Public Concern at Work: supporting public‐interest whistleblowing
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14668203200100019 |
| Published date | 01 August 2001 |
| Pages | 41-44 |
| Date | 01 August 2001 |
| Author | Robin van den Hende |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
a b s t r a c t
Public Concern at Work is the
U K ’s leading charitable organisation
promoting accountability and good
practice in the workplace.It does
this by helping ensure concerns
about serious malpractice are
properly raised and addressed
before the public interest is harmed.
Here PCaW’s field worker looks
s p e c i fically at the organisation’s
experience and role in the field of
social care.
O rg a n i s a t i o n a lp ro fil e
The Journal of Adult Protection Volume 3 Issue 3 • August 2001 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton)Limited 41
key word s
a b u s e
w h i s t l e b l o w i n g
a c c o u n t a b i l i t y
social care
Judy worked as a deputy matron at a private nursing home for
the elderly run by M rand Mrs T. She had been suspicious
about Mr T’s behaviour for a couple of years, but things came
to a head when a care assistant told her that she had entere d
one of the re s i d e n t ’ s rooms and found Mr T behaving strangely
next to one of the female residents. When Judy re t u rned with
the care assistant, Mr T had gone and they discovered what
she assumed to be semen on the lady’s cardigan and hair. Judy
tended to the resident, thinking first of the re s i d e n t ’s needs
and not the value of the evidence. As Mr T ran the home Judy
did not feel confident about raising the matter within the
home. Equally, as she had removed the evidence it would be
her word against Mr T’s if she went to the health authority.
Faced with this dilemma, Judy decided to phone Public
C o n c e rn at Wo r k .
Public Concern at Work (PCaW) is an independent charity
that seeks to ensure that concerns about serious malpractice
a re properly raised and addressed in the workplace. We do this
in four ways.
Confidential helpline
Our confidential helpline provides legal advice and assistance
to workers on how they can legitimately blow the whistle on
such things as fraud, negligence, abuse in care and threats to
public safety. In the period 1999-2000 our helpline re c e i v e d
some 1,600 requests for advice and of these 874 were about
public concerns (threats to the public interest). Fifteen per
cent of these public concerns related to abuse in care. This
s e rvice has been praised by both the TUC and CBI.
Public Concern at Work:
supporting public-interest
whistleblowing Robin van den Hende
Field Worker, Public Concern at Work
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