Corporate information and governance

“Every individual has the right to be treated with dignity and in a caring therapeutic environment which is free from abuse. The use of force (which refers to physical, mechanical or chemical restraint, or the isolation of a patient) can sometimes be necessary to secure the safety of patients and staff. The use of force always comes with risk and can be a traumatic and upsetting experience for patients when they are at their most vulnerable and in need of safe and compassionate care. The use of force can also be upsetting for those who witness it, such as other patients or visitors” Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018: statutory guidance for NHS organisations in England, and police forces in England and Wales - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust is committed to providing safe and positive care and ensuring the wellbeing of all its service users, carers, staff and visitors. We will ensure our care is the least restrictive, the most positive and takes account of human rights, choice and engagement, and collaboration. We aspire to utilise the least restrictive approach and where we do use restrictive practice, ensure they are safe and positive, are done in collaboration with service users and their families/carers and are supported by best practice, a clinical model and sit within the framework of trauma informed care and human rights. The Trust's Violence and Aggression policy has been updated to reflect the requirements of the Mental Health Units Use of Force Act (2018).

Independent investigations

NHS England commissions independent investigations into the circumstances surrounding the care and treatment of people with mental health needs in instances where either they or someone they have come into contact with dies. Reports which relate to care and treatment provided by the Trust follow:

NHS England published the findings of an independent investigation into the homicide that occurred in 2015 involving service user PS. The report can be viewed on NHS England's website alongside our action plan based on the report's recommendations.

NHS England published the findings of an independent investigation into the homicide and suicide involving service users X and Y - a married couple under HPFT’s services. The report can be viewed on NHS England's website alongside our action plan based on the report's recommendations.

Strategies and frameworks

Great Together

We are proud to have developed and co-produced Great Together with our service users, carers, staff, partners and local communities to guide us as we embark on an exciting new chapter in our journey as an organisation.

During a six month consultation period, more than 2,000 staff, service users, carers, and stakeholders engaged with us, providing over 8,764 comments to help co-produce a strategy that we believe truly reflects the priorities of all.

We now have a clear roadmap to achieve our vision of Great Care and Great Outcomes.

We have identified six key strategic priorities, with service users and carers at the heart of all that we do, as shown in the diagram below.

Our service users and carers are at the centre of our strategy and at the heart of all that we do. We will improve service user and carer experience, placing emphasis on shared decision-making, co-production and recovery

We will provide high quality care and support that is safe and achieves the best outcomes for service users and carers.

We will be a learning organisation that encourages innovation, research and continuous quality improvement.

We will collaborate and work in partnership in everything we do to meet the needs of communities and the people we support.

We will attract, develop and retain a skilled, compassionate workforce by creating inclusive and thriving workplaces for our people.

We will address inequalities to improve outcomes and advance equity for people from all communities.

Please click here to read the strategy in full and to see our key areas of focus under each strategic priority. Click here for our easy read version of the strategy.

For an explanation of a terms and acronyms please click here.

Safety Strategy

Safety Strategy 2025-2030

At HPFT, our Great Together strategy sets out how we will always put the people who need our care, support, and treatment at the heart of everything we do. Ensuring that people are safe, and feel safe, is a key priority. But more than this, it is a commitment we make to every person who uses our services, to their families and carers, to every member of our staff and to our wider communities.

To develop our safety strategy, we engaged, involved, and co-produced with patient safety partners, service users, carers, local communities, staff, and partner organisations. Set around a theme of “listen – learn – innovate” the HPFT Safety Strategy sets out our 5 commitments to safety:

To read the strategy click here.

Belonging and Inclusion Strategy

HPFT was proud to launch our five year Belonging and Inclusion Strategy in 2023. Our Strategy has three key ambitions. We will create an inclusive culture by embedding our just and inclusive culture in compassionate and caring teams where everyone feels valued, respected and able to thrive. We will build a diverse workforce representative of our service users and local communities, encouraging and recruiting candidates with different backgrounds. Finally, we will eliminate discrimination, bullying and harassment at work through education, training, and targeted actions.

A number of NHS improvement plans have been published both Nationally and in the East of England Region in response to the ongoing workforce challenges of recruitment and retention. They specifically acknowledge the inequity of day to day experiences across NHS staff groups. These have been used to inform our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy alongside feedback from our NHS annual staff survey, the National Workforce Race and Disability Equality Standards and Gender Pay Gap reporting.

Recognizing the importance of diversity and inclusivity, our Trust aims to create a culture where every service user, staff member, and stakeholder feels valued and respected. By implementing this strategy, the Trust intends to bridge existing gaps in accessibility, representation, and understanding, ensuring that our services are equitable and responsive to the diverse needs of all individuals. Please click here to download a PDF copy of our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy

Green Plan

The NHS aims to achieve a 'Net Zero' health service, with each Trust and ICS developing their own green plans to contribute. HPFT’s Green Plan highlights ongoing projects and collaborative efforts to create a more sustainable future. Find out what we plan to do as an organisation to help reduce our carbon footprint and ensure we are working in a more environmentally friendly way.

You can read our full Green Plan here

Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)

Implementing the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework at HPFT
One of the five aims in our Trust’s strategy is that we will provide high quality care and support that is safe and achieves the best outcomes for service users and carers. We are proud of our services, and we are always looking to improve.

The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) is a new approach to responding to patient safety incidents. The framework has a clear focus on engaging with the people affected by a patient safety incident, by learning from the circumstances surrounding the incident and then using this learning to improve. This video outlines the key principles of PSIRF and how it will support the whole of the NHS to improve patient safety.

Our approach to implementing PSIRF is outlined in our Patient Safety Incident Response Plan (PSIRP) and in our Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) Policy and Procedure. From 22 Jan 2024 the Trust has been responding to patient safety incidents according to our PSIRP.

Further details about PSIRF

Key to improving the services we deliver is monitoring the outcomes of the care we give and reflect learning from good practice, to be sure our services are having the right impact. But also exploring and investigating when things don't go so well, understanding why this was, and learning. Sometimes things in healthcare don’t go as planned, resulting in an incident; we call these patient safety incidents.

Since 2015 we have been managing patient safety incidents across the NHS through the Serious Incident Framework; in 2023 this was replaced nationally by the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).
PSIRF is a significant shift in the way the NHS responds to patient safety incidents and is a major step towards establishing a safety management system across the NHS.

It is a key part of the NHS patient safety strategy, which supports the development and maintenance of an effective patient safety incident response system that integrates four key aims:

Compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents
Application of a range of system-based approached to learning from patient safety incidents
Considered and proportionate responses to patient safety incidents
Supportive oversight focussed on strengthening response system functioning and improvement.

For further reading and information about PSIRF please visit NHS England Patient Safety Incident Response Framework

Leading up to the implementation of PSIRF we have been working with our teams to understand how we can use this framework to learn and improve when we are responding to patient safety incidents where a service user was or could have been harmed.

In line with national guidance we have recruited six patient safety partners (PSPs) who are people who use our services or are carers and are interested in supporting us to improve our patient safety culture. Our PSPs will support our patient safety work by ensuring the patient’s voice is heard throughout our processes.

Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF)

NHS England has launched its first ever anti-racism framework: the Patient and carer race equality framework (PCREF), for all NHS mental health trusts and mental health service providers to embed across England. Trusts and providers will use this mandatory framework to support them with becoming actively anti-racist organisations by ensuring that they are responsible for co-producing and implementing actions to reduce racial inequalities within their services. It will become part of Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections.

PCREF is a recommendation following the 2018 independent review of the Mental Health Act. It empowers Trusts to improve services for diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds.

Click here for an NHSE easy read version.

HPFT began its PCREF journey in 2023 and we engaged with community organisations, service users, and carers to gather information on health disparities for racialised communities. During this period, we also began two pilots in Stevenage and Watford in partnership with two community organisations with a focus on improving access, experience and outcomes for racialised communities.

We have begun implementing PCREF across the Trust. Our approach addresses race, ethnicity, and intersectionality, encompassing the Equality Act's nine protected characteristics, lifestyles, neurodiversity, and learning disabilities.

What HPFT is doing

• Addressing health inequalities pilot – In 2023, we launched two pilot services in Watford and Stevenage in partnership with the voluntary sector. These services aim to improve access, experience, and outcomes for ethnically diverse communities engaging with our mental health services.

• Cultural awareness training – We are in the process of developing cultural awareness training for our staff, aimed at enhancing their understanding and ability to provide culturally sensitive care.

• Partnership Group – We have established a partnership group that includes service users, carers, voluntary sector partners, frontline staff, local community members, and faith leaders. This group is actively involved in the implementation of our PCREF plan.

• PCREF dashboard – A PCREF dashboard has been developed and is currently being tested. Once refined, this tool will help staff make more informed, intuitive decisions, ensuring equitable care delivery.

• Leadership commitment – HPFT is committed to reducing race inequalities and we have a dedicated Executive lead, ensuring strong oversight and accountability.

• Updated Equality and Quality Impact Assessment (EQIA) framework - Our EQIA framework has been revised to ensure all decisions, projects, and policy developments take into account the needs of protected groups.

• Policy development – Our policy template has been updated to ensure that considerations of all protected groups are embedded into the policy making process.

• Research – We have conducted research to enhance our understanding of barriers to access for Asian communities.

Equality and diversity

We believe that everyone is entitled to fair and equal services that take account of individual needs and backgrounds. We actively advocate for equality and believe that everyone we come into contact with deserves the same standard of treatment and support. Furthermore, it is essential for us that people using our services, their carers and our employees have opportunities to be involved in shaping how our services develop.

All of our services are working towards reducing inequalities. The Equality & Diversity Team supports this work as well as key projects that will help us ensure we continue to improve the care we provide and the support we provide to our service users, carers, staff, volunteers and experts.

This work is underpinned by principles of:

Removal of systemic barriers
Promoting a wider understanding of intersectionality

NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)

Background

The Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) has been developed as a tool to measure improvements in the workforce with respect to Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) staff with many of the methods being transferable to focusing on other groups. It is an NHS initiative that has been conceived by the national NHS Equality & Diversity Council; through collaboration with NHS staff and independent researchers. The challenge to ensure BME staff are treated fairly and their talents valued and developed is one that all NHS organisations need to meet because:

Research shows that unfair treatment of BME staff adversely affects the care and treatment of all patients
Talent is being wasted through unfairness in the appointment, treatment and development of a large section of the NHS workforce
Precious resources are wasted through the impact of such treatment on the morale, discretionary effort, and other consequences of such treatment
Research shows that diverse teams and leaderships are more likely to show the innovation, and increase the organisational effectiveness, the NHS needs
Organisations whose leadership composition bears little relationship to that of the communities served will be less likely to deliver the patient focussed care that is needed

HPFT is committed to addressing any inequalities that exist for staff and welcomes the WRES as a tool to show, transparently, where improvements made be needed so as to establish and maintain inclusive workplaces for all.

WRES Indicators

There are a total of nine indicators that make up the WRES split across Workforce Data, National NHS Staff Survey and Trust Board Representation. These are designed to help us track our progress in tackling any inequalities in the workforce. These can be viewed in the WRES technical guidance by clicking here. NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard 2021 data can be viewed here

Click here to view the 2025 WRES Action Plan
Click here to view the 2025 WRES Data summary report

Contact

Should you have any queries about our WRES programme please email hpft.equality@nhs.net

NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES)

What is the Workforce Disability Equality Standard?

The Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) is a set of specific measures (metrics) that will enable NHS trusts to compare the experiences of disabled and non-disabled staff. This information will be used by trusts to develop local action plans, and demonstrate progress against the indicators of disability equality.

Making a difference for disabled staff

WDES is important, because research shows that a motivated, included and valued workforce helps to deliver high quality patient care, increased patient satisfaction and improved patient safety.

The implementation of the WDES will enable us to better understand the experiences of our disabled staff. It will support positive change for existing employees, and enable a more inclusive environment for disabled people working in the NHS. It is part modelled on the Workforce Race Equality Standard.

NHS Workforce Disability Equality Standard Technical Guidance can be viewed here.

Click here for the 2025 WDES Action Plan
Click here to view the 2025 WDES Data summary report

For further information on WDES click here.

Contact

Should you have any queries about our WDES programme please email hpft.equality@nhs.net

Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF)

PCREF is a recommendation following the 2018 independent review of the Mental Health Act. It empowers Trusts to improve services for diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds.

Click here for an NHSE easy read version.

What HPFT is doing

Equality Delivery System 2025

Click here to view our Equality Delivery System 2025

Pay gap reporting

Gender, Ethnicity & Disability

The government have made gender pay gap reporting mandatory by amending the Specific Duties Regulations (SDR) of the Equality Act 2010. This means that all public sector employers with more than 250 employees have to measure and publish their gender pay gaps on an annual basis. However, as a Trust we also analyse pay gaps in respect of Ethnicity and Disability each year.

You can read the full set of reports using these links - Gender pay gap report, ethnicity pay gap report and a disability pay gap report.

Click here to view our Gender Pay Gap Action Plan 2024.

The development of these reports support the Trust in planning any action to improve equality within employment and we are always interested to hear from people who want to get involved with this, or any other part of our Belonging & Inclusion activities.

2024/25 Pay gap reporting

Total number of staff at HPFT: 4841

Illustration of Trust staff members

The Trust’s Gender Profile

The Trust’s Mean Gender Pay Gap	The Trust’s Median Gender Pay Gap

In addition you can click here to access the government portal for gender pay gap reporting to check the status of any organisation.

The Trust’s Ethnicity Profile

The Trust’s Mean Ethnicity Pay Gap	The Trust’s Median Ethnicity Pay Gap

The Trust’s Disability Profile

The Trust’s Mean Disability Pay Gap	The Trust’s Median Disability Pay Gap

If you have any queries please contact us at hpft.equality@nhs.net

Fraud

Fighting fraud

What is fraud?

Fraud can be defined as dishonest attempts to make a gain, or to expose another to the risk of a loss. This must be by means of making a false representation; failing to disclose information when there is a legal requirement to disclose; or by abusing your position when it requires the safeguarding of another’s financial interests. The maximum penalty that can be imposed for someone who has committed fraud is ten years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. Examples of fraud within the NHS include:

Fraud by false representation

(1) An individual who lies on their job application form, indicating that they have the necessary qualifications required, in order to obtain employment.

(2) A member of staff undertakes secondary employment with another organisation during periods when they are receiving sickness pay from HPFT.

Fraud by failure
to disclose

A person fails to declare that they have a previous criminal conviction or regulatory sanction during a job application

Fraud by abuse
of position

A member of staff who is responsible for setting up new employees on the payroll systems, sets up ‘fake employees’ using their own bank account details, to receive additional wages.

What is bribery?

Bribery refers to the offering of an advantage to somebody, in the hope that they will act improperly; or rewarding a person for improper performance that has already occurred.

It also refers to requesting to be bribed, in return for acting improperly.

An example may be that a member of staff who is responsible for awarding contracts, approaches a supplier promising them a large contract on the condition that they pay him a sum of money.

The maximum penalty that can be imposed for someone who has committed fraud is ten years imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

HPFT have a legal responsibility to prevent bribery from happening within its organisation.

NHS Counter Fraud Authority

The NHS Counter Fraud Authority leads on work to prevent and detect fraud in the NHS. They provide guidance to organisations across the NHS and set standards for counter fraud work. HPFT’s counter fraud service work with the NHS Counter Fraud Authority to improve the Trust’s resilience to fraud and to ensure the proper use of valuable NHS resources to promote a safer, more secure environment in which to deliver and receive care.

Our Local Counter Fraud Specialist

Anthony Upton is our Local Counter Fraud Specialist (LCFS). Their role is to implement the NHS Counter Fraud strategy within HPFT and to investigate any suspicions of fraud or bribery that may arise.

Reporting your concerns

Suspicions of fraud, corruption or bribery should only be reported to those with the appropriate authority to investigate fraud; suspicions of fraud should not be reported to a friend, colleague or your line manager. All referrals will be treated in confidence.

If you have a concern or suspicion relating to fraud, corruption or bribery taking place at HPFT, or need advice, then you can contact the LCFS:

Antony Upton
Email: antony.upton@rsmuk.com or antonyupton@nhs.net

You can also contact:

NHS Fraud and Bribery Reporting Line
Tel: 0800 028 40 60 (all calls are anonymous)
Website: https://cfa.nhs.uk/reportfraud

Protect (formerly Public Concern at Work)
Protect offer advice and guidance before reporting a suspicion of fraud, corruption or bribery.
Tel: 020 3117 2520
Website: https://protect-advice.org.uk/

Fair processing

By law, we are required to protect the public funds we administer. We may share information with other bodies responsible for; auditing, or administering public funds, or where undertaking a public function, in order to prevent and detect fraud.

The Cabinet Office is responsible for carrying out data matching exercises.

Data matching involves comparing computer records held by one body against other computer records held by the same or another body to see how far they match. This is usually personal information. Computerised data matching allows potentially fraudulent claims and payments to be identified. Where a match is found it may indicate that there is an inconsistency which requires further investigation. No assumption can be made as to whether there is fraud, error or other explanation until an investigation is carried out.

We participate in the Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative: a data matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud. We are required to provide particular sets of data to the Minister for the Cabinet Office for matching for each exercise, as detailed here.

The use of data by the Cabinet Office in a data matching exercise is carried out with statutory authority under Part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Data matching by the Cabinet Office is subject to a Code of Practice.

View further information on the Cabinet Office’s legal powers and the reasons why it matches particular information.

Modern Slavery Act and Trust statement

Modern Slavery Act statement

The Modern Slavery Act 2015

The Modern Slavery Act is a piece of legislation which sets out a range of measures on how modern slavery and human trafficking should be dealt with in the UK. Whilst not all the Act is directly relevant for business, section 54 entitled ‘Transparency in supply chains’ impact the corporate sector. The Act, which came into force on 29 October 2015, requires many businesses to disclose a ‘slavery and human trafficking statement’. Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust complies with this requirement in the following statement, which was approved by the Information Governance Committee in May 2026.

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement

Alignment with NHS England

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (“the Trust”) is committed to preventing modern slavery and human trafficking across its operations and supply chains. This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the steps taken by the Trust during the financial year ending 31 March 2026.

In line with national expectations, this statement has been developed with reference to the NHS England Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement, which acts as a group statement for the NHS in England. The Trust aligns its approach to the actions and principles set out by NHS England, recognising that tackling modern slavery requires coordinated action at national, system and local levels.

Organisational structure and supply chains

The Trust is a provider of integrated inpatient and community mental health and learning disability services treating and caring for over 400,000 people across Hertfordshire and within Buckinghamshire, Norfolk and Essex.

With an annual turnover in 2025/26 of over £490 million, the Trust works with the wider NHS and partners to optimise the use of digital technology, research and innovation, and to deliver value for money and increased productivity and efficiency.

The Trust has a long-standing partnership with Hertfordshire County Council and is one of the few integrated social care providers of mental health services in England. A range of nationally commissioned specialist services including specialist Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services and medium and low secure learning disability services are also delivered. Over 4,500 people are employed to deliver these services within the community and in inpatient settings.

HPFT has been an NHS Foundation Trust since authorisation in August 2007, and as a University NHS Trust, has a strong relationship with the University of Hertfordshire, an important partner supporting workforce development, research, training and innovation.

The Trust’s supply chains support the delivery of safe and effective care and include clinical goods and services, facilities management, estates, information technology, workforce supply and other non clinical services.

Trust procurement is managed through the Hertfordshire shared NHS procurement service, and this procurement function applies modern slavery due diligence in accordance with the NHS England Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement.

Policies in relation to modern slavery and human trafficking

The Trust fully supports the government’s ambition to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking and recognises the significant role the NHS must play in both mitigating it and supporting victims. This includes a commitment to work towards supply chains, and business activities, which are free from ethical and labour standards abuses.

There is a clear link between the risk of modern slavery and supply chain resilience and ensuring patients receive consistently safe, high-quality care. The NHS has standardised its approach to identifying modern slavery risk and how it is addressed through procurement to leverage NHS buying power and streamline the approach to eradicating modern slavery for commercial teams and the supply chain. Actions to address risk have been integrated into broader NHS commercial policies and processes wherever possible.

NHS England supports the NHS service providers to align to government policy, and through the delivery of its statutory functions, sets policy to oversee and support providers to eradicate modern slavery. This includes the Freedom to Speak Up Policy, which includes Freedom to Speak Up Guardians and the Freedom to Speak Up reporting platform, supporting NHS staff to raise issues on anything that is harming the provision of healthcare services.

Internal Trust policy further supports the commitment to eradicating modern slavery, including the safeguarding policy, and Trust staff take all reasonable steps to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking.

Due diligence process

The Trust works closely with the Hertfordshire shared NHS procurement service, system partners and approved procurement frameworks to ensure that appropriate due diligence is applied to suppliers. Where suppliers are subject to the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Trust expects them to publish a compliant modern slavery statement and to demonstrate effective controls within their own supply chains.

In line with Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 02/23 – Tackling Modern Slavery in Government Supply Chains, the Trust applies a risk based approach to procurement activity.

This includes consideration of modern slavery risks:
• At the point of procurement planning.
• During supplier selection and contract award.
• Throughout contract management and review.

The Trust operates a robust recruitment and selection policy, including appropriate pre-employment checks aligning to the National NHS Employment Checks/Standards which include the right to work in the UK, employees’ UK address and factual references. Agencies on approved frameworks are audited to provide assurance that pre-employment conditions including adherence to the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act are met.

Suppliers are carefully selected through robust supplier selection criteria and processes, and specifications and tenders are evaluated with appropriate weight given to social value.

Risk assessment and management

A modern slavery risk assessment tool (MSRAT) has been built into Atamis, the NHS national e-commercial system. This enables commercial teams across the NHS to adopt a consistent risk identification methodology and standardised approach to product level risk management.

All suppliers are requested to comply with the Modern Slavery Act through agreement of the ‘Supplier Code of Conduct’, purchase orders and tender specifications.

Key performance indicators to measure effectiveness of steps being taken

The adoption of Atamis as the e-commerce system for the NHS enables improved monitoring of modern slavery risk management throughout NHS procurement and informs the ongoing enhancement of support tools and processes across the NHS. Reporting of the Trust’s progress on eradicating modern slavery through the procurement process is undertaken annually through the publication of its modern slavery statement.

The Trust will continue to use its governance and reporting structures to monitor performance in this area.

Training on modern slavery and human trafficking

The Trust is committed to ensuring that all staff are aware of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and their safeguarding duty to protect and prevent any further harm and abuse when it is identified or suspected that an individual may be or is at risk of modern slavery and human trafficking.

Staff are required to complete compulsory training modules, with an awareness of modern slavery addressed through Safeguarding Level 1. Additional safeguarding support tools are available for staff groups from safeguarding leads through to the wider healthcare profession.

Guidance on modern slavery and human trafficking (what it means, what are the types, and who is affected, what to do if you suspect someone of being subjected to slavery, and further advice, support and resources) can be found on the Trust’s intranet site.

Evidence has shown that when victims present in healthcare services, healthcare professionals are not always equipped to know how best to support them. To help staff recognise and respond to suspected incidents of modern slavery within the NHS, new e-learning has been created for NHS safeguarding leads. The training supports them to provide clear and strategic leadership for complex cases and enables them to offer the appropriate support to frontline healthcare professionals.

The intercollegiate documents for safeguarding adults, safeguarding children and looked after children, continue to support healthcare professionals to identify the knowledge and skills needed for safeguarding, including modern slavery. These set out 5 competency levels for practitioners and Board level, training and support tools.

The Trust will continue to engage with NHS organisations through sustainable procurement forums, workshops, webinars and other events to increase awareness of modern slavery risks and help to upskill stakeholders.

Summary statement

We continue to work collaboratively across the NHS and take a public health approach to meet the intent to eradicate modern slavery, protect the health and wellbeing of victims and survivors, raise wider awareness and ensure consistency of approach.

Approval

This statement was approved by the Board of Directors of Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust on 14 May 2026
Philip Cave, Chief Financial Officer, HPFT.
Date: 14 May 2026

The Trade Union Regulations 2017

The Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017

The Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017 took effect on 1 April 2017. HPFT are now required to publish certain information on trade union officials and facility time on their website and on a website maintained by or on behalf of the government by 31 July 2018

The regulations require the following information to be published on the employer's website:

the number of employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period, and the number of full time equivalent employees
The percentage of time spent on facility time for each relevant union official
The percentage of pay bill spent on facility time
The number of hours spent by relevant union officials on paid trade union activities as a percentage of total paid facility time hours.

To view the information for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 click here

Related Pages