Freedom to Speak Up Bolton

13/06/2025

Not every concern outcome has to be loud or visible to be impactful

Many are quiet—but powerful

A staff member leaves the room a little lighter because they finally felt heard.

A concern is raised early enough to prevent harm.

A manager listens with openness, even if the conversation is uncomfortable.

These moments are the foundation of lasting change

31/05/2025

A question for my fellow nurses - dare you speak up?
Yes. You must. You can. You should.

Nursing isn’t just about carrying out orders—it’s about courage, critical thinking, and advocacy.
If something doesn’t feel right, if safety is compromised, or if silence protects the system more than the patient…

Dare to speak up.

Don’t let culture, fear, or hierarchy silence you. Your voice could save a life.
You’re not challenging authority—you’re upholding your responsibility.
You’re not causing conflict—you’re protecting care.
You’re not risking your registration—you’re honoring it.

Let’s stop telling nurses to “stay in their lane” when their whole job is navigating safety.

💬 Speak up. Challenge culture. Break the silence.
Not instead of your registration—but because of it.

Every nurse wears a badge of courage—not just in action, but in voice.

In every shift, we make critical decisions, advocate fiercely for patients, and uphold the highest standards of care. But in the moments that matter most—when something doesn’t feel right, when safety is at stake, or when silence becomes complicity—we must remember:

Your voice is as vital as your skills.

Culture should never silence concern. Hierarchy should never override humanity. And fear should never outweigh the duty to protect.

Nurses should never feel they must choose between speaking up and keeping their registration.

We must create spaces where every nurse feels psychologically safe to challenge the norm, question decisions, and disrupt harmful silence—because that is professionalism. That is leadership. That is nursing.

Let’s build a culture where speaking up is not just allowed, but expected, respected, and protected.

15/05/2025

You never know what someone is going through x

24/04/2025

💚

17/04/2025

Thank you Sonia for your thoughts on Psychological Safety…..

Making the best improvements at work starts with feeling safe to speak up.

When it comes to improvement work one thing is clear: without psychological safety, it simply doesn’t stick. You can have the best tools, the smartest people, and the boldest ideas, but if people don’t feel safe to speak up, challenge the norm, or admit when something isn’t working… nothing really changes.

At its core, psychological safety is the belief that you won’t be punished, shut down, embarrassed, or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. In a psychologically safe team, people feel valued and heard—and that’s where the magic of improvement happens.

The Four Zones of Psychological Safety:

Based on the work by Amy Edmondson, understanding psychological safety starts with recognising the four different zones people can find themselves in at work:

1. Apathy Zone: Disengaged and Passive
Low safety, low accountability. People don’t feel heard, so they check out.

2. Anxiety Zone: Pressure Without Support
Low safety, high accountability. There’s lots of pressure, but no room to fail.

3. Comfort Zone: Safe, but Stagnant
High safety, low accountability. It’s calm and supportive, but not challenging.

4. Learning Zone: Where Growth Happens
High safety, high accountability. People feel secure enough to take risks and push boundaries. This is the best place for meaningful improvement

How can you support psychological safety in improvement projects? You can’t force trust, but you can create the conditions for it to grow. My illustration shares 8 ways how you can promote psychological safety in improvement work.

1. Model Vulnerability
2. Establish Ground Rules
3. Encourage Questions
4. Treat Failure as Learning
5. Welcome Challenge
6. Make Decisions Together
7. Recognise Effort
8. Check In

Improvement work requires courage, honesty, and vulnerability. But those things don’t just happen—they flourish in environments where people feel safe, valued, and heard. Psychological safety is like glass: when it’s strong, it’s clear and allows trust, creativity, and collaboration to shine through, but if it’s cracked—even once—it becomes fragile, and rebuilding can take a really long time, care, and consistent effort.

Find out more about Sonia Sparkles here: https://soniasparkles.com/

12/04/2025

To have a good speak up culture you need good compassionate leaders who create psychological safety

08/04/2025

Words and actions matter – more than we often realise.

Incivility in the workplace can seem small on the surface – a dismissive tone, an eye roll, being consistently talked over. But its impact runs deep.

For many, especially those from marginalised backgrounds – colleagues living with a disability, racially minoritised staff, or those navigating different cultural norms – these moments aren’t just uncomfortable. They can feel like exclusion. Like erasure.

Over time, these behaviours chip away at confidence, wellbeing, and trust. They create environments where people survive rather than thrive.

Let’s not underestimate the power of kindness, respect, and active inclusion.

Because workplace culture isn’t built by policies – it’s built in the everyday moments between people.

08/04/2025

https://youtu.be/Ukxs36c8N7k

How incivility can affect the workplace!

It’s very easy to blame workplace pressure, or a bad boss, or someone’s personality for incivility in the workplace. On our leadership programmes I hear real...

28/03/2025

👉 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-nurse-bullied-colleague-point-34942474?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook =1743080291

Bullying must never be tolerated in our NHS.

Award-nominated nurse Kara Hannigan is no longer an employee of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board after a regulator found she harassed colleagues and created a degrading work environment

25/03/2025

6 more staff join the FTSU Champion Network today following their training. Really looking forward to them joining our fabulous network which now stands at 87 staff.

18/03/2025

https://youtu.be/2B-Bew8tyjg?si=mSuRPwopD-BLUb15

Interesting video worth watching x

14/03/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19FK8jQtyr/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Although from few years ago is more relevant than ever.