Band 6 - Safeguarding Children’s Nurse, Safeguarding

Band 6 - Safeguarding Children’s Nurse, Safeguarding

West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

The Band 6 Safeguarding Children's Nurse will play a vital role within the wider safeguarding team to support children and young people where there are safeguarding concerns.

This is a part-time position - 30 hours per week and is an excellent opportunity to develop your safeguarding skills and knowledge supported by a friendly dedicated and award-winning safeguarding team. The role requires a motivated, enthusiastic, and experienced Nurse with a passion for safeguarding and the ability to provide high quality advice, care and support to children and young people attending the organisation.

Ongoing professional development is encouraged, and you will have the ability to attend relevant courses that enhance your knowledge of various aspects of safeguarding relevant to your practice.

Main duties of the job

This role supports the safeguarding team across the acute organisation to provide improved accessibility to safeguarding support in all clinical areas.

The Band 6 safeguarding children's nurse/practitioner will be responsible for reviewing safeguarding referrals from all clinical areas and escalating high risk cases for further scrutiny by children's services.

The Band 6 children nurse/practitioner will support daily safeguarding ward rounds in specific clinical settings, weekly psychosocial meetings for staff, training updates for staffing groups, supporting children and young people across the organisation.

The Band 6 children's safeguarding nurse/practitioner will also contribute to multi-professional meetings, attending child protection conferences and professional escalation meetings both internally and for partnership agencies. The role will require the candidate to maintain a database of safeguarding supervision and training, alongside gathering data for clinical audits and assurance data.

The post holder should be confident, friendly, approachable, non-judgemental, organised, and pro-active in their approach to safeguarding. Good IT and communication skills are required as well as a broad knowledge of local and national safeguarding policies and procedures.

The ability to provide advice and support on safeguarding children issues to staff and to escalate as appropriate to senior safeguarding staff is required.

Job responsibilities

The post holder will work closely with the Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) for safeguarding, the Named Nurses, the organisation, and its workforce to ensure the organisation follows all statutory safeguarding guidance and improves the outcomes and promotes the welfare of adults, children, and families at risk of abuse and/or neglect.

Based within the safeguarding team, the post holder will support the safeguarding CNS, managing safeguarding cases across the organisation and contributing to the delivery of training, supervision, and general safeguarding activities. The post holder will be part of an integrated safeguarding team adopting a think family approach to safeguarding patients. On initial appointment, the safeguarding nurse will work with the safeguarding children clinical nurse specialists, drawing on previous experience and skills. Further training and development will be given.

Person Specification

Education and qualifications

• 1st Level Registered Nurse - adult or child.
• Qualified to degree level or equivalent experience.
• Clinical practice and experience as a Band 5 Nurse.
• Courses relevant to safeguarding.
• Registered Nurse Learning Disability.

Knowledge

• Good knowledge of safeguarding children and/or adult legislation and national guidance.
• Good knowledge of local safeguarding policies and procedures.
• Good knowledge about other agencies involved in safeguarding including Local Authority, Education and Police.
• Good knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act especially for 16- and 17-year-olds in preparation for liberty protection safeguards.
• Ability to use specialist knowledge to advise other staff.

Experience

• Clinical practice and experience as a Band 5/6 nurse.
• Experience of working with children, young people, and families.
• Experience of developing relationships with multi-agency colleagues.
• Experience of dealing with safeguarding cases in clinical practice.
• Teaching/training experience to other health professionals.
• Experience of delivering clinical supervision.
• Experience of undertaking root cause analysis or similar investigations.

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.

Salary: £39,205 to £47,084 a year pro rata including HCA.