Specialist Safeguarding Nurse

Job responsibilities

2. Job Purpose

• Deliver, support, and develop the 0-19 services safeguarding provision.

3. Dimensions

• Work as an autonomous practitioner and be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own safeguarding provision - covering direct work and caseload management.
• Support quality provision into partnered safeguarding meetings, providing quality feedback to 0-19 team members and the Safeguarding team.
• Work collaboratively with professionally registered and unregistered practitioners to provide supervision and team-based training to enhance practice, improving assessment and provision to safeguarded children and their families.

4. Key Result Areas

Clinical

To hold responsibility for a caseload of safeguarded childen and young people operating in a professional capacity consistent with YH and All London Child Protection Procedures, alerting the named nurse for child or adult protection when exceptional risks are identified, consistent with YH and All London Child Protection Procedures.

To respond where necessary to Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub requests, attend Safeguarding Strategy, Professional and Multi- Agency planning meetings and any Borough Based Safeguarding meetings as required by the Lead for example the Missing Persons meeting.

To provide professional advice and supervision to registered and unregistered members of the multidisciplinary 0-19 team in their role with safeguarded children on all matters relating to the protection of children and the promotion of their welfare.,

Delivering support to staff to meet their identified training/support needs, expanding on and supporting the embedding of skills and knowledge received as part of mandatory framework.

To assist those staff with internal case reviews supporting changes or adjustments to their delivery and where appropriate to attend appointments to support the practitioner.

To contribute to strategies and policies for service improvement alongside the Leads and Your Healthcare Childrens Safeguarding Team

Governance

To contribute, where requested to do so by the Lead, to internal and external audit of Safeguarding delivery and processes- according to national and local priorities.

To contribute into the Safeguarding Teams formulation and review of all child protection policies, guidelines, and protocols for Your Healthcare

To contribute to the monitoring of record keeping standards within the 0-19 team as they relate to the provision of safeguarded work and to provide practical support and guidance in line with Your Healthcare Policy and agreed process within the team and the Safeguarding Team.

Management

To ensure that the recommendations and implications of case reviews are disseminated and learning acted upon as it relates to 0-19 team provision.

To participate with the Safeguarding team and School Health and HV Leads in ensuring all new members of staff, working with children and/or their families, receive mandatory child protection induction and that all specialist elements relevant to their roles are identified and acted upon either through attendance at courses or through the provision of local bespoke training.

Communication and Working Relationships

Promote good practice and effective communication within the 0-19 Team and between Your Healthcare and all agencies on all matters relating to the protection of children.

To facilitate multi-agency and interdisciplinary partnerships to promote and maintain an effective service to clients, ensuring that information from other agencies, including Police and Social Services, is relayed to staff as appropriate and action plans identified with them.

Ensure information is effectively managed and best practice is shared across the team.

To work alongside the SH and HV team leads and the Safeguarding Team to support the development of effective working relationships with other agencies including acute, primary and voluntary sectors.

To deputise on occasion for the Safeguarding team by attendance at Borough based Safeguarding.

Mental Effort

Advanced level of assessment to ensure full needs of vulnerable children are correctly identified and provided for.

Ability to act responsively and proactively to developing needs within the team and work creatively to support skills development across a wide ability group.

Emotional Effort

The role requires dealing with difficult and sensitive situations and post holder may be required to deal with criticism and negative or stressful emotions/conflict of others internally and externally.

Experience

Essential

• Significant post-registration experience in a 0-19 team: School Health / Health Visiting
• Extensive experience in child protection work including risk assessment, safeguarding of vulnerable children and adults, and multiagency responses.
• Experience in providing supervision to others.
• Experience of teaching others
• Experience of multiagency working
• Demonstrated ability to manage own workload and make informed decisions, working to tight and often changing timescales.
• Evidence of implementing evidence base practice

Desirable

• Experience in professional leadership.
• Experience of working with other key stakeholders in promoting and championing health services for vulnerable children and young people
• Experience of engaging in auditing and monitoring child protection work
• Experience of planning and delivering training

Skills and abilities

Essential

• Excellent oral and written communications including negotiation, influencing, facilitation and report writing skills.
• High level analytical skills
• Highly organised a responsive
• Mentoring and counselling
• Ability to organise and prioritise workload.
• Ability to work under pressure and to meet deadlines.
• Significant experience of working in a team
• Adaptable when different approaches are required.
• Ability to manage conflict.
• Competent IT skills
• Ability to effectively use different styles of influencing in a variety of settings.
• Ability to critically appraise research findings and draw out significance for clinical practice and implement research findings.
• Ability to pay attention to detail.

Desirable

• Evidence of leadership and change management skills.

Qualifications

Essential

• Specialist Community Public Health Nurse Qualification
• School Nursing/ Health Visiting
• First-level degree or comparable experience or qualifications in safeguarding children
• Mentor qualification.

Desirable

• Specialist Community Public Health Nurse Qualification
• School Nursing/ Health Visiting
• First-level degree or comparable experience or qualifications in safeguarding children
• Mentor qualification.

Personal qualities

Essential

• Flexible and adaptable
• Self-motivated

Other factors

Essential

• Car driver

Knowledge

Essential

• Excellent knowledge of current key issues affecting families with children from 0-19 school aged children and young people
• A strong working knowledge of consent and wider aspects of safe relationship work including Child Exploitation and contextual safeguarding.
• Excellent knowledge of safeguarding childrens policies and procedures and best practice nationally and locally
• Excellent knowledge of legal frameworks regarding child welfare
• Understanding of information governance and confidentiality working across organisational boundaries and integrated care providers
• Understanding of the needs/perceptions of minority groups in child protection.
• Understanding of the role of clinical governance and child protection
• An understanding of research and clinical audit
• Knowledge of principles and practice of supervision.

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).