Safeguarding Practitioner

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose

• To work within the integrated safeguarding team supporting staff across Nottingham CityCare Partnership to perform their safeguarding duties within the Think Family model.
• To support the development of safeguarding practice across the organisation, through the assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of safeguarding processes, and in response to learnings derived from local and national incidents.
• To communicate effectively with staff of all levels and with multi-agency partners to share information, escalate concerns and effectively feedback from safeguarding meetings and forums.
• To support in the development and delivery of Safeguarding Children, Adult and Domestic Abuse training to ensure staff have the skills and knowledge required to perform their roles in line with current legislation and guidance.

Dimensions

• You will work in the team base to cover the Duty service on a rotational basis, and you will work in any of the team bases across the city to support staff within the organisation.
• You will support in undertaking audits and reviews and implementing action plans and lessons learned across the organisation.
• You will attend a variety of multi-agency safeguarding meetings and act as representative for Nottingham CityCare Partnership and have responsibility for sharing, receiving, and disseminating relevant information.
• You will be responsible for security of goods/equipment needed for training laptop, projector, screen, training materials. ou will be responsible for the regular evaluation of training.

Key Responsibilities

• The post holder will work with a range of key professionals and partner agencies to contribute to the on-going implementation of safeguarding systems and best practice to protect and promote the welfare of children, young people, adults at risk and those experiencing domestic abuse.
• Provide same-day, sometimes urgent, safeguarding advice to CityCare staff from both Children and Adult services through delivery of the Safeguarding Teams duty advice service.
• Actively encourage and support frontline staff to adopt a Think Family approach and consider the needs of dependents or other significant people in the patient's network/household when providing care.
• Support and advise on the safeguarding incident, reporting and management process.
• Ensure front-line practitioners are appropriately advised regarding the principles and application of safe and legal information sharing within a safeguarding arena.
• Actively contribute to working groups and other relevant corporate and service delivery groups and committees to achieve positive outcomes in relation to safeguarding.
• Demonstrate knowledge and skill in current evidenced-based safeguarding practice and the ability to transfer this into practice through the provision of advice and other duties.
• Advise, inform and escalate safeguarding concerns to the Safeguarding Service Manager or Named Nurse for Safeguarding/Head of Safeguarding as appropriate.
• Report verbally and in writing any accidents, complaints, untoward incidents and near misses as per policy.
• Be an active member of the CityCare safeguarding network and wider safeguarding forums/networks as appropriate and engage in supervision with the Safeguarding Service Manager.
• Assist the service to gather evidence to provide internal and external assurance as required and assess organisational and service position in relation to safeguarding standards.
• To support CityCare's contribution to the MARAC process through record reviews, MARAC attendance and multi-agency safety planning.
• The post holder may be required to support the ongoing delivery of the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) Health service.

Communication

• Provide advice and appropriate safeguarding supervision to clinical and non-clinical staff at the point of need regarding safeguarding children, vulnerable adults, and domestic abuse, working pro-actively and reactively to engage frontline staff.
• Provide advice to staff on consent, capacity to consent and information sharing in relation to safeguarding.
• Support staff with reporting, both written and verbal accounts, for formal safeguarding processes, including child protection conferences, child in need meetings, strategy discussions/ meetings, police statements, court statements or hearings; and the co-ordination of multi-agency meetings that support safeguarding processes.
• Effectively contribute to multi-agency panel meetings, and internal and external safeguarding meetings as required.
• Support frontline staff to respectfully challenge decision making, utilising the escalation process as necessary.
• To contribute towards the identification of any learning from serious incidents involving CityCare, communicating this both verbally and in writing and supporting the implementation of action plans to support improved outcomes for patients.

Policies and Procedures

• Implementation of all local and national safeguarding policies, procedures, and guidance.
• Ensure that staff are familiar with organisational policy and local safeguarding procedures and that these are being followed where actual or potential harm is identified.
• Contribute to the review, development, and implementation of CityCare's safeguarding relevant procedures and policies, to ensure alignment with national guidance and Local Safeguarding Partnership/Board and where consultation with other CityCare services may be required to develop procedures that make a difference to the health and wellbeing of patients and represent realistic expectations of service delivery.

Training

• Contribute to the co-ordination, delivery, and evaluation of the CityCare safeguarding training strategy and programme in line with the CityCare safeguarding training matrix and Core Skills Framework, in conjunction with Safeguarding Leads, organisational development teams and Safeguarding Partners.
• Monitor, audit, and review training delivered to ensure that training meets the needs of CityCare staff and is of a consistently high standard that remains contemporaneous with current evidence base and local and national guidance.
• Participate in the delivery of both CityCare specific safeguarding training and multi-agency training where appropriate.

Monitoring

• Support the Safeguarding Team to arrange, develop and co-ordinate systems of audit to monitor the agreed local and national policies and procedures, audits, and inspection in order to evaluate and improve the quality and effectiveness of safeguarding practice within CityCare.
• Assist with the collection of data in Rapid Reviews, Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews, Internal Management Reviews and Serious Incident investigations, including producing chronologies and taking accounts from staff.
• Support the implementation of recommendations from internal and external safeguarding reviews.

Special Requirements

Essential

• Ability to be flexible over hours worked within contracted hours to meet the needs of the service
• An ability to travel across a number of sites within the working day.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of supporting change
• Experience of Supervision
• Experience of managing multi-agency working / relationships
• Sound working knowledge of safeguarding and its application
• Extensive experience working with families and young people who are receiving multi agency services.
• Experience working with families who are being supported through Supporting Families Programme.
• Experience of leading change within a multi-agency setting.

Desirable

• Experience in undertaking research, audit, reviews
• Ability to organise - chair multidisciplinary meetings
• Ability to conduct audit and management reviews
• Ability to demonstrate an understanding and commitment to the current issues affecting the delivery of safeguarding services.
• Experience of delivering improvements to improve the lives of children and young people

Qualifications

Essential

• Three years experience working in Safeguarding with responsibility for a safeguarding caseload.
• Evidence of relevant professional development.
• Completion of Level 3 Safeguarding training.

Desirable

• First Level Registered Practitioner
• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.
• Mentorship Qualification.
• Supervision Qualification.
• Teaching Qualification.
• Expanded Safeguarding Training.

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• Sound working knowledge regarding the recognition and impact of abuse and neglect, capacity and consent.
• Reflective Practitioner and ability to facilitate reflective practice in others.
• Understanding of national policy in relation to safeguarding children, adults at risk and domestic abuse.
• Good working knowledge of local safeguarding procedures.
• Good working knowledge of the Threshold of Needs document.
• Ability to represent the organisation as appropriately delegated by safeguarding leads.
• Ability to be self-motivating and also work as an effective member of wider organisational teams.
• Ability to prioritise and deliver within tight timescales.
• Effective written and oral communication skills.
• Effective influencing and negotiating skills.
• Able to challenge poor practice and deal with conflict.
• Commitment to continuing professional development for self and others to support succession planning.
• Ability to recognise own need for support and supervision.
• Ability to exercise initiative.
• Adaptable and flexible.
• Self-motivated.
• Emotional awareness and resilience.
• Problem solving skills.
• Networking skills.
• IT/keyboard skills.

Desirable

• Demonstrates understanding of motivating and developing teams and individuals
• Proven ability to manage complex problems
• Political awareness and understanding
• Willingness to develop the range and scope of the post as services change

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).