How to prepare for employment or whistleblowing advice

Which service does what

• Acas: free guidance on employment rights and the early conciliation process. Acas staff stay impartial and do not act for you.
• Citizens Advice: general employment information and local advisers. Capacity varies by area.
• Protect: free, confidential whistleblowing advice on 020 3117 2520. Protect advises on how to raise a concern and does not investigate or represent callers at tribunal.
• Unions and defence bodies: for members, the Pharmacists' Defence Association, the BMA and the RCN offer employment advice and in some cases representation. Check how long you must have been a member before the problem started.
• Solicitors: give advice on your documents and can act for you. Ask about fees at the start. Check your home insurance for legal expenses cover, which often includes employment disputes.

A trainee might start with a union, a locum with Citizens Advice, and someone with a patient-safety concern with Protect. Our support options comparison sets out the differences.

Write a one-page timeline

List events in date order, one line each. Include the date, what happened, who was involved and the document which proves the event, if one exists. Keep facts you saw apart from things you were told and things you suspect. End with the decision or deadline you face now, for example "Reply to settlement offer due 24 October".

Add your job title, employer, nation of the UK, start date and working arrangement: employee, worker, locum or self-employed. These facts change which rights apply. Our guide to employment status explains why.

List your documents, then send only what is asked for

Make an inventory before you send anything. A useful list covers your contract or booking terms, any agreement you are being asked to sign, letters about a grievance, disciplinary or investigation, relevant emails sent to you, and payslips if pay is in dispute. Give each document a date and a one-line description. The adviser will tell you which ones to send and by which secure method.

If documents about you are held by your employer, you can ask for copies with a subject access request under UK GDPR. The employer usually has one month to respond, extendable by two further months for complex requests.

Questions to ask the adviser

1. Which claims or options apply to my facts?
2. What is my deadline, and does early conciliation affect the calculation?
3. Is my concern a protected disclosure, and to whom should I raise the concern next?
4. What happens if I sign, refuse or ask for changes?
5. What will this advice cost, and what is the next step after today?

Keep patient data out of your papers

Your professional duty of confidentiality continues during a dispute. Do not bring patient records, screenshots of clinical systems or prescription data to an advice appointment. Describe incidents without names, or by the incident report number your employer holds. Our guide to keeping safe records of workplace concerns explains the limits, and patient confidentiality when speaking up covers the regulator guidance.

During and after the appointment

Ask for explanations in plain English and write down the next step and its date before you leave. If concentration is hard because of stress, tell the adviser and ask for a written summary. Afterwards, put any deadline in your diary twice: the legal deadline and a date one week earlier.

Advice on the legal question does not need to wait for your health to improve, and health support does not need to wait for the legal outcome. Our pages on tribunal time limits, settlement agreements, contract review and stress under an NDA cover the next steps for common problems.