Job Title:
Named GP for Safeguarding Children
Base:
The Causeway, Goring By Sea / Crawley Hospital (flexible)
Time Commitment:
2 sessions (7.5 hours) per week
Reports to:
Designated Doctor
Team:
Safeguarding Children – Quality Team
Remuneration:
1. Contract of Employment (payment to individual) = £24,000 per
annum for 2 sessions per week
2. Practice Secondment (payment to GP practice) = £25,000 per
annum for 2 sessions per week
There are 2 payment options
available, which can be
discussed on appointment
Organisational Context
Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s) sit at the heart of the Government’s ambition to deliver
better health outcomes and quality standards, offer more choice and information for patients and
empower frontline professionals with strong leadership roles.
CCGs are different from any predecessor NHS organisation. Built on the GP practices that
make up their membership, it is these member practices that decide how the CCG operates.
CCG’s are expected to ensure that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children are
integral to clinical governance and audit arrangements.
About the CCG’s
West Sussex comprises of three CCG’s, Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group,
Horsham & Mid Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group and Crawley Clinical Commissioning
Group. Together the CCG’s cover 90 GP practices and hold responsibility for the health and
wellbeing of over 827,100 people including more than 165,000 children aged 0-17 years.
Each CCG has an identified Executive Lead with overall responsibility for safeguarding
throughout the organisation and as such are committed to the drive to improve outcomes for
children in West Sussex. There is Senior Management representation on the West Sussex
Safeguarding Children Board via the Head of Quality at Coastal West Sussex CCG
Each CCG is responsible for identifying a Consultant Paediatrician and Senior Nurse to
undertake the role of Designated Doctor and Nurse and also a Named GP for safeguarding
children across the health economy. In West Sussex this is undertaken via a ‘hosting’
arrangement with the Designated Professionals sitting within Coastal West Sussex CCG and
managed by the Head of Quality.
Role Context
The role of Named GP is based on the duties and responsibilities of the named professional
described within ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (HM Government 2013 2:12) and
Safeguarding Children and Young People: Roles and Competences for Health Care Staff
(Intercollegiate Document 2014). Under the NHS Reforms, Health & Social Care, the role also
links to the Surrey & Sussex Local Area Team.
Working across all 3 CCG’s covering West Sussex, the named GP will provide an important
source of advice and training for fellow professionals and other agencies, and have an important
role in promoting good professional practice within Primary Care relating to the safeguarding of
children. In liaison with GP colleagues, the post holder would participate in any internal case
reviews, except where there may be substantial personal involvement in the case.
GPs have an important role at all stages of the child protection process. They also have an
important role to play in identifying families and children early in the course of their difficulties
and providing timely support of a preventative nature. They need education and support to fulfil
these tasks.
The named GP should have undergone higher professional training in paediatrics or, by virtue of
experience and practice, have gained the professional respect of consultant colleagues in
primary health care. The named GP for safeguarding children is required to have considerable
clinical experience relating to children and be willing to maintain up-to-date child protection
knowledge and skills.
Organisational Relationships
Accountable to: The Named GP will be professionally accountable to the Clinical Director and
managerially accountable to the Designated Doctor for Child Safeguarding.
Authority to Act: The Named GP has the authority to carry out all of their safeguarding duties on
behalf of the employing organisations, and be supported in so doing by the CCG board and others
(e.g. doctors, nurses, administration.)
The CWS CCG and substantive employer commitment, and the post holder’s professional
accountability: CWS CCG will agree a sessional time commitment for the post of Named GP
for Safeguarding Children. The sessional commitment will reflect the requirements stated in the
Safeguarding Vulnerable People in the Reformed NHS Accountability and Assurance Framework
(2013) including the reference to additional complexities such as multiple providers, geographical
challenge and levels of local deprivation.
The Named GP may have a substantive role (i.e. GP Partner) which requires the practice to agree
a corresponding adjustment of other clinical duties.
The CWS CCG and GP Practice should ensure that adequate resources are available to deliver
training, and at times of additional work e.g. during the undertaking of Serious Case Reviews,
critical investigations or root cause analysis.
The CWS CCG and GP Practice should agree on provision of reflective supervision. This is an
acknowledgement of the stressful nature of this work.
Job Summary / Role:
The Named GP will take a professional lead to support general practice (including Unscheduled
Care services and Out of Hours), to meet their responsibilities to safeguard children.
The Named GP will work closely with the Designated Professionals and the strategic lead for
safeguarding children across the area they serve. This will require collaboration with the statutory
agencies namely Social Care and the Police as well as other Agencies such as Education, Third
Sector and NHS providers across the health economy of that area.
Clinical Responsibilities:
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The Named GP should be clinically active, including child protection work and regularly
undertaking health assessments, and this should be encompassed within the post holder’s
current and on-going substantive job plan
Be an experienced GP (minimum of 3 years) of good professional standing (as evidenced
by GMC licence to practice and no known prejudicial factors, outstanding complaints or
litigation) with considerable experience (as evidenced by a further qualification in child
health such as DCH or MSC and/or portfolio of experience in child health in e.g. GP child
health clinics, adolescent drop-in clinics, school health, out-patients, in patient or
community settings) in the care of children and young people
Recommendation to be a member of the RCGP
Be able to demonstrate excellent communication skills
Level 3 competences developing towards level 4 as set out in Safeguarding Children and
Young People: roles and competences for health staff
Experienced in/prepared to undertake training in how to undertake and assess critical
incident reviews and root cause analysis
Enhanced DBS check
Leadership and Advisory Role
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Work closely with the CWS CCG Board, executive lead for safeguarding and support and
advise the organisation about safeguarding/child protection in general practice.
Advise on safeguarding children practice guidance, policies and audit for all those working
within Health
Advise and support local GP practices and Safeguarding Leads, ensure advice is available
on the day to day management of children and families where there are safeguarding
concerns. This includes signposting, legal processes, key research and policy, preparation
for inspection by regulators
Offer advice and support to develop and provide safeguarding children training for all health
personnel where relevant
Support local GP practices and CCGs on establishing and monitoring governance, planning
and strategy
Advise on practice guidance and policies in relation to the assessment, treatment and
clinical services for all forms of child maltreatment including neglect, emotional and physical
abuse, Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII), child sexual abuse, honour-based violence,
trafficking, sexual exploitation, Female Genital Mutilation, radicalisation
Work with the Designated Professionals to advise CCGs and Area Teams on deficiencies
and vulnerable areas, priorities and areas of risk
Support the Designated Professionals to actively engage in multi-agency strategic
partnerships for Child Protection and Looked After Children within the CCG areas to
influence the multi-agency agenda
Participate in serious case reviews/case management reviews/significant case reviews, and
individual management reviews/ individual agency reviews in relation to primary care / out
of hours services.
Participate in and support General Practices in the child death review process
Governance: policies and procedures
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Support and have oversight of general practice safeguarding/child protection policies and
procedures in line with legislation, national guidance, and the guidance of the WSSCB
Encourage case discussion, reflective practice, and the monitoring of significant events at a
practice level
Be familiar with the Pan Sussex Policies and Procedures.
Monitoring
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Advise on the implementation of effective systems of audit
Contribute to monitoring the quality and effectiveness of primary care practice to safeguard
children, including monitoring performance against indicators and standards
Disseminate lessons learnt from serious case reviews/case management
reviews/significant case reviews, ensure the implementation of recommendations and
monitor how these lessons are embedded
In conjunction with Designated Professionals and other Named GPs, advise on clinical
governance and standards for Named/Specialist professionals for Child Protection,
Safeguarding Children or Looked After Children.
Work closely with CCG’s in supporting all activities necessary to ensure that the CCGs and
all commissioned providers meet their responsibilities for safeguarding children
Policy and Procedures
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Contribute to the development and review of policies and procedures relevant to
safeguarding children, including implementation of new government recommendations.
Support the dissemination and implementation of local policies and procedures across GP
practices
Training
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Work with specialist safeguarding/child protection professionals across the health
community and with the training sub-groups of the LSCB to agree and promote training
needs and priorities
Ensure that every general practice and out of hours service has a training strategy in line
with national and local expectations
Contribute to the delivery of training for health staff and inter-agency training
Evaluate training and adapt provision according to feedback from participants
Tailor provision to meet the learning needs of participants
Work with the CCG to identify training needs for the Named GP and Safeguarding Leads
through appraisal, reflective supervision and audit
Take part as appropriate in the design & delivery of multidisciplinary & multi-agency training
programmes for health professionals and professionals in other relevant agencies.
Supervision
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Provide or contribute to safeguarding/child protection appraisal, support and supervision for
safeguarding children leads in general practice to ensure they are effective
Contribute to safeguarding/child protection case supervision
Personal Development
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The Named GP will have a responsibility to access knowledge and updates in areas
relevant to safeguarding.
Safeguarding children is a dynamic speciality and requirements will alter depending on
emerging evidence and social change
The Named GP will be an active member of a regional and or national network of doctors
specialising in children's safeguarding
Participate in regular safeguarding/child protection supervision and undertake reflective
practice
Recognise the potential personal impact of working in safeguarding/child protection on self
and others, and seek support and help when necessary
Participate in annual appraisal which includes the named GP role by the designated doctor
/ nurse providing information to the appraiser
Appraisal
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The Named GP in addition to their annual GP appraisal will be appraised on an annual
basis by their substantive employer as part of medical revalidation. Reference must be
made to specialist knowledge on Children’s Safeguarding in order to ensure the appraisal
of the safeguarding children element of the role is appropriate. It is important that the
Named GP is appraised by an appraiser with a comprehensive knowledge and
understanding of the role of the Named GP.
General Obligations
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This job description is a broad reflection of the current duties. It is not necessarily
exhaustive and changes will be made at the discretion of the manager in conjunction with
the post-holder.
Timescales for achievement and standards of performance relating to the duties and
responsibilities identified in this job description will be agreed with the post-holder via the
appraisal process and the relevant KSF outline.
As an employee of Coastal West Sussex CCG, the post-holder will have access to
confidential information. Under no circumstances should this be disclosed to an
unauthorised person within or outside the CCG. The post-holder must ensure compliance
with the requirements of the Data Protection Acts.
As an employee of the CCG, the post-holder will be required to adhere to all CCG policies
including Equal Opportunities where all employees are expected to accept individual
responsibility for the practical implications of these policies.
Every CCG employee has a duty to ensure that the work that they undertake is conducted
in a way that is safe to themselves, other employees, patients and members of the general
public. If an employee considers that a hazard to health and safety exists, it is their
responsibility to report the matter to their Manager and through the CCG’s Incident
Reporting system. Employees must co-operate with carrying out risk assessments and
must adhere to safe systems of work. This includes understanding and adhering to the
reporting procedures for clinical and non-clinical incidents/near misses. Employees must
attend relevant courses and mandatory updates, take a pro-active role in contributing to risk
identification and management and be responsive to lessons learned from incidents and
near misses.
The post-holder must at all times abide by the professional code of conduct for their
profession. Breaches of the code of conduct may lead to disciplinary action.
This post may require the post-holder to travel to other sites in the course of fulfilment of
their duties.
The CCG has a no smoking policy.
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Clinical governance: You will be expected to take part in the processes for monitoring and
improving the quality of care provided to patients. This includes risk management and
clinical audit. If you engage in clinical research you must follow CCG protocols and ensure
that the research has had ethical approval. You will be expected to ensure that patients
receive the information they need and are treated with dignity and respect for their privacy.
CCG Employees are expected to act at all times in alignment with the CCG vision and
values, clearly identifying their own responsibilities in delivering the CCG vision and values.
Employees should honour the CCG’s vision and values by demonstrating appropriate
behaviours and encouraging this in others. Employees should demonstrate commitment to
quality patient care through effective team working.
The CCG is committed to delivering a high standard of customer care and therefore it is
compulsory to ensure that you have undergone induction training within 3 months of your
appointment.
CWS CCG is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and
vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Rigorous
recruitment checks are carried out and successful applicants will be required to undertake an
Enhanced Disclosure via the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).
Job Description agreement:
Signature of Postholder: _________________________
Date:_______________
Name (Please Print): _______________________________________________________
Signature of Manager: _________________________
Date:_______________
Name (Please Print): _______________________________________________________