Care Right Now CIC – Social Audit Report 2014/2015

Overview:

This has been a year of transition for Care Right Now (CIC).

During the financial year from April 2014 to March 2015 Steve Turner (Manging Director) blew the whistle on poor treatment of staff who raised concerns about patient safety in local NHS Trust. Described in this report under ‘whistleblowing story’. This was not well received by local NHS providers.

Rather than a setback, this has been a strength for the company and taken our work to a new level.

Following this, a decision was made to promote and market the company outside the local area and focus on three services:

 

Social enterprise led consultancy

Patient led Clinical Education

Promoting transparency and listening to concerns

 

Care Right Now CIC markets these services nationally and beyond.

Much of 2014/15 has been spent building strategic alliances / affiliations and working relationships to ensure the company can grow and be sustainable.

This has involved a large investment in describing and promoting the company across the U.K, developing a network of Associates who are suitably qualified to work for the company, and getting to know senior leaders and key players nationally in Health and Social Care.

Care Right Now (CIC) has now completed a major re-branding exercise. The main reasons for this are to further emphasise the company’s core values and mission statement (which remain unchanged):

‘Care Right Now (CIC) is a Social Enterprise Company delivering healthcare systems development through innovative approaches. We have expertise in helping patients / users of health services achieve improved health outcomes and all work undertaken will have direct and measurable health benefits for patients’.

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Core Values:

• Helping individuals and organisations make change happen, in order to
deliver positive health outcomes.
• A focus on engagement and motivation.

These are set out on the new company web site (www.carerightnow.co.uk) under the headings:

Ethical, Visionary, Courageous, Empowering, Committed

Mission Statement

To work in partnership with the NHS; industry; patients and the public to improve the patient’s experience. We aim to help all involved realise their full potential through creative approaches to achieving sustainable change, across whole systems.

Aims

To bring healthcare providers, patients and staff together, and to find new ways to make care transparent, cost-effective and safe.

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Impact of whistleblowing – a new direction:

In 2014 Steve Turner attempted to blow the whistle on poor practice in an NHS Trust. This led to an end to all NHS work in Cornwall .

In order to continue with the company, and build on its successes, the Directors agreed to invest in establishing a national profile for the company, focusing on the development of new and innovative services and building alliances with other social enterprise companies.

 

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Whsitleblowing story:
My Story – Steve Turner, Campaigner for safer healthcare

Steve Turner is a man on a mission – to create a better climate within our National Health Service where people can speak out about unsafe practices without fear of losing their jobs.

He’s a rare breed of health professional whose career spans hands-on nursing, training and innovation as well as campaigning for greater transparency within the NHS.

Steve began his career as a nurse specialising in mental health inspired by, and slightly scared of what happened to his grandfather who had suffered major depression all his life.
His appetite for learning took him through a degree in Social Policy and then into the world of healthcare IT. Steve spent the next decade working on clinical systems for American giant Shared Medical Systems, progressing from project manager to Senior Strategic Services Consultant of the US arm of the company, working with leaders of clinical teams in the UK

Steve then returned to the NHS, successfully revamping the Information and Technology department at Tunbridge Wells prior to a trust merger.

A spell in consultancy for the Kent and Medway Cancer network followed, with Steve leading two multi-organisational projects to identify the most effective information and prescribing systems. These brought clinical teams together to manage a complicated buying system in a much more efficient and cost effective way.

Then came a career crossroads. Steve and his partner decided it was time for a lifestyle change. They had enjoyed many holidays in Cornwall and decided this was the place to be. Plus Steve wanted to return his first love of hands-on nursing. He did a Return to Practice Nursing course and began work as a community mental health nurse in St Austell. Then he moved to an assertive outreach team based in Truro and dealing with some of the most vulnerable people in the community. This involved long term relationships and building trust with patients, something Steve much enjoyed. He also became a Nurse Prescriber, specialising in drugs within the mental health framework.

However in 2008, with proposed cutbacks on the horizon, Steve gently told his patients about the changes and that he might not necessarily be their regular nurse in the future, a step he thought was an important part of good care planning.

Following the standard procedures, he raised his concerns with the mental health trust. His only mistake was to copy his grievance letter to three GPs with whom he’d been working closely.

An attempt was made to discipline him but he accepted that what he had done was outside the policy of the Trust.

However the matter didn’t end there. The cuts had particularly upset two of Steve’s patients who realised that their continuity of care was being threatened and so they filed formal comments about the changes. But once these forms reached the desks of senior management, Steve was accused of bringing the organization into disrepute and suspended from work. Realising that the Trust would be pressing on with the cutbacks, and that his hopes of eventually winning a senior clinical job were scuppered, he resigned.

Steve returned to his training skills, developing medicines management training for staff at the Trust and worked on some major projects involving clinical governance and prescribing for patients with substance issues.

However by 2013 he was becoming increasingly concerned at the plight of the mental health staff he was training. They were becoming tearful in training sessions and were clearly stressed. They told Steve they were afraid to speak out for fear of victimisation as there was no alternative employer within travelling distance.

Steve attempted to discuss his concerns with the Trust but he quickly hit a brick wall. The Care Quality Commission were more sympathetic and arranged for an external person to review his complaint. However he was shocked to be left out of the loop, and merely told there had been ‘recommendations.’

This process cemented Steve’s ambition to campaign for better transparency in the NHS. He decided to set up Care Right Now as a structured company with an ethical base, delivering change management consultancy within health care, and a new breed of patient led education for clinical staff.

He has also created a movement to bring together people who raise concerns about patient safety and share their experiences, with Turn Up the Volume! on Patient Safety, a new initiative run on a charity basis. With a highly successful inaugural conference in Bristol under its belt, the movement is swiftly gathering momentum.

Does he have any regrets about what he did?

None at all, Steve says he would do it all over again. But he admits it took its toll on his personal life, taking him to the verge of bankruptcy, affecting his home life and linked to episodes of major depression.

It takes more than just courage to report concerns about patient safety, as Steve Turner discovered firsthand. Now he wants to make that path smoother for others in the future.

When NHS staff can report concerns without fear, he says, we will have achieved what we have set out to do. Ultimately this about patients’ lives – and staff’s livelihoods.

 

I found it difficult to write about myself. My thanks to Jane Blanchard at Blanchard Media Limited for producing this.

 

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Building a national reputation:

The company has established a twiter presence with over 1,000 followers for both Steve Turner’s account and the Care Right Now account. Steve Turner the MD has attended and actively participted in a number of high profile national events and now has over 500 LinkedIn contacts.

A major investment has been made with the company being represented at the Health and Care Show in March 2014, and the development of a ground breaking national conference for October 2015 entitled ‘Turn Up The Volume! Curing the sllence epidemic’ – on whistleblowing and speaking out for safer care.

Care Right Now’s children’s medicines project was highly commended by NICE, included in their shared learning resource and presented as a poster at the 2015 NICE Annual Conference in Liverpool.

 

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Project work and service development:

Around 100 days has been dedicated to the development of a new service ‘Patient Led Clinical Medicines Reviews ™’ This is expected to begin to deliver revenue for the company in 2015/6 and grow fast.

The company has invested around 60 days in establishing a network of social enterprises and ethical companies who can become future alliance partners. The-Company has built effective working links with Active Plus CIC; Menopause Self-Care CIC, Carers Break CIC; Planning with People CIC; Patients First (UK); Speak In Confidence and Datix UK.

Around 100 days has been allocated to promoting the company through its reputation as a champion of transparency and corporate social responsibility. This has achieved both national and international recognition.

 

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Stakeholder engagement:

The company’s stakeholders are the commissioning organisations, and the patients, families, carers and public served by the projects.
During the period the company has increasingly involved Associates in the delivery of its services.

Associates include:
Sam Williams – Specialist Teacher / Service User
Elaine Broadbridge – Pharmacist
Michael Thomas – Nurse Educator, palliative care specialist and prescriber

Further recruitment of potential Associates is underway.

In addition the company is continuing building links with national organisations, including the new company the Zito Partnership CIC and the influential patient led Meeting of Minds Collaboration.

The company is planning to recruit a new Board, produce a 5 year Business Plan and key objectives, assisted by a new Strategic Steering Group.

Care Right Now (CIC) has been awarded the Social Enterprise Mark
Care Right Now (CIC) is a member of Social Enterprise UK
Care Right Now (CIC) supports the Nursing Times Speak Out Safely Campaign
Care Right Now (CIC) is a chapter of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Steve Turner continues as Information Governance Lead for CareMeds Ltd
Steve Turner is a  NICE Medicines and Prescribing Centre Associate (sabbatical in 2015)
Care Right Now (CIC) is a registered stakeholder in NICE consultations
Steve Turner continues as an Associate Lecturer at Plymouth University
Steve Turner is now a Care Quality Commission (CQC) Specialist Advisor
Steve Turner is a member of the People’s Panel for Future of Health 2014
Steve is a member of Patients First UK
The company has links with the Clinical Human Factors Group a broad coalition of healthcare professionals campaigning for ‘aviation’ levels of safety in the NHS.
Steve Turner blogs for Care Right Now on the Care Right Now web site and on the SpeakInConfidence web site

Date of publication: 7/1/2016

This is an expanded version of the Social Audit Report filed with Companies House.