All organisations face the risk of things going wrong or of unknowingly harbouring malpractice.  The Community Foundation has a duty to identify malpractice and take the appropriate measures to remedy the situation.  By encouraging a culture of openness within our organisation the Community Foundation aims to prevent malpractice.

Scope

This Procedure will apply to all ‘staff’ within the Community Foundation and associated groups and will cover all cases where members of staff wish to make disclosures of malpractice in connection with their employment.  For the purposes of this policy, ‘staff’ includes employees, associates, contractors, agency staff, temporary and casual workers.

This policy is designed to afford protection to staff who disclose information of a specified category to a specified individual in specified circumstances, in accordance with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.  It will also enable them, if necessary, to make a complaint or assist in an investigation without fear of reprisal.

Responsibility

The Chief Executive will have a responsibility to ensure that disclosures are dealt with as fairly and quickly as possible and as near to the point of origin as possible.

 

Where the Policy Applies

This policy will apply in cases where a member of staff genuinely and in good faith believes that one of the following sets of circumstances is occurring, has occurred or may occur within the Community Foundation;

• The health and safety of any individual has been, is being or is likely to be endangered
• A person has failed, is failing or is likely to fail to comply with any legal obligation to which he or she is subject
• Fraud, financial irregularity, corruption, bribery or blackmail has been committed, is being committed, or is likely to be committed
• A criminal offence has been committed, is being committed or is likely to be committed
• A serious miscarriage of justice has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur
• The environment has been, is being, or is likely to be, damaged
• Information tending to show any matter falling within any one of the preceding paragraphs has been, is being, or is likely to be deliberately concealed.

While it is not necessary that the member of staff proves the malpractice or misconduct that he/she is alleging, but may simply raise a reasonable suspicion, a member of staff will not be protected from the consequences of making such a disclosure if, by doing so, he/she commits a criminal offence.  Staff will only be entitled to protection if the disclosure is carried out in accordance with the procedure.

To Whom the Disclosure Should Be Made

If a member of staff wishes to raise or discuss any issues which might fall into the above category, they can contact their line manager in the first instance, who will treat the matter in confidence.  If they prefer, they can raise the matter with the Chief Executive or the chair of the Board of Trustees.  They may also make a disclosure through the Whistleblowing section on our website.  In such cases it is possible that further investigation may be necessary, and they may be required to attend an investigative hearing as a witness.

 How The Disclosure Will Be Handled

The complaint can be made orally or in writing, describing the incident(s) as fully as possible to an employee’s line manager.  Where the concern involves an employee’s line manager, the concern should be raised with the Chief Executive or the Chair of the Board of Trustees.  All complaints will be viewed seriously and treated confidentially.  Care will be taken during an investigation to treat all staff involved with consideration.

Appropriate steps will be taken to ensure that the member of staff’s working environment and working relationships are not prejudiced by the fact of any disclosure.

An investigation will be conducted into the disclosure, and the person conducting the investigation will interview the person against whom the allegations are made, the complainant and any relevant witnesses.  These interviews will be conducted in confidence.  All parties to these proceedings can be accompanied.

The investigation should be concluded within four weeks of the disclosure being received.  If this time limit is exceeded, the complainant should be advised of this and given a date when the investigation will end.

The investigator must keep a detailed written record of the investigation and the findings.  The complainant and the person(s) against whom the allegation has been made will be notified of the findings in writing by the investigator.

Once an investigation is completed, the investigator, in conjunction with the Chief Executive, will decide on the strength of the findings, the appropriate action to be taken.  This may include disciplinary action.

If the complainant is dissatisfied with the outcome, or with the way in which the disclosure was handled, a written request for reconsideration should be made to the Chief Executive or Chair of the Board of Trustees within seven days of receiving the investigating person’s decision.

If disciplinary action is justified, the Community Foundation disciplinary procedure will be entered as appropriate.  Any disciplinary action taken will reflect the severity of the offence and may include dismissal.  The member of staff may appeal against the penalty in accordance with the Community Foundation appeals process as contained in the Disciplinary procedure.

Disclosures made in bad faith

Staff should be aware that this policy will only apply where a disclosure is made in good faith and where a member of staff reasonably believes that the information disclosed, and any allegation contained in it, are substantially true.  If any disclosure is made in bad faith (for instance, in order to cause disruption within the Community Foundation), for malicious reasons, or concerns information which the member of staff does not substantially believe is true, or if the disclosure is made for personal gain, then such a disclosure will constitute a disciplinary offence under the Community Foundation’s Disciplinary Procedures.  This may constitute gross misconduct for which summary dismissal is the sanction.  Such disclosures made by members of staff or former members of staff may also be defamatory, and in those circumstances the Community Foundation may be entitled to seek damages.

While the Community Foundation hopes that such disclosures will never be necessary within its organisation, it also recognises that it may find itself in circumstances which are new to it.  Each case will be treated on its own facts.

Make a whistleblowing disclosure

If you wish to make a whistleblowing disclosure please use our online customer portal which can be found here.

 

Other ways to contact us

Relay UK: If you are deaf or hard of hearing, or have speech difficulties, you can contact us using Relay UK.  This is a free service and you can find out more here.  Using Relay UK means you would type your question to a Relay Assistant who would speak the question to us.  They would listen to our reply and type the response back to you.  If you are already using Relay UK you can call 18001 01785 339540 to engage the service.  If you are not currently using Relay UK you can contact them to sign up.

British Sign Language: You can contact us using video services using BSL.  There are many different providers, but two examples are SignVideo, and Sign Solutions using InterpretersLive!  These are services where you can video call a BSL interpreter, speak with them using BSL and they will relay the call to us, and give our response back to you.  If you use British Sign Language please email us to arrange a BSL-interpreted call or video meeting.

Tell us how you’d like to be contacted

If you don’t want to use Relay UK or BSL calls, or don’t want to, please get in touch with us by email at office@staffordshire.foundation, telephone on 01785 339540 or by text on 07383 722064 and let us know how you’d like us to contact you.

If your enquiry relates to a data access request, a complaint, a whistleblowing issue, or reporting an incident, you can also use our online customer portal here.