Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted in Part
Cabinet Office has scope to do more to actively surface and share whistleblowing best practices.
Recommendation
The Cabinet Office said it could play a role in collating information across the civil service and share back what works well and what departments can do more of.56 For example, the NAO reported that some departments do not have a whistleblowing hotline,57 despite more than 80% of concerns raised each year being raised by calling a hotline, email or another written route.58 The Cabinet Office acknowledged that it could do more in terms of surfacing and sharing best practice, and that it is part of their role to facilitate that.59 It told us it was currently asking departments what they want to see Cabinet Office do more of, for example, some initial feedback had asked if the Cabinet Office could share best practice from other large organisations.60
Government Response Summary
The Cabinet Office will build on existing work to share insight and best practice, work with organizations that have a mature model and explore how the experience to maturity can be shared across government and explore the development of a mentoring system for Nominated Officers with the community of practitioners so they can support and learn from each other.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
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.