government.55
Government Response Summary
The Cabinet Office will build on existing work to share insight and best practice, work with departmental leads to ensure senior leader oversight of cases, explore organisational learning, policies and procedures, continue with the annual whistleblowing event, consider the Department for Business and Trade’s review, explore agency expectations, and explore a mentoring system for Nominated Officers.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
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. 5.3 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. 5.4 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. 5.5 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. 5.6 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. 5.7 It has been recognized 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 organizations 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. 5.8 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.