Senior Nurse Safeguarding Children

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work as part of the Safeguarding Children Team at CDDFT. The team are well established, dynamic and innovative. This role is a Band 7 Senior Nurse within the organisation, who will work closely with staff, stakeholders and support teams to safeguard children and families.

The Senior Nurse Safeguarding will work closely with the Named Nurse & Named Midwife, the wider safeguarding teams & the senior leadership team, to support assurance that the organisation is meeting statutory safeguarding requirements. They will also ensure the achievement of key performance indicators for safeguarding across the organisation.

We are seeking to recruit a highly motivated practitioner, who is passionate about safeguarding, with a focus of providing leadership across the service pertaining to this specialised area. The successful candidate will demonstrate robust knowledge, skills and experience within safeguarding practice they will be aware of the current safeguarding priorities across the service including the importance of effective and collaborative working with internal stakeholders, multi-agency Partners and Designated Safeguarding Professionals.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will demonstrate robust evidence-based knowledge of national and local procedures, guidance and key safeguarding children legislation. They will possess a keen desire to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and their families. They will have wealth of experience in the field of safeguarding children, with a child-centred and family-focused approach experience in teaching and the confidence to pursue positive outcomes, providing support and ensuring the progression of local improvement plans.

As a safeguarding specialist, you will be a highly motivated practitioner, who is passionate about safeguarding children, with a drive and enthusiasm to implement change and educate staff.

You will be part of a dynamic team of specialists, who work across the trust to lead in the development and delivery of safeguarding children training programme. You will provide safeguarding children supervision, advice, guidance and support. You will support the Named Nurse Safeguarding Children, to drive forward the safeguarding children agenda and contribute to multi-agency safeguarding children activities, across local safeguarding partnerships.

Job responsibilities

The successful candidate will achieve the role of Specialist Midwife Safeguarding, working closely with the Named Midwife Safeguarding, Maternity Safeguarding Team, wider safeguarding teams, the maternity senior leadership team & the maternity service, to ensure that the safeguarding arrangements are maintained and monitored. The Specialist Midwife Safeguarding is an extremely senior midwife within the organisation and will be responsible for ensuring that the safeguarding priorities and safeguarding strategy are embedded across the organisation and remain representative of the current local need.

The Specialist Midwife Safeguarding will lead on projects to ensure that safeguarding practice remains robust and evidence-based, embedding learning into practice and maintaining a Think Family Approach, across the service and multi-agency teams. This will be underpinned by the National & Statutory Safeguarding Agendas. They will lead on the development and delivery of safeguarding training, safeguarding supervision, policies, procedures and processes. They will work closely with the local Safeguarding Partnerships to collaborate on multi-agency procedures and training. The Specialist Midwife will provide advice, guidance and support to staff members across the service.

The Specialist Midwife Safeguarding will ensure that there are robust and meaningful multi-disciplinary and multi-agency assessments in place, during the pre-birth period leading on risk assessments to support the safeguarding of birthing people, their families, service users and staff, during care provision. The Specialist Midwife will develop and share Birth Response Plans and Local Alerts to ensure that communication is clear, to facilitate safeguarding of the unborn baby and their family. The Specialist Midwife will lead on the development of risk management plans, to appropriately respond to complex and high-risk safeguarding situations.

The Specialist Midwife Safeguarding will work alongside other specialist midwives and members of the multi-disciplinary and multi-agency teams, to continue to embed the Early Help Agenda across maternity services.

The Specialist Midwife Safeguarding will work closely with the wider safeguarding teams to ensure that midwives and other practitioners are supported in appropriate care planning, when caring for birthing people, unborn & newborn babies and their families, to address multifactorial risks within the complex safeguarding family dynamics supporting the Named Midwife Safeguarding with extremely complex safeguarding situations including high-risk domestic abuse, honour-based abuse, female genital mutilation, exploitation, modern slavery and trafficking. The Specialist Midwife will work closely with safeguarding adult teams to ensure that vulnerable adults are safeguarded. The Specialist Midwife will support staff when they are caring for adults where there are concerns about Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are applicable. They will support staff when they are caring for individuals where there are safeguarding concerns pertaining to adults with complex health needs, including learning disabilities.

The Specialist Midwife will work alongside the domestic abuse team, to ensure that enquiry and response to domestic abuse remains embedded in practice and that practitioners feel confident in identifying and responding to domestic abuse, during pregnancy.

The Specialist Midwife will lead on the support of staff members who are providing safeguarding evidence and contributing to safeguarding proceedings within court.

The Specialist Midwife Safeguarding will attend multi-agency meetings, to support risk assessment and analysis, to ensure multi-agency plans are robust.

In collaboration with the Named Midwife Safeguarding, the Specialist Midwife Safeguarding will work with multi-agency partners to ensure that the learning from local & national safeguarding reviews are identified, responded to and learning is embedded within safeguarding practice across the Trust. The Specialist Midwife will also lead on quality assurance methods, to ensure that the key safeguarding priorities are embedded within practice and to monitor and maintain high standards of practice.

The Specialist Midwife Safeguarding will work closely with the midwifery service, joining and chairing meetings, to ensure that safeguarding priorities are shared, learning and risks are reviewed appropriately and safeguarding practice continually evolves.

Work closely with teams, including workforce & od to monitor, improve and support safeguarding practice. As a senior midwife within the safeguarding team, they will be responsible for line management responsibilities and leadership, as delegated by the Named Midwife Safeguarding.

Person Specification
Statutory Registration
Essential

• Current NMC Registration

Experience
Essential

• A minimum of 3 years experience in health care provision, including significant experience working with children, young people and their families. Experience of working with families who have complex safeguarding needs. Experience in managing safeguarding processes, safeguarding case work, and contributing to multi-agency working to safeguarding children families Experience of teaching or training provision to a range of professional groups. Experience of effective multi-agency working including forming and sustaining professional relationships, across a range of partnership agencies, working together to safeguard children. Experience of safeguarding supervision and evidence of reflective practice. Experience of safeguarding children policies and procedures. Experience of compiling reports, applying critical thinking and analytical skills, to identify and respond appropriately to risks and implement proportionate safeguarding actions. Experience of working with local safeguarding frameworks including Signs of Safety. Experience of attending and providing meaningful contribution to multi-agency safeguarding meetings. Experience of responding to complex contextual safeguarding issues. Experience of capturing and responding to the child's lived experience.
• Experience of applying a Think Family Approach to practice. Experience of audit and quality assurance methods. Experience of risk management. Experience of identifying and responding to incident reporting to recognise and respond to learning.

Desirable

• Experience working in a specialist safeguarding role. Experience of facilitating safeguarding supervision Evidence of developing and delivering safeguarding children training. Experience of leading on the risk management of highly complex safeguarding situations. Experience in court proceedings, including preparing reports or statements and attendance at court.

Special Skills & Knowledge
Essential

• High level of communication skills. Ability to work in collaboration with teams and also to demonstrate autonomy. Robust knowledge and understanding of the safeguarding legislation and statutory frameworks, which underpin safeguarding practice including, but not limited to, the Children Act 1989 & 2004, Working Together 2023, Intercollegiate Document 2019. Understanding of local and national safeguarding policies and procedures. Skills in risk assessment, analysis and critical thinking to ensure that safeguarding risks are identified, analysed and responded to appropriately. Evidence of time management and organisation skills, including the ability to prioritise complex workload with competing challenges. Robust knowledge and understanding of local safeguarding partnerships and their functions. Demonstrate an understanding of the processes regarding safer recruitment and management of allegations, including LADO. Contributes to influencing change in safeguarding practice through education, supervision and support. Ability to analyse complex information, apply critical thinking within risk assessment and make crucial decisions, in complex situations. Ability to follow escalation process, when necessary and engage in respectful professional challenge, in safeguarding practice, when there are concerns for the children, young people or families. Demonstrates knowledge and understanding regarding current safeguarding children themes from research, including a robust understanding of current key priorities for safeguarding children. Demonstrates a robust understanding of MASH, MARAC and MAPPA functions and their importance within the safeguarding children agenda. Evidence of continual professional development within safeguarding. Understanding of the importance of engaging stakeholders. Understanding of regulation and frameworks surrounding information sharing. Ability to lead on projects. Presentation skills IT skills

Desirable

• Evidence of contribution to MASH Evidence of experience in attending MARAC and/or MAPPA

Special Requirements
Essential

• Full UK Driving Licence

Qualifications
Essential

• First Level Degree in health with a professional qualification in nursing or midwifery Evidence of study at Masters Level Teaching qualification or training certificate Qualification or significant highly developed safeguarding knowledge and experience Evidence of continued professional development Safeguarding Children Training at Specialist Level 3 competence

Desirable

• Masters Degree Safeguarding Supervision Training Safeguarding Education Court skills training Leadership course

Employer details
Employer name
County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Darlington Memorial Hospital NHS Trust
Hollyhurst Road
Darlington
County Durham
DL3 6HX
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