Audience
Frontline leaders and deputies, Patient Advice and Liaison, Complaint managers, patient safety incident leads for events of moderate and higher harm, Family Liaison Officers, Corporate patient safety team members, CMO and CNO, Head of Legal services, Divisional Triumvirates
Outline and Duration: This is a one-day programme focusing on engagement and restoration after harm. It addresses all aspects of duty of candour (professional and legal), how to deliver a dignified review/investigation for all affected, and thus how to achieve a credible process that causes no additional and unnecessary harm.
Learning objectives
- Clarity about the legal Duty of Candour and its difference to professional duty
- Insight to the Engagement standards for England (useful for all parts of the UK and beyond)
- To provide practical ideas and guidance around
- The apology
- Hearing what the involved individuals have to say
- Enabling meaningful conversation
- Sharing interim findings for consideration and feedback
- Working with uncertainty and conflicts in information
- To clarify what is meant by ‘meeting needs’:
- Who constitutes ‘involved’ and ‘affected’
- What are reasonable expectations & needs
- How to meet expressed need
- What if a need cannot be met, or if a need is considered unreasonable?
Delivery, Numbers of participants and style:
This programme is led by Maria Dineen and Joanne Hughes. It is delivered via Microsoft Teams. Because of the sensitive nature of the subject, it benefits from smaller numbers of up to 20 persons. However, if the client can buddy participants so people join the meeting in small groups of 2-3 persons via one device then we will accept up to 30 persons. We have found this works well and optimises value.
Regarding style, this is a reflective workshop where technical information is used to encourage participants to reflect on their lived experiences in and out of healthcare. The ground rules agreed by all at the start create a safe, compassionate, and facilitative learning space.
What participants have said:
“Compassionate engagement, valuing and validating experience, not every death has to be a ‘learning experience’, openness and transparency” (2023)
“Listening to clients and families following an incident allowing time for the process carefully consider responses so not to cause compounded harm” (2023)
“Treat patients and families involved in incidents how I would like to be treated. For patients and families ‘understanding what happened’ is not the same as ‘accepting’ what happened. We need better ways to help patients and families access counselling. Thank you for the sign post ideas.” (2024)
“Respect your staff listen to all involved in harm meet the needs of all involved in harm learn from the events meaningfully” (2024)
“Consider the other side of the coin when investigations happen, keep the families informed at all times, provide a dignified environment when meeting families” (2024)