Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust: Staff describe bullying

Zoe Billingham, chairwoman of the trust's board, said addressing the issues was "an absolute priority"

Staff at a troubled NHS mental health trust have said it still has problems with bullying and discrimination.

The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) has been rated "inadequate" four times in six years.

In 2020, the trust said its culture had to change, following an internal report which described "discrimination [and] complaints of harassment and bullying".

A new staff survey revealed further complaints. The trust's chair said addressing them was a "priority".

A meeting of the trust's board was told that "approximately 30%" of staff took part in the survey, called The Big Conversation.

It described "bullying behaviour exacerbated by cliques and silos and poor managers" and discrimination "on the basis of gender identity, sex, mental health diagnosis and race".

In 2020, the trust said its culture had to change, following an internal report which described "a pattern of discrimination"

NSFT's deputy chief executive officer and chief people officer Cath Byford told the meeting: "It's a really hard read, but inspiring.

"I feel very proud that we've done what we said in terms of publishing the report in full, but the important thing for all of us and everybody within the organisation is the 'so what?' and the 'what next?'.

"There's very little if anything that was brought out from the Big Conversation that we could really say we didn't know about."

'Deep disappointment'

Non-executive director Tim Newcombe admitted that over the last decade, the trust had "probably been a bit of a dismal place to work in some respects".

But he added: "There'll be a tipping point in which it suddenly seems to get better. I'm sure of that."

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NSFT chairwoman Zoe Billingham said addressing the issues was "an absolute priority" and the trust was "highly ambitious to see really quite significant change over the foreseeable future".

"There's an awful lot of work that we need to do to acknowledge that very deep sense of disappointment our own staff feel in the way the trust has acted in the past - and that's against the very deep disappointment many of our service users have felt as well," she said.

"We are on it; it's a priority; we will not stop talking about it."