Bullying, Stress Management and Wellbeing in the London Ambulance Service

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, London Ambulance Service NHS Trust should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear London Ambulance Service NHS Trust,

Under Freedom of Information, I would like to request the information and documents listed below. These may be referenced at an inquest into the in-service death of LAS employee Russell Burgess, at Poplar Coroner’s Court on 31 October, so I would appreciate the documents before that date please. I originally submitted this request by email to your FOI email address, and received an auto-acknowledgement, but zero further correspondence, hence this repeated request now. However, the original request date of 2 October is relevant, not the date of this repeated request. Moreover, if you are unable to provide all of the following, or all of them in time, then please let me know, and send over those which you can.

1. A copy of the report into bullying at the LAS, which the author, Professor Duncan Lewis of Plymouth University, submitted to the LAS in September 2019.

2. Following the death of Russell Burgess, the LAS invoked its Serious Incident (SI) Investigation process. Can you please tell me how many times the LAS has invoked an SI for an in-service death over the past 2 years?

3. Assuming that Russell’s case is not the first time than an SI has been used on earlier cases of in-service deaths, can you please share the recommendations of previous such SIs?

4. Could you please provide the Equality Assessment that was written when the LAS in-house Paramedic training course (the “Academy”) was designed?

5. Could you please provide the most recent Equality Assessment that was written for the work undertaken in the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) (both Waterloo and Bow)?

The LAS has produced a Stress Management and Wellbeing policy, which has been in place since 2008 and has been updated most recently in 2017. With reference to this policy:

6. In Section 6.3 of this policy, the Trust says that it will create Individual Stress Risk Assessment consultations. To understand how often these are used, can the Trust provide statistics of how many of these are created per year, for each of the past 2 years?

7. In Section 7.3, the policy mandates a departmental stress risk assessment at least annually. Can the latest two years’ worth of these be provided for both the EOC (Waterloo and Bow) and the Fulham Education Centre (specifically with relation to the Paramedic Academy)?

8. In Sections 7.3.1, 7.7.3 and 9.5, there is a discussion of PTSD and Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) consultations. Can the Trust please provide statistics on how many staff in the EOC (both Waterloo and Bow) are given TriM consultations per annum, over the past 2 years?

9. In Section 7.5, the Trust states that HR has a key role in supporting this policy by:
a. Assisting in monitoring the effectiveness of measures to address stress by, for example, collating, analysing and reporting sickness absence statistics
b. Undertaking the collation of outcomes from exit interviews, reporting any issues and trends that may be identified
c. Collating, analysing and reporting staff turnover rates
Can the results of these, over the past 2 years, be provided?

10. In Section 7.7.3, it mentions that provision should be made for staff and managers to be trained in signs and symptoms of stress, and appropriate interventions. How many people at the Fulham Education Centre, and separately at the EOC (both Waterloo and Bow), have been so trained?

11. In Section 7.8, it states that Staff Safety Representatives should conduct joint premises inspections at 3 month intervals to ensure that stressors are properly identified and consideration given to appropriate control measures. Please could you provide the reports from the two most recent inspections of the EOC (both Waterloo and Bow) and from the two most recent inspections of the Fulham Education Centre, from prior to Russell’s death on 3 July 2019?

12. In Section 7.9, the Corporate Health and Safety Group is charged with regular monitoring and review of the effectiveness of the Stress Management and Wellbeing policy. Please could you provide relevant excerpts of the minutes from these meetings, over the past 2 years?

Thank you very much.
Please could you confirm receipt of this request?

Yours faithfully,

Dave Raval

FOI Admin, London Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Thank you for your request for information placed under the Freedom of
Information Act (2000). We will provide you with a substantive response in
due course. Freedom of Information Office London Ambulance Service NHS
Trust

Dear London Ambulance Service NHS Trust,

You are already beyond the statutory 20 working days for replying. This is not the first time that the LAS has been late in replying to FOI requests about staff stress and mental health.

What is your ETA now please?

Thank you,

Dave Raval