Whipps Cross University Hospital

Safeguarding Children declaration
 

Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust works hard to ensure that all patients including children are cared for in a safe, secure and caring environment. As a result, a number of safeguarding children arrangements are in place.
 

These include:
 

Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust meets statutory requirements in relation to Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks.  All staff employed at the Trust undergo a CRB check prior to employment and those working with children undergo an enhanced level of assessment.
 

All the Trust Child Protection policies and systems are up-to-date and robust.  A number of new procedures have been developed in recent months which include managing near fatalities in children and following up children who fail to attend outpatient appointments. Child protection procedures will be reviewed annually.
 

A system is in place for flagging up children who attend the emergency department or anywhere on the hospital site for whom there are safeguarding concerns.
 

All eligible staff have undertaken relevant safeguarding training and this is regularly reviewed to ensure it is up-to-date.  The Trust has a robust training strategy in place with regard to delivering safeguarding training.

·   84% of all staff are up-to-date on level one training.  The target to achieve  80% by March 2010 has been achieved

·   81%  of clinical staff are up-to-date on level two training.  The target to achieve  80% by March 2010 has been achieved

·   45% of clinical staff are up-to-date on level three training.  The target is to achieve 80% by March 2011 .
 

A training review has been undertaken and staff groups requiring the various levels of safeguarding training have been identified in the Child Protection training strategy. 
 

The Trust action plan has been updated to ensure uptake of Level 3 training by eligible staff for the deadline of March 2011.   
 

The Trust has named professionals who lead on issues in relation to Safeguarding.  They are clear about their role, have sufficient time and receive relevant support, and training, to undertake their roles, which include close contact with other social and healthcare organisations.  We have increased the programmed activities for the named doctor from two to four per week to reflect the level of safeguarding activity in the Trust.  The team consists of:
 

Named Nurse for Safeguarding Children                       1.0 WTE
 

Named Doctor for Safeguarding Children          4 programmed activities/week
 

Named Midwife for Safeguarding Children                             0.6 WTE
 

Midwife with Specialist interest in Safeguarding Children      0.8 WTE
 

Safeguarding Children Advisor                                             0.8 WTE (July 2010)
 

Administrator                                                                           0.2 WTE
 

The Director of Nursing, Quality and Performance is the Executive Director lead for Safeguarding Children.  A Non Executive Director, Chairs the Governance Committee which reports to the board on Safeguarding Children.
 

The Trust Board takes the issue of safeguarding extremely seriously and receives an annual report on safeguarding children issues.  The last Annual Report occurred in August 2009 and the board paper relating to this can be found at www.whippsx.nhs.uk under the heading “The Trust”. The Trust Board has robust audit programmes to assure it that safeguarding systems and processes are working. Feedback mechanism to the Local Safeguarding Children Board is currently under review.