South East Coast Ambulance Service has responded to a survey by the GMB Union, which reported "high levels of inappropriate behaviour and bullying" within the Trust.
South East Coast Ambulance Service has responded to a survey by the GMB Union, which reported "high levels of inappropriate behaviour and bullying" within the Trust.
SECAMB says it has fully investigated the historic cases highlighted in the report, including commissioning independent external reviews led by the Chief Executive.
The Trust also raised significant concerns about the validity of the GMB survey, claiming it lacked proper control measures and could still be completed multiple times by individuals as recently as January 2025.
SECAMB have released a statement on its website: "We will always take appropriate action when it comes to addressing inappropriate behaviour that is not in line with our values and will not tolerate this from anyone, regardless of their role in the organisation.
"We take the welfare of our people, and our patients seriously and fully investigated the historic cases covered in a Sky News report today. This included independent external reviews, commissioned by our Chief Executive.
"And while we recognise that as a Trust and a sector there remains more to be done to improve our culture, we do not believe the concerns raised by the GMB reflect how most of our staff tell us it feels to work at SECAmb now.
"This is reflected in the results of the most recent national NHS Staff Survey, completed anonymously by record numbers of SECAmb colleagues, (3,268), and which demonstrated significant improvements across all key themes.
"Through these results, we were particularly encouraged to see that close to 60% of staff said they felt safe to speak up about anything that concerned them – up from about 45% in 2022. We are also pleased to have been recognised by the national Guardians Office for the progress we have made in this area.
"In the last two years, we have invested significantly in our Freedom to Speak Up service, have rolled out Trust-wide awareness training and a highly visible sexual safety campaign and have reviewed and improved how we deal with harassment of any kind.
"Our new Trust values of kindness, courage and integrity were chosen by our people and are the measure we use in every aspect of our working lives.
"We remain committed to working in partnership with our unions to embed further improvements but are clear that this will only be achieved through meaningful and constructive collaboration.
"As always, we would urge anyone who feels that have been the victim of harassment or has a concern of any kind to report them and they will be listened to."
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