Manx Care insists it is working to improve its workplace culture following a series of damning reports.

Questions were due to be asked in Tynwald today (Tuesday) about the organisation’s cultural improvement action plan.

It has emerged that an independent inquiry was launched last year after whistleblowers came forward with a series of allegations about the management of social care.

No fewer than 39 staff members gave accounts and the report concluded that there was evidence for 11 of the 17 allegations including bullying, blame culture, nepotism, opportunities being signposted to allies, micromanagement and professional views being undermined.

Significant evidence was found of bullying and micromanagement in adult social care.

But by far the largest area of concern was that staff were managed by fear of disciplinary action.

The then chairman of Manx Care, the late Andrew Foster, told a board meeting in September that such a concern was one he had never come across before and it was ‘clearly not a way to run anything at all’.

He called the inquiry and its findings a ‘horror story and a success story all in one go’ and stressed how important it was for it to ‘come out, be exposed, talked about, with an action plan to deal with it’.

But the full report has never been made public and its findings not presented to the Council of Ministers. Copies have not even been provided to all the whistleblowers who gave testimony to the inquiry.

Instead an executive summary was sent to all social care staff. It was published on Manx Care’s website among the board meeting papers - and can be found if you know where to look.

The executive summary says the investigator concluded no criminal offences had been committed.

He did also conclude, however, that there was sufficient evidence to ‘warrant further consideration under the Fairness at Work policy’ and it was intended the individuals concerned would be written to and advised of the findings.

None of the complaints would warrant referral to their registration body as it would not affect their fitness to practice, he added.

A spokesman for Manx Care said: ‘The board made a decision not to share the full report as individuals were identifiable in this document.

‘Instead, a very detailed executive summary was shared across the service. Social care colleagues were also invited to meet with the chief executive and executive director of social care if they wished to discuss any matters on an individual basis.’

She said it would ‘not be appropriate at this time’ to make available a copy of the full report to the media.

The whistleblowers’ report, entitled Culture in Social Care, is not the only document that has made uncomfortable reading for Manx Care management over the past year.

An assessment of Manx Care by the Care Quality Commission carried out in October last year found staff did not always feel valued or supported by team leaders and did not always feel confident that they could raise concerns or report safety incidents, although this was improving.

And in April results of a survey of doctors at Noble’s Hospital revealed high levels of dissatisfaction.

More than 160 doctors were invited to take part in the ‘Culture of Care Barometer’ survey, of which 72 completed the questionnaire.

Some 65% said they would not recommend the organisation as a good place to work and 76% disagreed that it had a positive culture.

Then of course there have been the findings of the Dr Ranson tribunal case which exposed a pattern of humiliation , bullying, harassment and vilification which she had endured from her employers. This pre-dated Manx Care’s creation in April 2021.

Asked what steps had been taken to address the findings of social care culture report, the Manx Care spokesman said: ‘There is a cultural improvement action plan in place across the organisation and the service itself, and we continue to be supported by a dedicated Workforce and Culture team under the Cabinet Office health and care transformation programme.

‘They undertook a bespoke programme of work with social care in 2021-22 which contributed to the original action plan, and are working directly with social care colleagues at this time.’