ABOUT ME

I am a Research Fellow at Middlesex University Business School prior to which I held senior positions in eight UK trade unions. I have an extensive knowledge and experience of workplace culture, primarily in the public sector.

 

My professional and personal lives are both guided by a sense of our shared humanity and of social justice.

 

I have developed innovative approaches to professional accountability for professionals in health and social care and am co-author with Michael Preston Shoot of Professional Accountability in Social Care and Health: Challenging Unacceptable Practice and its Management (Sage 2012) and the author of The Duty of Care (UNISON 2003 and substantially revised with Public World 2013).

 

I was a member of the Social Work Reform Board (2010–2013), a member of the Higher Education Equality Challenge Unit Board (2006-2008) and the Higher Education Working Party on Race and Degree Attainment (2007-2008). I am a member of the NHS Health and Wellbeing Expert Advisory Board (2020) and was a member of the Expert Group on an Ethical Framework for COVID-19 testing for NHS workers (2020). I advise a number of organisations on bullying, disciplinary action, whistleblowing, discrimination and fair recruitment and career progression

 

I write for Health Service Journal, Nursing Times, Nursing Standard, the British Medical Journal, The Guardian and The Independent amongst others

 

I have authored guidance on race equality in the NHS including “Discrimination by Appointment” (2013) and “The Snowy White Peaks of the NHS” (2014), and designed the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) and then appointed as the joint national director of the WRES team 2015-17.

 

I have helped develop innovative approaches to help reduce disproportionate disciplinary action against BME NHS staff and disproportionate Fitness to Practice referrals. I was joint inclusion adviser with Dr Doyin Atewologun to the NHS Talent Management programme for Aspiring Directors.

 

I am co-author with Dr Doyin Atewologun of the recent report Fair to Refer (2019) to the General Medical Council on the disproportionate referrals of some groups of doctors, all of whose recommendations have been accepted.

 

I am also co-author of:

• the recent NHS Resolution report Being Fair (2019) looking at disciplinary action in the context of patient safety and human factors

• with Prof Duncan Lewis of The Price of Fear (2018), the first detailed estimate of the cost of bullying in the NHS

• with Ghiyas Somra (brap) of Difference Matters (2021) a report on whether ethnicity matter for Freedom to Speak Up Guardians

 

I am the author of No More Tick Boxes, a review of the evidence base of inclusive recruitment and career progression (East of England NHS 2021)

 

I was born four weeks before the NHS was founded and plan to work and campaign to make sure it is still around for my children and grandchild.

 

You can contact me via LinkedIn and can follow my blogs and comments on Twitter.

 

Please note that for reasons of time I no longer represent staff in the workplace.

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For more about me, have a look at this interview I did  with BMJ Leader. You can read the interview here.