Speaking up for decontamination

Alan Robson, deputy director, Workforce Strategy, Department of Health, provided the keynote address at the Institute of Decontamination Sciences’ annual conference, recently held in Blackpool. Previously seconded to the role of secretary to the Mid Staffs inquiry, Alan Robson shared his insights into: the importance of developing a culture of learning from mistakes, the latest opportunities to address workforce challenges in the health sector, as well as the potential for innovation, against a backdrop of devolution. 

“When I first started work on the Mid Staffs inquiry I thought it would take around six months. In the end it took over three years – it was a huge commitment. The next three and a half years were spent at Mid Staffs or in Sir Robert Francis’ chambers,” Alan Robson commented. 

“What struck me about Mid Staffs was: how could something go so spectacularly wrong in one of our hospitals in the UK? We spent a lot of time walking around the hospital talking to people. I learnt more from my time at Mid Staffs than during my whole career. I learnt about leadership, about speaking up; standing up and being counted... To step outside of the team that you work with and say ‘this is wrong’ is a very brave thing to do. I will never underestimate what those people went through in speaking out.”