Responding to concerns: 2024-2025

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA) is the law that protects whistleblowers from negative treatment or unfair dismissal from raising a concern (also known as a protected disclosure). Although staff should be able to raise concerns in their own organisation, the law also enables staff to raise concerns with ‘prescribed persons’.

Responding to concerns

In 2014, Healthcare Improvement Scotland was designated a ‘prescribed person’ which means we have a statutory duty to respond to concerns raised with or referred to us that have the potential to impact on safety or quality of care within the NHS in Scotland. As a designated prescribed person, individuals can come directly to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to raise concerns and still be entitled to the protection detailed within the Act. All relevant concerns are assessed through our Responding to Concerns process, and reviewed in the context of our statutory powers as described in the ‘who we are what we do’ section of this report.

2024-2025 reviews

During 2024-2025, we reviewed twenty-two concerns from NHS staff. In addition, we assessed a further nine concerns that were referred to us through other routes (internal processes within HIS, through another national organisation/regulator or a referral from an NHS board). We also carried forward the ongoing assessment of five concerns from the previous year (two from NHS staff and three referred through other routes). 

Disclosures and referrals

In relation to all disclosures and referrals, we undertook an initial assessment of the information shared with us. In all cases, this led to further action being taken by HIS and the relevant NHS Board. This action can be summarised as:

• we worked with the source of the information to fully understand the concerns and the context of the service within which they related to
• we engaged with the relevant NHS Board, and other national partners as appropriate, to seek assurance that the concerns were being responded to and addressed within the NHS Board and that improvements were implemented as required
• we engaged with the NHS Board to seek assurance about the safety and quality of care of the service more broadly and that appropriate governance and executive oversight were arrangements in place. 

All action taken was summarised in formal written communications shared with the NHS Board and the individual/source of the concerns.  Meetings took place with the source of the concern, and the NHS Board as required.

In addition to providing an opportunity for NHS boards to identify and implement improvements to the safety and quality of care of a service, all disclosures and referrals provide a valuable source of information and intelligence to inform the wider work of Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

2024-2025 improvements

During 2024-2025, we have made improvements to our process for responding to concerns following an external review of our processes which was commissioned in response to a complaint received in 2023-2024. We are committed to continuously improving the process to ensure concerns regarding the safety and quality of health and care services are addressed and acted upon appropriately.

*Due to an administrative error, the figures were published out with the deadline. We take our statutory role extremely seriously and the information was published as quickly as possible when the issue came to light.