safeguarding children supervision · support staff in maintaining a degree of objectivity,...

Source: Safeguarding Children Committee Issue date: January 2020 of 12

Status: Approved Review date: January 2023

Trust Policy and Procedure Document Ref. No: PP(20)328

Safeguarding Children Supervision Policy

For use in: All areas of the Trust

For use by: All Trust staff

For use for: Informing Trust staff of standards of safeguarding supervision

Document owner: Trust Safeguarding children Committee

Status: Approved

Contents

Page

Section 1

Purpose of the policy 2

Section 2

Introduction 2

Section 3 Definitions 2

3.1 Supervision 2 3.2 Safeguarding supervision 2 3.3 Supervisor 3 3.4 Supervisee 3 3.5 Key functions of effective supervision

3

Section 4 Roles and responsibilities 3

4.1 Senior manager 3 4.2 Line manager 3 4.3 Supervisor 4 4.4 Supervisee

4

Section 5

Process of supervision 4

Section 6 Record keeping

5

Section 7 Monitoring effectiveness

6

Appendix 1

Supervision record 7

Appendix 2 Supervision learning log

8

Appendix 3 Supervision agreement

9

Appendix 4 Safeguarding children section of PDR

11



1. Purpose of the policy

Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places a duty on key persons and bodies like the West Suffolk Foundation Trust to make arrangements to ensure that in discharging their functions, they have a regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

In order to meet this statutory requirement staff need to be able to access effective supervision. This policy will set out the Trust’s arrangements for and approaches to effective supervision for the safeguarding of children and young people.

2. Introduction

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 provides statutory guidance on how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and recognises the work as demanding and distressing for practitioners. Effective supervision can help promote good standards of practice whilst offering support, development and understanding.

Health professionals who work with families and children are key in the identification and prevention of abuse where there are safeguarding children concerns. Many of the inquiries into child deaths and serious incidents involving children have demonstrated serious failings in professionals effectiveness which have been attributed to lack of ‘supervised support’ from specialists in safeguarding children. National requirements for safeguarding supervision is documented in the Victoria Climbié inquiry 2003, Working Together 2018 and the NSF for children, young people and maternity services 2004 as well as local Serious Case Reviews or case audit reviews. Working in the field of Safeguarding Children entails making difficult and challenging professional judgements. It is demanding work which can be distressing and stressful. All of those involved should have access to advice and support from peers, managers and named and designated professionals. Safeguarding supervision supports professionals to reflect critically on the impact of their decisions on the child and their family (Working Together 2018).

3. Definitions

3.1 Supervision

‘An accountable process which supports assures and develops the knowledge, skills and values of an individual group or team. The purpose is to improve the quality of their work to achieve agreed outcomes.’ Providing Effective Supervision (Skills for Care and CWDC, 2007.)

3.2 Safeguarding supervision

A formal process that will ensure that children are protected from harm by sound professional,

supported judgements. Within a range of safeguarding situations practitioners will be enabled to develop their knowledge and competence whilst assuming responsibility for their own practice.

This process of professional support and learning enables and empowers practitioners to develop

knowledge and competence, assume responsibility for their own practice and, therefore, enhance their role in safeguarding children by assisting them to review, plan and account for their safeguarding work.

Safeguarding supervision facilitates reflective practice, promotes good standards and supports

individual staff members to:



Ensure that practice is soundly based and consistent with organisational and local Safeguarding Children Partnership procedures

Ensure that practitioners fully understand their roles, responsibilities and the scope of their professional discretion and authority

Assist with identifying the training and development needs of practitioners, so that each has the skills to provide an effective service

3.3 Supervisor

The supervisor assists the practitioner to develop both professionally and personally. The safeguarding children supervisor does not assume accountability or responsibility for the practitioner’s patients/clients, however, they are accountable for the advice they give and the action they take. Those providing supervision should be trained in supervision skills and have up to date knowledge of the legislation, policy and research relevant to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children (Working Together, 2018).

3.4 Supervisee A health professional engaged in clinical practice working directly with children who will develop

personal and professional competency through reflection, support and challenge in relation to their clinical practice.

3.5 Key functions of effective supervision

Keep the focus on the child

Support staff in maintaining a degree of objectivity, recognising people’s rights and diversity (race, gender, disability, culture)

Support staff with the challenge of fixed views and in early identification of concerns and strategies in order to improve outcomes for children

Ensure that clinical practice both protects and represents the best interests of the child. Ensures the voice of the child is heard, recorded and shared as appropriate

Establish sound practice based on Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership, local and organisational procedures

Ensure staff fully understand their role and responsibility and the scope of their professional discretion and authority

Support staff in addressing the emotional impact of the work

4. Roles and responsibilities

4.1 Senior managers

It is the responsibility of senior management to ensure that staff delivering services to children and

families, are provided with supervision as specified in this policy document. In addition, to ensure that staff who provide safeguarding supervision are appropriately qualified, in receipt of appropriate continual professional development and provided with their own regular supervision.

4.2 Line managers

It is the responsibility of the line managers to address any managerial issues arising from supervision. These may include the need for additional resources, caseload issues, any potential disciplinary matters, or health and safety issues. Any concerns about competency and capability to practice will be referred by the supervisor to the supervisee’s line manager. It is the line manager’s responsibility to address directly with staff when this policy is not adhered to.



4.3 Supervisor

The supervisor has the primary responsibility for managing the process of safeguarding supervision. Supervisors will take the lead on composing and reviewing the supervision contract. Supervisors carry the final accountability during the supervision process for decision making. Supervisors are responsible for ensuring, in conjunction with their managers, that they are appropriately qualified to provide supervision, are in receipt of appropriate continual professional development and are provided with their own regular supervision.

4.4 Supervisee

The supervisee maintains accountability and responsibility for their patients/clients. It is a responsibility of all staff working with children and young people to access supervision in accordance with this policy.

Supervisees have a responsibility to abide by the terms agreed within the supervision contract.

5. Process of supervision

Safeguarding Children supervision is mandatory for caseload holders and strongly encouraged for all staff working directly with children. While for caseload holders it is mandatory this can be negotiated and reflective of a needs led approach i.e. professionals with high levels of safeguarding children workload will require more frequent supervision. Safeguarding Children Training will be responsive to issues arising in staff supervision.

5.1 Supervision will be available for practitioners to access, particularly at critical points in a child’s journey through the child protection process eg the point of child protection referral, strategy meeting, initial child protection conference, review conference, de-escalation of plan.

5.2 Safeguarding Children Supervision is available for all health practitioners who work directly with children. However, day to day advice and support in safeguarding children matters is available to all staff employed by West Suffolk Foundation Trust from a Named Nurse for Safeguarding Children.

5.3 All Safeguarding Children Supervision sessions will be agreed between the Supervisor and Supervisee.

5.4 For acute staff, group and peer Supervision are available weekly on the Children’s ward for current caseloads. Three times a year a multiagency session is available.

For those staff working within Community Paediatric services group supervision sessions are

organised across the county by the Named Nurse in the Community. Dates are sent out in advance and 2 - 3 sessions are held each month. Individual supervision can be requested directly with the Named Nurse as needed for specific cases.

5.5 Safeguarding Children Supervision is not a formal system of Individual Performance Review, but will play an important role in developing individual competencies. Safeguarding Children Supervision may consist of tripartite relationship between, Manager, Supervisor and Supervisee.

5.5 Safeguarding Children Supervision is required to focus on the safety, welfare and needs of the child.

5.6 Safeguarding Children Supervision must be undertaken with someone who is identified by the Trusts as a Safeguarding Children Supervisor (Named Nurse/Named Midwife or Named Doctor



for Safeguarding Children). The named professionals for safeguarding will receive supervision from the designated professionals.

5.7 Issues discussed within Safeguarding Children Supervision are confidential – except when information or practice is considered to be a risk to the child.

5.8 Records of the date of planned Safeguarding Children Supervision time and the name of the supervisees for each session will be kept by the named professional undertaking the supervision.

5.9 The venue for supervision will be agreed by the supervisor and supervisee. It should be booked in advance, and arrangements made so there are no interruptions from telephones or colleagues.

5.10 Supervision should not take place in a busy shared office due to the confidential nature of Child Protection/Safeguarding Children.

5.11 Midwives will be able to access group supervision with the Named Midwife at the regular cluster meetings and on an individual basis when dealing directly with a family where significant concerns have been identified or suspected. This should equate to at least three sessions per year.

The minimum standard frequency of supervision is shown in the table below:

Practitioner Minimum standard (yearly)

Children Community Nursing Team. Specialist HV and Acute Specialist Paediatric Nurses

3 group sessions

Child and Family Psychological Therapies Service 3 group sessions

Speech Therapists / Paediatric Physiotherapy Team / Occupational Therapy Team / Audiology / New born hearing testing team

2 group sessions

Acute and Community Paediatricians 3 group sessions

6. Record keeping

6.1 The Signs of Safety framework is used in all safeguarding supervision sessions and a clear action plan is recorded.

o For hospital based supervision: key points, outcomes and decisions of supervision sessions, in relation to individual children/families, will be recorded in the child’s electronic record if relevant and in the child’s/expectant mother’s hospital records.

o For community-based supervision sessions: the outcome of these will be recorded by the supervisee in the ‘safeguarding information’ section of the child’s SystmOne record. This allows all professionals working with that child to be aware of concerns, what is working well and what the plan of action needs to be. It is the responsibility of the professional bringing the case to supervision to ensure that is then updated following any action.

6.2 Decisions or actions that are pertinent and made in supervision in relation to individual children/cases must be recorded in the child/young people’s/expectant mother’s record.

6.3 Supervision documentation provides evidence that:

Screening and risk identification is carried out and recorded.



Case plans are prepared and maintained through the life of a case, demonstrating a planned and effective approach to practice.

The Safeguarding policy and procedures are adhered to.

The child or young person’s own views were obtained as far as possible.

Where risk factors are identified, the plan specifies the risks and identifies the response.

Where high and/or imminent risk is identified, the Named professionals are informed promptly and a referral to children’s social care if necessary

7 Monitoring effectiveness

7.1 The supervisor will conduct an audit of a random selection of case files and supervision documentation every 12 months.

7.2 Quarterly compliance reports are submitted to the CCG via the Safeguarding Dashboard

Document configuration

Author(s): Lisa Sarson, Named Nurse Safeguarding Children (acute) Jo Stroud Named Nurse (Community)

Other contributors: Safeguarding Children Committee members

Approvals and endorsements: Safeguarding Children Committee

Consultation: Safeguarding Children Committee

Issue no: 2

File name: PP(20)328 Safeguarding Children Supervision Policy – Jan 20

Supercedes: 1

Equality Assessed Yes

Implementation Distribution to key professionals and Stakeholders Intranet

Monitoring: (give brief details how this will be done)

Database of supervision Audit as decided by internal and external working groups Data collection of compliance for Trust Board and CCG.

Other relevant policies/documents & references:

Providing Effective Supervision (Skills for Care and CWDC, 2007.)

Additional Information:



Appendix 1

Signs of Safety Assessment and Planning Form

What are we worried about? What’s working well? What needs to happen?

On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 means everyone knows the children are safe enough for the child protection authorities to close the case and zero means things are so bad for the children they can’t live at home, where do we rate this situation?

(If different judgements place different people’s number on the continuum.)

0 10



Appendix 2

Learning Log – Safeguarding Children Supervision. Date of session: …………………..

What did I learn about today and how will this change my practice? (My skill, my attitude, my knowledge)

What do I need to go away and learn more about? (My skill, my attitude, my knowledge)

Are there any issues I need to discuss with my manager? (Training, experience, support…)

Sign and date: ………………………………………………………………………………… Please send copy to the Named Nurse and keep a copy for your records



Appendix 3

Safeguarding Children Supervision Agreement 2020

Date: …………………………………… Venue: ………………………………………………………………….

As a supervisor and supervisee we agree to:

Work together in accordance with the Supervision Policy to facilitate in depth reflection on issues affecting practice to develop the practitioner both personally and professionally and to ensure high quality, child focused clinical practice is maintained.

Ensure an appropriate venue and enough time is available for robust supervision of clinical cases.

Arrive on time and remain for the whole session. We will protect supervision time by preventing distractions; phones will be switched to silence or turned off.

Inform of non-attendance/ cancellation of a session in advance.

Maintain confidentiality within the boundaries specified in the Supervision Policy.

Respect others, question differences constructively and actively work towards a solution.

As supervisee I agree to:

Read the Safeguarding Children Supervision Policy and Supervision Agreement.

Take responsibility for booking and attending regular Safeguarding supervision sessions, ensuring compliance level as appropriate to role.

Identify cases for discussion and prepare for the Safeguarding session by ensuring any relevant records are available.

Using the ‘Signs of Safety’ model, document a summary of the supervision discussion with clear action plan, indicating responsibility for each action on the child’s SystmOne record within the Safeguarding template.

Ensure all agreed actions are completed within timescales and report to the supervisor when actions are unable to be completed.

As supervisor I agree to:

Ensure Supervision Sessions are available to all practitioners with adequate advance notice.

Facilitate reflective thought and challenge conceptions and assumptions using the Signs of Safety model.

Support practitioners to analyse risks and strengths within the family.

Record themes that arise from supervision to inform learning and development.

Record issues that cause concern, not pertinent to the child or family and follow process to support the practitioner. The practitioner will always be informed if a practice issue is raised within supervision which is unsafe, unethical or illegal, this includes if an issue is to be discussed with the practitioner’s line manager.

Maintain documentation of the group supervision sessions, including review and evaluation of health action plans.



Attendance

Supervisor: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Name Job Title Signature



Appendix 4

Safeguarding children section of PDR

Name: ………………………………………………….…….. Date: ……………………………..

Mandatory Safeguarding Children Training completed in the last year:

Level 1 and 2 up to date? (compliance with Level 3 training covers L1 and L2) YES / NO Level 3 training: Mandatory requirement to complete 16 hours over 3 year period if you are a

practitioner within the Integrated Community Paediatric Service.

Ways to complete Level 3 training hours:

Level 3 whole-day session with Named Nurse (once): for new to service staff, newly qualified staff and staff that need a more comprehensive refresher

Level 3 - 3 x half-day sessions with Named Nurse (yearly) – refresher session for staff that have previously attended the whole-day Level 3 training

Suffolk CPD online face-to-face sessions

Peer review sessions at West Suffolk Hospital

Serious Case Review learning outcomes sessions with Named Nurse

Reading and reflection on research or reports must be signed off by line manager

Level 3 training sessions completed Hours of study

Date completed

Evidence seen

Aware of where to find safeguarding policies? YES / NO

Using safeguarding template on SystmOne for recording? YES / NO

Aware of how to refer concerns to MASH in the counties they work in? YES / NO



Safeguarding Supervision Sessions Attended in the last year: 2 - 3 sessions per year (as related to the role) with no longer than 6 months between sessions. Session 1: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Session 2: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Session 3: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…

Any future training needs relevant to safeguarding? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. .............................................................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................................................. Practitioner’s Signature …………………………………………………….……..… Date …………………. Line Manager’s Signature …………………………………………………………… Date ……………….…

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