Compliance Statements
Register of interests
Following guidance from NHS England, senior managers and officers in certain categories are now required to make annual declarations of interest.
Members of the public can view the Trust's Register of staff declarations of interest, thus providing transparency and accountability in compliance with the latest NHS England guidance. You can view the Declarations of Interests Register by visiting the Declarations web page.
Compliance with the 'Eliminating Mixed Sex Accommodation' programme
Dorset HealthCare is compliant with the Government’s requirement to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation, except when it is in the patient’s overall best interest, or reflects their personal choice. Read the Trust's declaration of compliance on mixed sex accommodation.
We welcome your feedback to help us ensure continuous quality improvements.
Statement on Francis Report
Dorset HealthCare declares that it supports in principle the recommendations outlined in the Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry: February 2013 and the subsequent reports ‘Patients First and Foremost’ (March 2013) and ‘Hard Truths the Journey to Putting Patients First’ (November 2013). The Trust has an action plan in place and all actions taken to achieve the recommendations will be made in line with national policy and standards.
Governance manual
This manual sets out in high level terms how the Trust is governed. Well governed organisations have been shown by research to deliver better results. It highlights several over-arching governance concepts including:
- the characteristics of assurance (confirming for oneself) and reassurance (taking things on trust)
- the complementary but differing roles of executive and non-executive directors on a unitary Board.
Modern day slavery
Dorset HealthCare aims to be as effective as possible in ensuring that modern slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of its business or supply chains. In addition to the above actions, Dorset Health Care will measure its performance against the following indicators.
The Trust endeavours to build long-standing relationships with our suppliers and make clear our expectations of business behaviour. Where national or international supply chains are used, we expect these suppliers to have suitable anti-slavery and human trafficking policies and procedures and, where there is a risk of slavery and human trafficking taking place, steps have been taken to assess and manage that risk.
- Develop a level of communication with the next link in the supply chain and their understanding of, and compliance with, our expectations in relation to the NHS terms
- and conditions. These conditions relate to issues such as bribery, slavery and other ethical considerations.
- Working in partnership with Multi-Agency Partners who are leading on this Agenda within Dorset.
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking training is available to all Dorset HealthCare staff as part of their Core Safeguarding one to three training. Additional training is available via the Local Safeguarding Adult’s and Children’s Boards, Community Groups
- Development of additional supporting tools will be made available on the Trust intranet.
- This statement is made pursuant to Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our organisation’s Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.
Anti-bribery and corruption
The Trust is committed to maintaining an honest, open and well intentioned approach so as to best fulfill the objectives of the NHS. This means fraud, bribery and corruption related activity will not be tolerated.
Such conduct, at any level, is unacceptable. The Trust Board will ensure that stringent policies and internal systems to deal with fraud, bribery and corruption are in place and are acted upon swiftly.
We expect all our staff to operate in accordance with our values, and to have the best interests of the NHS and our service users in mind. We are committed to the elimination of fraud, bribery and corruption, to the rigorous investigation of any such allegations and to taking appropriate action against such individuals that includes criminal prosecution and recovery of losses as a result of any criminal act.
If an employee has suspicions regarding fraud, bribery or corruption related activity within the trust, we assure you that the matter will be taken seriously and referred to the Local Counter Fraud Specialist (LCFS).
With regard to external parties, we reserve the right to terminate any contracts where there is evidence of acts of bribery having been committed.
For further advice and information, please refer to the Anti-fraud, Bribery and Corruption Policy.
Should you have any concerns or require any advice, please contact our dedicated LCFS, Andy Knight, on 01305 361129 / 07920 295097 for a confidential discussion.
You can also speak to our Chief Finance Officer, Matthew Metcalfe, or report any suspicions directly to NHS Counter Fraud Authority or call 0800 028 4060.
Board Self-Certifications 2023
NHS foundation trusts are required to self-certify whether they have complied with certain conditions of the NHS provider licence. These include General Condition 6 (Systems for compliance with licence conditions and related obligations) and Continuity of Services Condition 7 (Availability of Resources). The aim of self-certification is for providers to carry out assurance that they are in compliance with the conditions.
The Board of Directors, on 7 June 2023, certified that it was compliant with the conditions, however, it highlighted specific factors that could affect the availability of resources in 2023/24, reflecting the risks described in its annual financial plan, namely:
- the achievement of the Trust’s cost improvement programme;
- unfunded inflationary risks, primarily utilities costs;
- agency staff costs to cover staff vacancies supported by the recruitment of substantive staff to fill vacant posts; and
- a reduction in the number of out of area placements in mental health inpatient services.