“Rolling bad apples” and the NHS

Staff members speaking to the BBC, on condition they remained anonymous, described "shouting and abuse of black and Asian consultants" in meetings at East Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. The BBC was told that repeated evidence presented to the trust over months had "resulted in no action". The BBC reported that:

“Some staff said trainees were manipulated and coerced to report and complain about colleagues from ethnic minorities.”

One staff member said there was a "loss of faith in the trust to deal with the issues which is compromising patient care". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz059gxnvzdo

This case, based on an independent review raises two issues.

How did the Trust respond?

The first issue is that the Trust is quoted as saying action taken by the trust in response to this sustained racist abuse included "embedding dedicated support to attend meetings, provide guidance and offer confidential advice to colleagues within the team" and said investigations were under way.

But if the BBC report is correct, as the Trust appear to accept, this seems to place an awful lot of the responsibility for tackling the toxic culture on staff raising concerns rather than on HR and Trust leaders being proactive and preventative which is what they are now statutorily required to be when faced with such sexual and racial harassment.

Racial harassment (like harassment in general) arises when a worker is subject to unwanted conduct that is related to a protected characteristic and has the purpose or the effect of:

• violating the worker’s dignity, or

• creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that worker 

From 26 October 2024, a change to the law meant that NHS Trusts ()including East Sussex Healthcare Trust) have had a statutory responsibility to prevent such harassment of their workers by being proactive and preventative, assessing risk, and identifying action. https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/sexual-harassment-and-harassment-work-technical-guidance

The Trust response quoted here does not seem to be in accordance with the Trust’s statutory obligations. Unfortunately, however, East Sussex in not alone.

Rolling bad apples

The second related issue arising from this report is the NHS failure to hold to account  the perpetrators of such poor behaviour.

In the wake of the Ockenden Report  NHSE CEO Sir Jim Mackey and chief nursing officer Duncan Burton wrote to trust leaders, saying:

“We can’t accept the status quo.” The letter warns of “challenging conversations” to come with leaders in some organisations”  who need to ‘robustly manage’ staff who ‘lack compassion and openness’ https://www.pslhub.org/news/%E2%80%98robustly-manage%E2%80%99-staff-who-%E2%80%98lack-compassion-and-openness%E2%80%99-nhse-tells-trusts-r8593/

In this Trust the Chief People Officer is also the Deputy Chief Executive. The Chief Executive was previously the CEO of another Trust where serious allegations of racism were upheld. https://www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/director-who-raised-alarm-about-racism-receives-apology/7040323.article

Is the NHSE Board, for example, going to take a leaf out of the Financial Conduct Authority approach:

“The City’s largest hedge funds, insurers and pension funds are racing to prepare for sweeping rules that will stop nearly 40,000 companies from hiding bullying and harassment cases from the financial watchdog.

From September 1st 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority will expand a crackdown on bad behaviour in the banking industry to a wider group of City investment firms and brokers under which companies will be expected to report any serious cases of non-financial misconduct to the regulator.

The firms will also be required to forward reports of bad behaviour – including racism, sexual harassment, violence and intimidation – to a manager’s prospective future employer.

It is hoped that the rules will prevent cases of “rolling bad apples”, where rogue bosses move to new firms without facing consequences.  https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/27/city-fca-crackdown-bullying-harassment-rules

“Rolling bad apples”? Sounds familiar.

Questions

Se here are three questions for NHS England.

Firstly, has NHS England reported any “bad apples” to the Fit and Proper Persons process or has it helped them keep rolling?  If they did report some, what happened?

I am in favour of support and learning as a general rule. But where leaders have knowingly abused and harmed others there should also be consequences.

Alternatively, will the new Leadership and Management Framework sanction  “rolling bad apples” ? I won’t hold my breath.

I can think of a significant number of senior NHS executives who are “rolling bad apples”. I suspect you can too. Recent Employment Tribunals have named a number of them.

Secondly, this is far from being the only NHS organisation where recent allegations have been made that staff “were manipulated and coerced to report and complain about colleagues” –notably whistleblowers, staff raising concerns about bullying, and black and minority ethnic staff but certainly not only black and minority ethnic colleagues. It can happen as easily to Directors as to front line staff.

In this case are the senior medical managers responsible for  the toxic behaviours going to be reported for breaching Good Medical Practice?

Take another recent case. Mr Johal, Board director and Head of Estates in a Lincolnshire Trust won his case for unfair dismissal. The case cost the Trust hundreds of thousands of pounds. The CEO responsible then become a “rolling apple” and was recycled to become “director of turnaround and recovery” for the North East and Yorkshire region https://www.hsj.co.uk/leadership/ceo-takes-regional-role-after-breakdown-in-relationship/7040686.article

I can share a long list of similar cases, by no means just BME staff.

In at least two cases even Chief People Officers who fell foul of Trust leaders who were “bad apples” were pushed out of their jobs and careers.

When I interviewed staff last year who had raised protected disclosures about patient care or bullying and discrimination almost every single one was able to demonstrate how senior staff had colluded in causing them detriment.  https://www.rogerkline.co.uk/investigating-the-investigators

The process of  collusion and malicious group complaints encouraged by senior leaders is much more widespread than national leaders of the NHS will admit.

Thirdly, a reasonable question, therefore, for regulators and Ministers would be why have numbers of those responsible for such disgraceful behaviour been recycled by the very regulator (NHS England) supposed to protect staff against such nefarious activity?

East Susses is not an isolated example. I am in favour of learning when toxic behaviours have taken place. But that does not mean there should be no accountability.

We could start by stopping the bad apples rolling on to pastures anew. Over to you Jim.