Adult Safeguarding Practitioner

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust

Due to an internal promotion, an exciting opportunity has arisen to work as a member of the Safeguarding All Age team, to provide specialist advice to all staff disciplines within the Trust and liaise with external agencies as required.

Main duties of the job

To take a supportive role in Safeguarding work within the Trust through Safeguarding supervision, staff support, and training in line with the Kent and Medway Adult Safeguarding procedures.

To support and guide staff on adult protection cases and work in partnership with all agencies providing safeguarding to vulnerable adults. Promote personalised and safe care as part of a prevention strategy. Promote effective responses when harm is detected. Use learning to improve prevention and protection. Empower patients to be heard and support informed consent, supporting the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act, Deprivation of Liberty, and Equality Act across the Trust.

Job responsibilities

To provide training to frontline health professionals in relation to Adult Protection, Mental Capacity, and Deprivation of Liberty, promoting good practice and ensuring that staff are aware of their responsibilities in Safeguarding Adults in all settings.

To provide specialist advice and support to staff members with Mental Capacity assessments and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards via the duty system.

To support and advise staff on issues related to Safeguarding Adults, including participating in strategy meetings and case conferences.

To support and advise staff on how to present verbal and written reports to strategy meetings and case conferences.

To attend any court proceeding, where needed, in association with the Trust legal department.

To participate in groups in order to achieve the Trust's objectives in relation to Adult Safeguarding and the Mental Capacity Act.

To work closely with other designated professionals in supporting all activities necessary to ensure that the Trust meets its responsibilities in Adult Safeguarding.

Ensure that vulnerable adults and their relatives/carers are involved in decisions affecting their care and wellbeing and in-service development. When relatives or carers are absent, ensure that advocacy is engaged in a timely manner.

Participate in clinical and safeguarding supervision with practitioners involved in Safeguarding practice.

Contribute to training design and delivery.

• Ensure a culture of acceptance and understanding by all health professionals of their responsibilities for Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults.
• Complete chronologies for safeguarding investigations and reviews.
• Disseminate the learning from Serious Case Reviews and assist in the implementation of Serious Case review recommendations for the Trust, including support and advice in developing improvements to policy and process where necessary.
• Assist with the audit, monitoring, analysis, and evaluation of data and complex facts or situations relating to Safeguarding Adults systems and services in order to improve the quality and clinical effectiveness of care for vulnerable adults and their families.
• Participate in monitoring, auditing, and reviewing training to ensure a high, accurate standard is maintained and that it meets the needs of the staff and organisation.
• Participate in audit in order to monitor the agreed local policies and procedures.
• Assist with the collection of data in any Serious Adult Reviews.
• Support the dissemination of learning from Serious Adult Reviews and assist in the implementation of Serious Adult Reviews recommendations for Health.
• To undertake other duties commensurate with this grade of post in agreement with the relevant Line Manager.
• Provide a visible, authoritative, and effective presence for all the Trust's teams for assistance, guidance, specialist support, and an effective role model for staff.
• Maintain effective working relationships and communication with all members of the multi-professional team. Communicate complex information in appropriate formats for all staff.
• To ensure effective communication with all Safeguarding stakeholding agencies through meetings and liaison. This includes the ICBs, Kent County Council, and the Kent Police Constabulary.

Person Specification

Qualifications & Training

• RN (Adult, MH or LD) or Midwife or Allied Health professional (HCPC) or RN (Child) with specific adult safeguarding focused experience.
• Degree related to professional role.
• Teaching qualification.

Clinical skills and experience

• 2 years post qualification experience with 2 years experience working in an acute setting.
• Working knowledge of the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019, Care Act 2014, and their application within an Acute setting.
• Experience of delivering safeguarding training.
• Experience of reviewing complex case notes and writing chronology of events.
• Awareness of case law relevant to MCA.

Governance

• Understanding of governance/risk and reporting systems and processes in organisational and multi-agency context.
• Experience of audit, benchmarking, and/or research.

Personal/professional attributes

• Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills, including the ability to give clear advice and guidance to staff.
• Ability to present information effectively in a format which is easily understood by a wide range of staff.
• Ability to analyse and process complex information and conflicting priorities/opinions.
• Ability to work under pressure and deal with conflicting demands.

Other requirements

• Ability to travel between sites during the day.
• Enhanced DBS clearance.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.