An emergency care charity’s chair has expressed disappointment after a critical inspection report and a petition calling for its chief executive to resign gained over 300 signatures.
The petition, launched earlier this month, calls for the resignation of Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service (LIVES) first-ever chief executive Nikki Cooke for “inadequate leadership” following “multiple reports of bullying” from former employees.
A report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on Monday judged LIVES headquarters as “requires improvement” and raised concerns about staff turnover, sickness and allegations of bullying from senior management.
“However, it was good for caring and responsive,” its report says.
LIVES chair Thomasin Nicholds said in a statement that the charity was “disappointed” by both the CQC report and petition.
High turnover and sickness rates
The CQC carried out an unannounced inspection of the service on 14 November last year and this week rated it as requiring improvement in its safety, effectiveness and leadership but rated it “good” for how caring and responsive it was.
It found several issues at LIVES headquarters, including high turnover and sickness rates and no training provided for staff in restraint.
According to the report, between November 2022 and October 2023, 15 members of staff left the head office. Of these, six were employees whose contracts were terminated “due to a lack of shifts undertaken in their specific role”.
In addition, seven employees left the charity’s community emergency medicine service (CEMS) team, which is part of LIVES headquarters.
“Staff told us they were concerned about patient safety in the CEMS team due to staff leaving or being off sick,” the report reads.
Bullying allegations
On the charity’s culture, the CQC report says “not all staff felt respected, supported and valued”, with some unable “to raise concerns or improvements to their managers as they didn’t feel listened to and feared the consequences”.
It says: “They shared that there were allegations of bullying and shouting at staff in public areas from senior leaders. However, staff said they had felt unable to report these allegations formally.
“They described staff having ‘disappeared’ from work with people not sure if they had left the company or were on sick leave. Staff also told us they didn’t feel comfortable in raising concerns to the human resources service as they didn’t feel that investigations were always completed.
“The management team told us that investigations were completed but were kept confidential and only shared with those involved. This had resulted in a number of staff being absent through sick leave and also ongoing HR processes and suspensions.”
Petition to remove CEO
The petition calling for the resignation of Cooke blames her for a “toxic blame culture” at the charity in which staff raising concerns are “met with hostility or punishment as a result”.
“Concerns aren’t acted upon or are swept under the carpet and unrealistic targets set on income generation and grant funding targets which lead to poor performance subsequently affecting the mental health of those involved.
“Poor communication to members ensures that they aren’t aware of issues at headquarters.”
Chair backs leadership team
In a statement this week, Nicholds said that the trustees were “pleased to welcome the CQC for their recent inspection of LIVES, however, we were disappointed to receive their rating of ‘requires improvement’”.
“There are a small number of regulatory matters where we know we can do better, and steps have already been taken to rectify these.
“We will continue to work with chief executive Nikki Cooke and the leadership team, who have our full support, to address the findings and look forward to welcoming the CQC back for future inspections.
“We were also disappointed to learn that a small number of people appear to be seeking to undermine the enormous contribution that our charity and volunteers make to the people of Lincolnshire by setting up a petition calling for Nikki’s resignation.
“Nikki was appointed as the charity’s first chief executive in 2016. Since then, the organisation has gone from strength to strength, providing the highest level of care to thousands of people every year and saving hundreds of lives.
“We remain focused on growing the impact that our charity makes and helping patients and their families within our local communities, during a time when they need it most.”
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