Service Specification

SUPPLY AND MAINTENANCE OF A SERVICE FOR RAISING WORKPLACE CONCERNS

1. The Supplier agrees to provide an independent telephone and digital service for the Customer and its entire staff as described more fully in this Schedule the ("Service").
2. In this Schedule, the following words and definitions shall apply in addition to those set out in the Suppliers terms and conditions:

   Concern Raiser	an individual member of the Customer’s staff or another third party who makes contact with the Supplier via the telephone, online Voice Call or online/digital reporting option in order to raise a workplace concern or other issue; and
   SPOC	the Customer's Senior Point of Contact being an individual identified by the Customer for the purpose of receiving information from the Supplier.

3. The Supplier will advise the Customer on and provide materials to assist the Customer with internally communicating and promoting the use of the Service amongst the Customer's staff to include:
   1. Briefings to selected managers/supervisors by agreement with customer;
   2. Provision of posters, leaflets and reminder items;
   3. Use of the Supplier’s logo, strap lines and other digital media on the Customer’s internal information technology with explanatory and promotional info;
   4. Briefings to Customers’ staff at their work location (subject to availability and agreement with the Customer); and
   5. [In addition to those briefings detailed at paragraph 3.4 above,] briefings to staff at induction and training courses by arrangement and agreement with the Customer.
4. The Service will include:
   1. a dedicated telephone service, the number of which is [0800 3213546] and/or online Voice Call (VOIP/RTC) the ("Telephone Service").
5. The Telephone Service will be internally publicised and promoted by the Customer.
6. The Telephone Service will be live monitored and answered between hours of 09:00 – 17:00 UK time.  No calls will be recorded and an out of hours message will refer callers to the digital reporting facility.
7. A digital concern raising option.  This will be provided via the Supplier’s website online tool that provides formatted questions and answer fields. This option will be publicised and promoted internally by the Customer who will signpost their staff to   www.say-so.co.uk/raise-a-concern
8. Both the telephone/voice call and digital concern raising option provide the option for the concern raiser to make anonymous, confidential or fully open reports.
9. All information received from the concern raiser via the telephone/voice call or digital concern raising services will be securely managed in keeping with the Data Protection Legislation and organisational and technical security measures put in place based on a risk assessment analysis of the Service being supplied.
10. The Supplier will engage with the concern raiser, where possible, to extract as much information as possible to determine:
    1. the nature of the risk, misconduct or issue being described; and
    2. who/what may be responsible for any risk, misconduct or issue identified.
11. On receipt of the information from the concern raiser, the Supplier will then produce a record of the information (the "Concern").
12. The Customer will nominate a SPOC and provide the Supplier with 24-hour telephone and email contact details for that SPOC.  The Supplier will exclusively supply the Concern to the SPOC (with any information capable of identifying the Concern raiser removed where appropriate).
13. The Customer will nominate a further senior contact for oversight and abstraction/resilience purposes in any cases that the above SPOC is not available.  In this respect the Customer should inform the Supplier whenever either contact is not available and what other arrangements for direct contact with the Customer are in place.
14. The Supplier may liaise with the Customer’s SPOC to seek any relevant information to assist in supporting or challenging the information provided in the Concern
15. The Supplier will provide the Customer with asanitised record of the Concern (the "Concern") via access to the Say So Sherlock system.
16. The Supplier will enable the Customers SPOC (or delegate) to add responses and update Concerns thus facilitating a two-way communication channel with concern raisers. The Supplier will have final approval of any communication.   
17. The Supplier will not deal with:
    1. Complaints from customers of the Customer unless these form part of information or concerns raised through the Say So Plus service (see paragraph 25); or
    2. Appeals against decisions made concerning promotions, post selections or internal grievance procedures relating to the Customer, and will refer such information to appropriate resources within the Customer’s management where relevant.
18. Any information disclosed to the Supplier via the Telephone or Digital Concern Raising Service or via further disclosures made to the Supplier by the concern raiser, will be Confidential Information.
19. The Supplier will maintain the confidentiality of the identity of any person who wishes to raise a concern on an anonymous or confidential to Say So basis and will not disclose any information capable of identifying that person to the Customer (except only in the circumstances described in para.19)
20. The Supplier will not reveal the identity of a concern raiser unless the Supplier has obtained express written consent from that concern raiser or unless legally ordered to do so by court order. The Supplier will not make any other disclosures of information to the Customer unless ordered to do so by a court order made in the courts of England and Wales.
21. In the exceptional circumstances that a court order is made or is known to be being considered, the Supplier will seek legal advice and will work with the concern raiser, where relevant, to provide support.
22. The provisions of paragraphs 18, 19, 20, 22, 23 and 24 shall continue in force notwithstanding the termination of Services for any reason.
23. Both parties agree that the continuing protection, support and welfare of those raising issues of concern is paramount and where those concern raisers have requested anonymity or confidentiality, no steps will be taken by the Customer or anyone acting on their behalf to identify them by any means.
24. The Supplier reserves the right to report any matter directly to the Safeguarding Adults Board, police or other emergency authority if the Customer’s SPOC is not contactable and the Supplier reasonably believes that the circumstances warrant immediate action in order to safeguard a person who the Supplier believes is at risk of immediate significant harm.
25. The Supplier undertakes to securely store all data arising from Concerns involving the Customer within the UK.
26. This para is not active [If the Say So PLUS service is adopted by the Customer it is fully recognised by all parties that persons other than the Customer’s staff may report matters of concern to Say So and the information received from such persons will be treated in the same way as with our Customer’s staff.]
27. The escalation procedure shall be as follows:
    1. Should any of the SPOC’s be the direct subject of a Concern, the Supplier will take steps to escalate the Concern directly to the Chief Fire Officer (Escalation Level 1);
    2. Should the Chief Fire Officer be the direct subject of a Concern, the Supplier will take steps to escalate the Concern to an appropriate officer at the Fire Authority (To be nominated)(Escalation Level 2)
    3. In cases where this escalation procedure is utilised, the Supplier will not provide details of any Concern (including the existence of any Concern) to any individual other than the appropriate escalated level officer until that officer approves and directs such dissemination of information.