Download our monthly H&S review for October on ‘CQC Quality Statements – Learning Culture’ from our partner, AfterAthena, here
DOWNLOAD NOW
Alternatively, read it here:
Safety Culture
Learning Culture is one of the quality statements under the Key Question of Safe from the Care Quality Commission. As a reminder, quality statements are the commitments that health and social providers should live up to. The quality statements are part of the CQC’s new Single Assessment Framework and will be introduced as part of a phased approach from November 2023 until the end of March 2024.
The statement in full reads:
“We have a proactive and positive culture of safety based on openness and honesty, in which concerns about safety are listened to, safety events are investigated and reported thoroughly, and lessons are learned to continually identify and embed good practices”.
There are many factors which can influence how health and safety is both perceived and managed. For this very reason there are a variety of indicators for a positive safety culture. By influencing and promoting a positive health and safety culture, it can assist in making compliance with legislation and statutory duties easier. A positive culture can increase staff morale and productivity. It can also help to reduce workplace absences.
There are five key indicators for safety culture:
- Health and Safety Leadership
Examples of positive indicators can include clearly defined safety roles and responsibilities, such as those defined within your health and safety policy and visible management, such as management safety tours being conducted.
- Two-way Communication
Examples of positive indicators can include systems in place for employees to feedback and raise or report any safety concerns, whereby the flow of communication goes two ways.
- Involving Employees
Examples of positive indicators can include employees from all levels within your organisation being involved in safety decisions or the review and development of risk assessments.
- Learning Culture
Examples can include accident and incident investigation procedures and ensuring lessons are learnt from these. Monitoring known problems, identifying new problems, detecting any trends over time and then developing control measures can also indicate positive culture. A culture survey may assist in identifying the thoughts and feelings your employees have towards how safety is managed.
- Attitude Towards Blame
Examples can include a culture where ultimate responsibility for incidents lies with the organisation and that the purpose of accident and incident investigations is to learn from them and not to apportion blame.
To summarise, culture can be described as the behaviours, values, attitudes and beliefs that are shared by all members of an organisation. It is the way that things are done within an organisation.
