Child Safeguarding Advisor

Child Safeguarding Advisor

Location: Cross site between Lewisham and Woolwich, South East London

Proposed start date: ASAP

Duration: This is a temporary role for 6 months and likely to be longer

Sector: Healthcare

Working environment: Hospital

Pay Rates:

£23.00-£26.00 paye per hour

£26.00-£29.00 paye inclusive of holiday pay per hour

£29.00-£33.00 umbrella per hour

All of the rates are depending on skill and experience.

Band: 7
Working Days and Hours: 37.5 hours a week, Monday to Friday (on site each day), 9am to 5pm

Job Summary:

The Safeguarding Advisor needs to be an experienced specialist practitioner with in-depth knowledge of child protection and advanced analytical skills for safeguarding children acquired through specialist courses and experiential learning from interagency work.

Responsibilities:

1. Work as part of a team in the daily screening of emergency department attendances, collaborating with internal/external professionals and attending the weekly multi-disciplinary meeting.
2. Advise and support staff in complex cases and work closely with the Trust Named Safeguarding Children Professionals to ensure appropriate risk assessments are undertaken.
3. Work as part of a dynamic multi-agency team assessing notifications and referrals regarding children aged 0-18 received by the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).
4. Collaborate with acute and community sites as well as other multi-agency professionals working to safeguard children.
5. Deliver safeguarding training in line with Intercollegiate Guidance.
6. Provide safeguarding supervision in one-to-one, group, and reflective learning forums.
7. Supervise or manage a Safeguarding Coordinator.
8. Highlight challenges and document poor practice.
9. Provide advice and support on all matters relating to Child Protection and vulnerable families while implementing evidence-based practice.
10. Disseminate information to promote good practice.
11. Ensure robust safeguarding supervision is implemented within Trust Services in accordance with the Trust safeguarding supervision policy.
12. Provide safeguarding supervision, consultation, professional advice, and guidance to staff.
13. Facilitate regular experiential learning forums to share good practice and learn lessons from research around vulnerable families and child protection issues.
14. Work in partnership with Trust Team managers to address issues within clinical practice relevant to safeguarding vulnerable families.
15. Attend bi-weekly Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARAC) and ensure communication of actions/risk to practitioners.
16. Record, interpret, and present health information impacting the risk or needs assessment of children.
17. Identify service gaps and escalate evidence of ineffective safeguarding arrangements within the Trust.
18. Report to Named Professionals when issues require escalation or are of likely public interest.
19. Scope local needs of vulnerable families and implement strategies for support in collaboration with the Safeguarding team.
20. Undertake child protection quality and audit monitoring in collaboration with the Clinical Governance Department.
21. Develop quality assurance and audit programmes to maintain quality of supervision in line with clinical governance principles.
22. Ensure accurate and comprehensive record-keeping by staff, including reports for case conferences and court attendance.
23. Audit and review staff records during supervision sessions, highlighting challenges as appropriate.
24. Support staff in completing court reports.
25. Provide support and supervision for staff in potentially high-risk situations.
26. Develop dynamic networks and communicate effectively with Trust staff, Community Care Service Providers, Social Care, and other relevant agencies.
27. Raise awareness of safeguarding poor practices and associated risks with managers to support performance management strategies.