It might be difficult to accept, but every child and young person can be hurt, put at risk of harm or abused, regardless of their age, gender, religion or ethnicity.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as protecting children from maltreatment, preventing impairment of children’s health or development. It ensures children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care (view Working Together to Safeguard Children on the government's website).

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the health and welfare of all children and young people.  We have a dedicated Safeguarding Children’s Team, led by a Safeguarding Lead who is also the Named Nurse, Safeguarding Children, a Named Midwife, a Paediatric Liaison Nurse and a Named Doctor for Safeguarding Children working across the organisation.

Child Protection

Child protection is a subset of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.  It refers to the activity that is undertaken to protect specific children and young people who are suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.  We have a legal duty to protect children (view Children Act 1989 on legislation.gov.uk).

Our Trust is responsible for implementing policies, procedures and guidance based on the underpinning legislation and Governance Guidance.

Safeguarding Adults at Risk can include any work or activity that aims to support them to retain independence, well-being and choice. It also makes them able to live a life that is free from abuse and neglect.

It is about both preventing abuse and neglect and promoting good practice when responding to specific concerns.

Where abuse is suspected or alleged, then Safeguarding Adults Procedures can be used by organisations and services to make sure that a consistent and comprehensive response is provided.

Who is an Adult at Risk and what is Adult Abuse?

Some adults are less able to protect themselves than others, and some have difficulty making their wishes and feelings known. This may make them vulnerable to abuse. An adult at risk is defined as someone 18 years of age or over who is/or may be in need of community care services by reason of any of the following:

• mental or other disability
• age or illness
• is/or may be unable to take care of him or herself
• unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation.

Abuse is defined as: ‘a violation of an individual’s human and civil rights by any other person or persons’.

Abuse may be physical or sexual, it may involve people taking money without permission, or not looking after someone properly.  It may include poor care practices, bullying or humiliating, or not allowing contact with friends and family.

Abuse can be a single act or may continue over a long period.  It can be unintentional or deliberate, but will result in harm to the victim, either physically, emotionally, financially or in its effect on the person’s wellbeing or development.

Every adult has the right to a life free of fear, be treated with dignity, and have their choices respected and not to be forced to do anything against their will.

If you are worried that a child, young person or adult at risk is being abused, contact the Safeguarding Team on 020 8970 5719.

Office hours

Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. 

You can also email bhr-tr.safeguarding@nhs.net but please note that this account is only monitored during office hours. 

If it is an emergency and you feel someone is in immediate danger, please contact the Emergency Services by dialling 999. If you feel your concerns are of a criminal nature, you can contact the Police by dialling 101.

If you have any comments on this website, please contact:

• Gary Etheridge, Director of Nursing, Patient Experience and Engagement and Safeguarding at gary.etheridge@nhs.net
• Daniela Capasso, Assistant Director, Safeguarding and Named Midwife & Interim Lead for Learning Disabilities and Autism at dcapasso@nhs.net
• Jay Brown, Named Nurse, Safeguarding Children at jay.brown1@nhs.net
• Roisin Gavin, Named Nurse, Safeguarding Adults at roisingavin@nhs.net

NHS organisations have a safeguarding duty under Section 11 of the Children’s Act (2004). It places duties on a range of organisations and individuals to ensure their functions and any services that they contract out to others, are carried out with the need to safeguard plus promote the welfare of children. The duties under Section 11 are set out in Chapter 2 Working Together document (2018).

Organisations are required to have arrangements in place that reflect the importance of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

These include:

• Clear lines of accountability for the commissioning and/or provision of services designed to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
• A senior Board level lead to take leadership responsibility for the organisation’s safeguarding arrangements
• Clear whistleblowing procedures, which reflect the principles in Sir Robert Francis Freedom to Speak Up Review
• Clear escalation policies for staff to follow when child safeguarding concerns are not being addressed within their organisation or by other agencies
• A culture of listening to children and taking their wishes and feelings into account in decisions about them as individuals, and about the development of services
• Arrangements which clearly set out the processes for sharing information with other
• practitioners and with their safeguarding partners i.e. Local Authority, Clinical
• Commissioning Group) and Police
• A designated lead professional for safeguarding
• Safer recruitment practices
• Appropriate supervision and support for staff, including safeguarding training
• Creating a culture of safety, equality and protection within the services they provide
• Clear policies, for dealing with allegations against people who work with children

Health professionals are in a strong position to identify welfare needs or safeguarding concerns of individual children and where appropriate, provide support. This includes understanding risk factors, communicating effectively with children and families, liaising with other agencies, assessing needs and capacity, responding to those needs, and contributing to multiagency assessments and reviews.

We are committed to achieving and maintaining compliance with national safeguarding children standards. This ensures all patients, including children, are cared for in a safe, secure and caring environment.

This will be achieved through continuous monitoring, audit, review and quality improvement led by skilled and competent named professionals. They will be supported and challenged by the Trust’s Safeguarding Strategic and Assurance Group, Safeguarding Operational Group, Safeguarding Audit Group and the Trust Board.

The Chief Nurse/Deputy Chief Executive is the Trust Executive lead for safeguarding children. She is the chair of the Trust’s Safeguarding Strategic and Assurance Group. Meetings are held quarterly and reports to the Trust’s Quality Governance Steering Group. This in turn reports to the Quality Assurance Committee, a sub-group of the Trust Board.

The Trust’s Director of Nursing, King George Hospital and Safeguarding Director is the senior lead for safeguarding. The role includes deputising for the Chief Nurse/Deputy Chief Executive at Local Safeguarding Children’s Partnerships meetings plus the Trust Safeguarding Strategic and Assurance Group. The Director of Nursing, King George Hospital and Safeguarding Director is the Chair of the Trust’s Safeguarding Operational Group.

Resources

The Trust has named professionals who lead on children’s safeguarding issues. Their roles are clearly defined. They have sufficient time and receive relevant support and training, to undertake their roles. This includes close contact with social and health care organisations.

There are a number of roles in the Safeguarding Children’s Team which include:

1. Named Doctor, Safeguarding Children
2. Named Nurse, Safeguarding Children
3. Named Midwife, Safeguarding Children
4. Safeguarding Children Liaison Nurses / Child Death Review Key Workers
5. Safeguarding Children’s Advisor for Learning Disabilities & Autism
6. Safeguarding Advisor Harmful Practice (Children and Adults Team)
7. Deputy Named Midwife
8. Emergency Department Safeguarding Advisors
9. Safeguarding Children’s Office Manager
10. Safeguarding Children’s Secretary

The Named Nurse and Midwife is line managed by the Director of Nursing, King George Hospital and Safeguarding Director on behalf of the Chief Nurse/Deputy Chief Executive.

Systems and Processes

The Trust has an ongoing process to review and update its safeguarding children systems and processes and is committed to continuously improving to raise performance. An annual safeguarding children’s workplan is in place which is reviewed quarterly at the Trust’s Safeguarding Strategic and Assurance Group and Safeguarding Children’s Operational Group.

The Trust meets the statutory requirements in relation to the disclosure and barring scheme checks, and follows the NHS Employers Standard which includes extended checks for staff working with children and vulnerable adults.

Policies

The Trust’s Safeguarding Children & Young People (Child Protection) Policy and Procedure is based on the Pan London Child Protection Procedures 5th Edition 2017. It includes details on the roles and responsibilities of all members’ of staff, their required training levels, and the procedures to follow on different aspects of safeguarding concerns.

The Trust’s Policy for Supervision of Staff with Responsibility for Safeguarding Children & Young People (January 2020), is available on the Trust’s intranet. This sets out the arrangements for to ensure effective supervision is provided for clinical staff.

Safeguarding Children Training

The Trust has a robust Safeguarding Children’s Training Needs Analysis and Strategy in place to meet the training needs of all staff groups, who require varying levels of training to fulfil their duties. This will depend on their level of contact with children and young people and/or their role in the child protection process. The Safeguarding Children’s Training Strategy and Training Needs Analysis are reviewed yearly.

The Strategy is aligned with the competencies and levels of training as detailed in Safeguarding Children and Young People: Roles and Competences for Health Care Staff, Intercollegiate Document 4th Edition (January 2019).

The Trust’s safeguarding training is monitored at the Safeguarding Children’s Operational Group and risks reported to the Safeguarding Strategic and Assurance Group.

The Safeguarding Children’s Team have developed a training matrix which summarises the number of staff that will receive training to ensure that the Trust is compliant at all levels. This is monitored via BEST (BHR Educations Systems Training) a Workforce Information Reporting Engine Database), a web-based tool to track staff training.

Staff have access to all multiagency training provided by our partner agencies and training dates are communicated to relevant staff.

Flagging Vulnerable Children

The Trust has a system in place for flagging children if there safeguarding concerns. All staff have access to advice from safeguarding professionals and there is an agreed process for referring children to social care.

The Trust continues to use the Child Protection Information System (CP-IS). It ensures health professionals working in unscheduled care settings are alerted to key social care information for children who are subject to a Child Protection Plan or identified as a Looked After Child or an unborn at risk. This system supports clinical staff working in unscheduled care settings in their decision-making process, and to encourage communication with social care.

The Trust implemented the Female Genital Mutilation Information Sharing (FGM-IS) within Maternity Services on 1st April 2018 and in the Emergency Departments and Gynaecology Services in April 2019. This system delivers the capability to share information as to whether a girl (under 18) is at risk of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). This supports frontline staff through the Trust to meet their local safeguarding responsibilities in preventing the girl from undergoing FGM.

Staff working in the Emergency Departments (Queen’s and King George Hospitals) utilise a Safeguarding Children Trigger Assessment Tool. This tool serves to aid identification of vulnerabilities of children at risk or at potential risk of harm. The tool enables staff delivering care to children at various stages of the child’s journey to explore if there are any safeguarding concerns and includes a process of escalation if any concerns are identified.

Staff within the BHURT Integrated Sexual Health and Reproductive Health Service Team utilise a Safeguarding Proforma for all children (0-18) years. This encompasses a serious of indicators of risk to alert practitioners to safeguarding concerns.

Safeguarding Children Audits

Safeguarding children audits are carried out on a yearly rolling programme which has been approved by Trust’s Safeguarding Strategic and Assurance and the Safeguarding Operational Groups.

Results of the audits are presented Safeguarding Audit Group and exceptions are discussed quarterly at the Trust’s Safeguarding Operational Group and Safeguarding Strategic and Assurance Group.

Assurance

The Trust Board takes the issue of safeguarding extremely seriously and receives safeguarding children reports from the Chief Nurse/Deputy Chief Executive. Safeguarding children reports are also presented at the Trust’s Safeguarding Groups and at the Trust’s Quality Governance Steering Group and the Quality Assurance Committee. Annual safeguarding children reports are also presented at the Trust Board by the Chief Nurse/Deputy Chief Executive.

Tony Chambers
Chief Executive

Kathryn Halford, OBE
Chief Nurse/Deputy Chief Executive