Ambulance service tackling misogyny, says chief

The Wales Ambulance Service is committed to making its workplaces as safe as it can, says its boss

Work is ongoing to tackle "pockets of poor behaviour" amongst Wales Ambulance Service staff, including on misogyny and sexual safety, its chief executive has said.

Jason Killens said there was "a lot of work underway to modify that behaviour" after an external review found "some challenges in some of our workplaces".

He said it was a "good thing in the short term" that staff were raising more concerns about workplace behaviour.

It follows February's Welsh government takeover of the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, after an investigation found it had a culture of sexual harassment and misogyny.

Mr Killens was answering a question at the Senedd's health committee on Wednesday from former first minister Mark Drakeford.

Mr Drakeford said uniformed services "can be very vulnerable to cultures of misogyny, homophobia and all the other things that we would not want to see".

He asked Mr Killens how confident he was that the ambulance service had systems to "alert you to such difficulties".

"We do have pockets of poor behaviour in some of our workplaces across Wales," the chief executive replied.

“We commissioned and undertook an external culture review about two years ago, because we recognised that there were some challenges in some of our workplaces.

“That review, when it reported, confirmed that for us, and it was the commencement of a journey which we continue to be on now, focusing on improving our culture in many aspects."

Jason Killens has led the Wales Ambulance Service since September 2018

Mr Killens outlined the "range of support networks in place" for staff.

“We’ve undertaken a whole load of development with specific teams, organisational development work with specific teams where we’ve identified poor practice and poor culture, and particularly [in regard to] sexual safety and misogyny," he told the committee.

“We’ve increased recently our capacity to deal with concerns and complaints which are raised by our staff, because we’re seeing more of those coming through, which is a good thing we see, we’re seeing more concerns being raised about behaviour in the workplace, which is a good thing in the short term.

“So we’ve increased capacity to be able to support staff and conclude those investigations quickly."

Mr Killens said the trust had "led the way across the UK ambulance sector" with the work it was doing, and NHS England had "picked up the approach we were taking" for the 10 ambulance services there.

His words were welcomed by the Welsh Conservatives' shadow health minister, Sam Rowlands.

“A healthy workplace culture is imperative so staff and service users can have confidence in the ambulance service," he said.

“It’s vital that public organisations play their part in ensuring people feel safe and respected in their workplaces.”