Job overview
We are recruiting for a Maternity Safeguarding Specialist who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.
You will be a fundamental part of the safeguarding team and work closely with the Trust's Specialist Safeguarding Midwife and Named Safeguarding Midwife to ensure that safeguarding remains at the heart of practice for women and UBB's across the Trust.
You will be also working closely with Safeguarding Children's and Adults Teams, the Perinatal Mental Health Team and our Trust Domestic and Sexual Abuse Team.
Our Values are: Include, Respect and Improve. It is important that you understand and refer to our values during your recruitment process and beyond!
Main duties of the job
The role of the maternity safeguarding specialist includes supervision, training, education, managing as well as maintaining a very busy inbox whilst liaising with our multi-agency partners to ensure that robust plans are in place for our most vulnerable women and their babies.
You will be in a position to contribute to the development, planning and delivery of learning centred training within a multidisciplinary and multi-agency framework.
The post holder will also be providing safeguarding supervision to maternity staff.
In addition, you will be attending a variety of Children's Social Care and multi-disciplinary meetings (in person and virtual) and chairing meetings are a part of the role. As well as directly supporting women and midwives the role requires some auditing and data analysis.
Working for our organisation
At East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.
We run the following hospitals:
* The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
* New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
* Hertford County, Hertford
* Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood
We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.
We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.
Person specification
Previous Experience
Essential criteria
* Child protection / safeguarding children experience
* Midwifery experience preferably in hospital and community setting
Desirable criteria
* Recent community experience
* Experience of delivering training
* Evidence of completion of Train the Trainers program
* Experience of providing clinical supervision
Skills
Essential criteria
* Ability to function as a member of the multidisciplinary team
* Ability to communicate effectively with clients and staff at all levels in a sensitive manner
* A high standard of written and verbal communication skills
* Able to manage situations of potential conflict or distress
* Ability to exercise initiative
Desirable criteria
* Counselling skills
* Presentation and report writing skills
* IT skills
* Good management, leadership and organisational skills
* Audit skills
Knowledge
Essential criteria
* Understanding of the role of the safeguarding specialist as defined by the NMC
Desirable criteria
* In depth understanding of the national and local guidance and legislation for safeguarding children
Qualifications
Essential criteria
* Registered midwife
* Evidence of current safeguarding practice
* Evidence of post registration education
* Mentorship and Preceptorship course
Desirable criteria
* Evidence of further study/experience in child protection at diploma/degree level
Our values
We want our staff to believe in, demonstrate and live our values in everything we do.
Include
We value the diversity and experience of our community colleagues and partners, creating relationships and climates that provide an opportunity to share, collaborate and grow together.
Respect
We create a safe environment where we are curious of the lived experience of others, seek out best practice and are open to listening and hearing new ideas.
Improve
We are committed to consistently delivering excellent services and continuously looking to improve through a creative workforce that feels empowered to act in service of our shared purpose.
Committed to our Community
East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for all job applicants, staff, patients and the wider community. We want to create a workforce which represents the communities we serve. We are on a journey to become a more inclusive organisation and we welcome applications from everyone regardless of their background. In particular we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities, and candidates from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who are currently under-represented in various parts of our workforce .
We understand the importance of balancing work and home life. We are committed to support flexible working for our staff wherever possible and all our employees are given the opportunity to discuss potential for flexible working.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and achieved our status in 2019.
We will remove barriers that prospective candidates might face at any stage of our recruitment process. If you have a disability and would like the advert in an alternative format, or would like to talk about how we can adjust the interview process to best support you, please contact us by emailing resourcing.enh-tr@nhs.net
We are also proud to support our UK armed forces by supporting Reservists, Cadet Instructors, Veterans and military spouses/partners into employment and offering supportive policies that value their contribution to the community and to our Trust.
We are committed to being a carer-friendly environment, addressing the complex needs of families with caring responsibilities. In partnership with Carers in Hertfordshire, all our working carers have access to support from recruitment. We are also a member of Carers UK, providing resources to make balancing work and caring easier. Our approach is inclusive, recognizing diverse challenges and creating a supportive environment where carers feel valued.