Children in Care Specialist Nurse

Job overview

This is an exciting and challenging opportunity for a highly motivated and enthusiastic nurse with experience of Children in Care and/or safeguarding children, with a genuine commitment to promoting the welfare of children and young people. The successful candidate will have substantial experience as a paediatric nurse and be educated to degree level with evidence of further academic study relevant to safeguarding, children in care or the public health agenda.

As part of Safeguarding and Statutory Services you will be responsible for providing visible leadership, knowledge, and expertise in relation to safeguarding and children in care for all Trust staff.   You will work with a range of multi-disciplinary colleagues as well as external health colleague’s multi-agencies partners such as primary care, Local Authorities, Local Safeguarding Children Partnerships and Local Safeguarding Adult Boards.

You must be a registered nurse, with experience of safeguarding/children in care and knowledge of current statutory legislation and excellent communication and interpersonal skills. You should have experience of leading change and influencing practice, as well as working in multi-professional teams and across organisational boundaries, along with ensuring high quality information sharing, training and support.

As a senior member of the team, you will play a pivotal role in maintaining efficient and effective Children in Care systems within the Trust.

Main duties of the job

The Children in Care Specialist Nurse is an integral member of the Safeguarding and Statutory Services Team.

The Children in Care Specialist Nurse will work across Alder Hey,  providing services in collaboration with partners from Health and Social Care settings.

The Specialist Nurse will develop, co-ordinate and support facilitation of access to a broad range of health services to ensure Children in Care, care leavers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children’s needs are met; and positive outcomes  achieved.

The Children in Care Specialist Nurse will be responsible for -

• Developing and implementing policies relating to the health needs of children in care and care experienced.
• Provide speciality support and training to a wide range of professionals to enhance skill, knowledge, and practice.
• Work and collaborate with the Named and Designated Professionals for Children in Care across the three place areas Alder Hey serves.
• Work with colleagues across the trust to ensure best experience of care for Children, parents and carers.
• Promote the quality of Initial Health Assessments being undertaken and provide nursing support to compliment the Clinician function for Children in Care and Adoption medicals.

The Children in Care Specialist Nurse will work closely with the Safeguarding Specialist Nurses to help provide the day-to-day functions of Safeguarding and Statutory Services, by assisting to provide supervision, advice, and guidance within the Rainbow Team.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Children in Care Specialist Nurse is an integral member of the Safeguarding and Statutory Services Team. The role is to support the Senior Team to fulfil the statutory and safeguarding obligations of the Trust.

The Children in Care Specialist Nurse will work across Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (AHCFT) providing services in collaboration with partners from Health and Social Care settings. Through professional engagement, the Children in Care Specialist Nurse will ensure that Children in Care receive the appropriate services to reach their full potential, as outlined in Promoting the Health and Wellbeing of Looked after Children (2015) and demonstrate Level 4 competencies outlined in the Intercollegiate document for Looked After Children (2020).

The post holder will develop, co-ordinate and support facilitation of access to a broad range of health services to ensure Children in Care, care leavers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children’s needs are met; and positive outcomes for this vulnerable group are achieved.

The Children in Care Specialist Nurse will be responsible for developing and implementing policies relating to the health needs of children in care and care experienced children and young people across the Trust. In addition, they will provide safeguarding and speciality support and training to a wide range of professionals to enhance skill, knowledge, and practice. Working and collaborating with the Named and Designated Professionals for Children in Care across the three place areas Alder Hey serves is fundamental to the role within AHCFT.

As part of the role, the Children in Care Specialist Nurse will undertake audits, implementing findings to improve provision of a responsive Children in Care and safeguarding service for the Trust.

The Children in Care Specialist Nurse will work closely with the Safeguarding Specialist Nurses to help provide the day-to-day functions of Safeguarding and Statutory Services, by assisting to provide supervision, advice, and guidance within the Rainbow Team.

Main Responsibilities:

• To work as an active member of the Safeguarding and Statutory Services Nursing Team, participating in a range of Rainbow Centre and AHCFT activities.
• Attending multi-disciplinary and multi-agency meetings to represent Safeguarding and Statutory Services, for example Discharge Planning Meetings and Strategy Meetings.
• Impart specialist Children in Care knowledge and guidance to all staff at Alder Hey in regard of children and young people.
• Develop and deliver mandatory and key topics training in line with the Safeguarding and Children in Care training strategy.
• Supporting oversight and timely completion of Initial Health Assessments (IHA), Adoption Medicals and Adult Health Reports.
• Ensure IHAs undergo robust Quality Assurance processes to meet agreed local, regional, and national standards; working to support and educate clinicians on quality standards.
• Where clinically indicated, undertake the completion of health assessment conversion reports.
• Develop and maintain data collection systems to evidence outcomes of service delivery processes, working closely with the Children in Care administration team and Operational Management.
• Contribute to Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and assist in collating both quantitative and qualitative data, for internal and external reporting.
• Provide supervision across the organisation to practitioners working with Children in Care.
• Support the process for IHA and Adoption Medicals, including risk assessment where need potentially indicated, provide support in the undertaking of assessments where clinically indicated and support service development of medicals completed.
• On-going development of a child and young person-centred, outcomes focussed, Children in Care Service which can effectively demonstrate the voice of the child.
• Use and/or develop evidence-based, health promoting interventions and build relationships with internal and external services to support deliver of them.
• Provide a liaison role that can support sign posting to services and provides a link with internal teams and departments to ensure Children in Care have the most appropriate and timely access to services.
• Develop and monitor the impact of service provision via clinical governance and audit, undertaken jointly with other external Children in Care Teams; and in partnership with children, their families/carers and external agencies.
• Work in close collaboration with, or as part of, the multi-agency Children in Care Services, to deliver co-ordinated and coherent services to Children in Care, care experienced children and young people and their families and carers.
• To work in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and scope of professional practice at all times.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of Safeguarding and Children in Care policies and procedures.
• Support care planning discussions for children/young people entering the care system or being adopted.