Safeguarding

character illustration One of our key priorities at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is to ensure we safeguard our patients and families to protect them from harm.

illustration of childWe have a safeguarding team who provide advice and support to all Birmingham Women’s and children’s hospital staff, working with colleagues from social care, the police and education, to ensure children, young people and families are safe and supported to achieve the best outcomes.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. If you have concerns about the safety of a child, young person or vulnerable adult while visiting one of our hospitals, please speak to a member of staff who will contact the safeguarding Team.

If you think someone may be at immediate risk of danger or harm, contact the police on 999.

Statutory safeguarding requirements

Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (BWC) is required to meet our statutory requirements by ensuring that we are compliant with Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 and with the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations (2009).

For Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, this means that:

  • Staff are trained to a level appropriate to their role and responsibilities as per the Inter-collegiate documents for adults and children and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018. to help them confidently and competently identify children, young people and vulnerable adults at risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation or radicalisation and respond appropriately
  • Our Chief Nurse is the Executive Lead for Safeguarding and chairs the Safeguarding Committee.
  • The Trust has a Head of Safeguarding, Named Nurse and Named Midwife who provide leadership within the organisation in relation to safeguarding and support a team of safeguarding practitioners working across the organisation who offer advice, support and supervision to colleagues.
  • The Head of Safeguarding compiles a Safeguarding Annual Report to provide assurance to the Trust Board and Birmingham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership
  • We have Safeguarding Children and Safeguarding Adults Policies in line with those of our Local Safeguarding Children Partnership, this includes Information Sharing Agreements. We also have a Policy for managing Domestic Abuse and a Was Not Brought Policy and Did Not Attend Policy to ensure that the health of children and/or vulnerable adults who are not brought to appointments are not adversely affected.
  • Processes are in place for sensitively managing allegations of abuse against staff including having a dedicated Position of Trust Lead, in line with statutory guidance. Staff are encouraged and empowered to know how to raise any concerns.
  • Robust safer recruitment processes and ongoing monitoring DBS checks in relation to staff suitability are in place
  • Staff fully engage in multi-agency working, including appropriate information sharing to effectively safeguard children, young people and vulnerable adults. This includes a system for recognising children who are subject to a Child Protection Plan or in the care of the Local Authority via the national Child Protection Information Sharing System (CP-IS).

We know that when a child protection issue is being investigated it can be very stressful for families and carers and every effort will be made to keep families fully informed about the process, investigations and results. We are also seeking the views of families about their experiences with our services.

Feedback:

We’re always looking for ways to improve our safeguarding practice and are keen to hear about your experience at our hospitals. If you have any suggestions please contact us at:

Information for children and young people

We want children and young people who access our services to be empowered to seek help for themselves.

If you are a child (under 18) who is worried about your safety and needs advice about a safeguarding issue you can call 0800 1111 or contact them via the following link ChildLine.

If you or another child are in immediate risk of danger, please call the police on 999

You can also always speak to the Nurse, Midwife or Doctor who is caring for you or your child or speak to Birmingham Children’s Services via the Children’s Advice and Support Service ( CASS) contact number 0121 303 1888 or out-of-hours 0121 675 4806

For more information, you can visit the NSPCC, ChildLine and Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership via the following links:

Information for adults

Some adults are particularly vulnerable to being hurt or abused because they have a disability, illness, or impairment and need help and support. It is not always intentional, but it is still abuse.

If you are a vulnerable adult with care and support needs ask yourself the following questions:

  • Are you unhappy or frightened because of something that is happening to you?
  • Do you know someone who is?
  • Are you caring for someone and feel you need help?

If so, then please tell someone.

Abuse is not common but it does happen. We all have a responsibility to do something about it.

If you have any concerns about the safety and welfare of a vulnerable adult and want to report adult abuse, including domestic abuse, please contact Adults and Communities Access Point (ACAP) on 0121 303 1234 or e-mail ACAP@birmingham.gov.uk.

If these concerns are outside of normal office hours then the Emergency Duty Team (EDT) can be contacted on 0121 675 4806. For more information, you can visit the Birmingham Safeguarding Adults Board website at www.bsab.org.

If an adult is at immediate risk, please call the police on 999