Detailed job description and main responsibilities

 Promoting Safeguarding

 To be a resource for all staff involved in safeguarding adults and children, providing expert advice and support.

To provide advice and support to the Trust to ensure that policies and processes are followed in relation to safeguarding.

 To support practitioners in the management of complex safeguarding issues.

To participate in, and commit to, working in partnership with key agencies responsible for safeguarding children and adults.

To provide specialist safeguarding supervision to staff across the Trust.

To support the PREVENT Lead as required.

To promote continuous improvement in the delivery of excellent services.

To influence service delivery around DA seeking to empower Trust staff.

To apply knowledge of the current legislation, and Local and National policies around promoting and safeguarding the health, welfare and safety of adults, adults with care and support needs and children.

Required to make judgements involving complex facts or situations which require analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options.

To maintain an awareness of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and Deprivation of Liberty Standards and their impact upon Safeguarding Adults work.

Review research in the area of safeguarding children and adults and advise the Trust accordingly.  Undertake any research appropriate to the role.

To use research and core audit skills to evaluate, develop and improve standards of practice and use Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SAR), Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR) and Safeguarding Practice Reviews (SPR) recommendations to inform and improve practice.

To maintain personal professional competency and appropriate development.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required:

 To ensure that Trust policies and procedures relating to safeguarding children and adults reflect the principles set out in current legislation and guidance (e.g. Domestic Abuse Act 2021, Working Together 2018, Care Act 2014, West Midlands Domestic Violence and Abuse Standards 2015).

To promote and develop the ‘Think Family’ agenda and understand the interface between adult and child safeguarding, including the ability to identify known risk indicators in families.

To maintain an awareness of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in relation to adult safeguarding.

To actively disseminate knowledge through publications, conference presentations, Trust Social Media accounts, Trust newsletter and participation in Local and National groups relevant to the adult safeguarding agenda.

To maintain up to date knowledge and expertise in relation to developments in research and practice in the DA safeguarding arena, ensuring that this information is reflected in policy, training and practice where appropriate

Undertake any research appropriate to the role.

Autonomously organise, prioritise and manage own workload pressures, meeting the frequent demands made by the Trust and other agencies i.e. Police, Social Care to meet the needs of the service

Ability to identify and manage allocated resources in delivery of work plan for safeguarding adults and children.

Ability to prioritise own work, including safeguarding cases, delivery of training to a wide work force, safeguarding audit and work programme.

Production of reports relating to safeguarding, investigations, SAR, DHR and SPR audits and other safeguarding reports.

The post holder will use IT for word processing, e-mail, audit and research, PowerPoint presentations and keeping databases.

The role demands frequent travel throughout the Trust to train and supervise staff as well as attend meeting and case conferences.

 Analytical and judgment skills: the level required to fulfil the job responsibilities satisfactorily, e.g. numerical analysis, critical reasoning, interpretation of information and complexity of decision making.

Planning and organisational skills: the level of planning from straightforward activities/programmes to long term strategic plans, e.g. project work, organising own/other’s workload.

Measurable Result Areas:

To identify training needs and contribute to the development, implementation and evaluation of safeguarding training across the Trust in accordance with the Adult Safeguarding: Roles and Competencies for Health Care Staff 2018 intercollegiate document. 

To ensure that learning from Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SAR), Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR), and Safeguarding Practice Reviews (SPR) are disseminated to staff via advice, support, training and supervision.

To contribute to the development and delivery of multi-agency safeguarding training, including DA.

To develop and deliver bespoke safeguarding training packages as required.

To contribute to the maintenance of the Trust safeguarding policies, ensuring that they are reviewed regularly and updated in accordance with current legislation and best practice.

To participate in safeguarding reviews, lessons learnt and audit to evaluate, develop and improve standards of practice

To consistently maintain personal professional competency and appropriate development.

To carry out relevant and effective audit in accordance with the Trust Safeguarding Audit Plan in order to monitor, evaluate and improve safeguarding practice within the Trust.

To contribute to the Trust’s clinical governance agenda by supporting and evaluating best practice in safeguarding adults and children, ensuring that this informs all aspects of the Trust’s agenda.

To help plan, develop and evaluate systems to gather, collate, analyse, interpret, monitor, present, and disseminate safeguarding data in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements.

To analyse data and produce reports for internal and external Trust use as required.

To contribute to SAR’s, DHR’s, SPR’s as required.

To support service managers and HR in investigating allegations against staff where appropriate.

 To contribute to any public health campaigns that have a safeguarding focus, especially those that result from SAR, SPR, or DHRs.

To work across agencies to develop and embed preventative strategies to support staff appropriately.

Accountability: the parameters and guidelines the post holder works within or the level at which they use their own initiative, e.g. supervisory capacity or freedom to initiate actions.

Responsibility for policy/ service development the post holder will be responsible for writing safeguarding polices and contribute to multi-agency policies ensuring that Legislation, National and Local guidance is followed appropriately.

Responsibility for financial and physical resources: from maintaining stock levels and/or ordering, to budget responsibility and authorising the purchase of capital resources

Responsibility for information resources: from data input to the management of information systems.

Management responsibility: the post holder will be responsible for organising, supervising and teaching staff.

Responsibility for research and development: from audits to undertaking research and development programmes on a regular basis.

Communications and Working Relationships:

To provide specialist safeguarding advice and support to staff in relation to safeguarding queries, utilising a ‘Think Family’ approach at all times.

To provide specialist advice to all staff in relation to domestic abuse risk assessment, supporting staff to ensure that risk is identified and managed appropriately and in accordance with Trust policy.

To provide effective specialist safeguarding supervision to teams and individuals across the Trust, providing an opportunity to challenge practice constructively and identify barriers to effective practice.

To provide support and guidance to staff who are investigating allegations of abuse including support around the safeguarding process.

To provide advice to managers who are supporting members of staff who have disclosed that they are victims or perpetrators of domestic abuse.

To help plan, develop, implement and evaluate systems.  To gather, collate, analyse, interpret, monitor, present, disseminate and generally act as a source of expertise   for safeguarding information within the Trust.

To analyse incoming data and produce reports and recommendations as required.

To participate in and promote multi-agency working by liaising closely with the Local Safeguarding Children’s and  Adults  Partnerships to ensure joined up multi-agency working to safeguard adults across  the Trust to work with professionals from Local Authority and other agencies to ensure that all safeguarding responsibilities delegated to the Trust are carried out effectively

To work collaboratively with partner agencies, including the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), in safeguarding children and their carers who may be subject to domestic abuse by attendance and participation in Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference processes (MARAC). Also to liaise effectively with partner agencies and staff where there are lower and medium risk domestic abuse concerns involving families

To contribute to single and multi- agency learning by participating in the DHR, SPR and SAR processes.

To attend relevant meetings, both internal and external to the Trust.