Job description

South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust Safeguarding Team has been commissioned to provide a Health Exploitation Navigator to work with Multi Agency Professionals within the Horizon Team in Coventry.

The post holder will work collaboratively to Safeguard and promote the welfare of vulnerable children and young people by supporting and signposting professionals who work directly with exploited children and young people. They will also be working collaboratively with partner organisations within this role to help identify gaps within service provision to meet future need.

Applicants must be RN/RNC/RM/ or Specialist Community Public Health Nurse with extensive experience of Safeguarding; together with the passion and drive required to set up this new, exciting and innovative post. Excellent communication skills and a comprehensive knowledge of the local Safeguarding Exploitation agenda are key requirements for this role.

The Heath Exploitation Navigator should have an excellent knowledge and awareness of exploitation and be committed to continually developing their expertise in this ever evolving field. In addition, the Health Exploitation Navigator will need to demonstrate a sound understanding of how contextual and extra-familial factors may increase risk and vulnerability.

If you would like to be part of our forward thinking and dynamic team we will welcome your application.

The Coventry Health Exploitation Navigator will be a skilled clinician who will be co-located within the dynamic multi-agency Horizon Team. As an integral part of the team, the Health Exploitation Navigator will work collaboratively with Social Workers, Police Officers and Youth Workers by collating, interpreting and presenting a detailed analysis of relevant health information from a range of NHS systems, both locally and further afield which will contribute to triage, risk assessment and outcome decisions.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable children and young people by supporting and signposting professionals working directly with exploited children across the partnership will be a core function of the Health Exploitation Navigator role. The post holders will also we involved in the development and maintenance of a repository which details resources and services which can accessed to support professionals working with exploited children and young people.

The Local Authority hold the statutory responsibility for the management of Horizon Team and referrals, but the decision and planning required to inform the outcome of the notification or referral is made by Horizon Team. This type of multi-agency cooperation is a statutory duty of all professionals delivering care to children and families.

Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further.

We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity.

Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are ‘Trusted to provide safe, effective and compassionate care’. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn’t matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.

Analytical and Judgemental Skills / Freedom to Act

Contribute to performance improvement of the Health Exploitation Navigator taking the health lead and for identified areas where agreed by the team.

Provide coordination of, and participate in, relevant internal and external working groups and provide advice, expertise and support where requested.

Provide relevant and timely advice and reports on the function of the Horizon Team for inclusion in appropriate reports.

Undertake single and multi-agency audit when required and develop action plans to support change in practice in the Horizon Team.

Proactively participate to identify risks and issues regarding the functions of the integrated team to facilitate resolution and/or escalation processes.

Advise on improvements to current safeguarding arrangements through, analysis and audit, reporting and suggesting procedures to enhance the safeguarding decision making processes across the health economy.

Participate in relevant internal and external working groups/projects, services and initiatives to provide, information and analytical advice and expertise within the Horizon Team.

Main Functions of the Role

The Heath Navigator will support the development and be an integral part of the co-located and multi-agency Horizon Team by working closely with Social Workers, Police Officers, and Youth Workers.

The post holder should have expertise and knowledge of Child Exploitation and be committed to continually developing their understanding and knowledge base of this ever-evolving field.

Develop and embed collaborative and constructive relationships with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders.

Through systems, liaison and dialogue identify, collate and provide analysis of relevant health information, which will be used to inform triage and risk assessment processes.

Record, interpret and present health information and issues, which may increase the risk of all forms of exploitation.

Ensure that health information is used appropriately to support referrals made by First Responder Organisations to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).

Identify the most appropriate service to undertake direct work with children and young people where health implications arise as a direct result of Child Exploitation in line with broader multi-agency plans for intervention.

Develop and disseminate case studies to highlight exemplar practice and areas for development and learning.

Be able to articulate clearly and with sound rationale why often highly complex health information increases risk and vulnerability.

Be confident to challenge in a constructive and proportionate way decisions when appropriate to do so and be willing to set out reasons that prompt any professional challenge.

Together with partners from the police and social care develop and contribute to data collection systems and be able to provide data when required with careful consideration being given to the bounds of patient confidentiality and proportionality.

Support the identification of any gaps and issues in current arrangements/cross boundary arrangements, which impede the identification and protection of children, and young people who are both at risk of and victims of exploitation.

Play a strategic role to identify themes in cases of exploitation and report those themes via regular contract reporting to the CCG and Local Authority Public Health to enable them to fulfil their responsibility as commissioners of services and deliver their safeguarding functions.

Be flexible and prepared to adapt to respond to changes in the exploitation/ safeguarding landscape and meet changes in local demand.

Inter-Agency Responsibilities

Collate, analyse and provide health information to Social Workers and Police Officers within the Horizon team to inform triage, risk assessment and decision-making.

Support the development of effective interagency working by providing health representation at multi-agency forums, and support to all agencies.

Contribute to training and awareness raising of exploitation across Health and wider Partnership.

Leadership and Advisory Role

Provide advice and 6 monthly written report to inform the service planning and commissioning organisation and to the local authority on, questions of planning, strategy, commissioning and the audit of quality standards including ensuring appropriate performance indicators are in place in relation to health services for those children and young people who are vulnerable to exploitation.

Work with all health care organisations to monitor performance of local health services for adults and children, and young people.

Provide expert advice regarding Child Exploitation to Safeguarding Teams, health and other statutory agencies, and voluntary sector services.

Be skilled to advise colleagues in health on issues of confidentiality, consent and information sharing.

Work with local service planners and commissioners to advocate on behalf of exploited children and ensure that children at risk of exploitation benefit as appropriate from the implementation of wider health policies, which meet their often-complex needs.

Work closely with primary care partners and the Named GP for Safeguarding in the GP Practice to ensure they are involved the Child Exploitation agenda.

The post holder will act as expert health advisor at the Operation Child Exploitation sub group of the Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Partnership.

Co-ordination, Communication and Liaison

Work with other professionals within Horizon Team to agree team responsibilities.

Form links with the Designated Nurse and Doctor for Safeguarding Children, safeguarding professionals and Child Exploitation leads both locally and regionally to establish a consistent process to enable the sharing of intelligence and information.

Liaise with, advise and support health practitioners across the health economy to support any concerns relating to child exploitation.

Where the child or young person is a Child in Care (CiC) the practitioner will work with the CiC Team – Designated Nurse and Doctor for CiC and the Specialist CiC Nurses.

The post holder will be required to maintain supportive and constructive relationships with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders and specifically health professionals from a wide range of services and disciplines.

Share best practice on behalf of health professionals where appropriate e.g. Learning Events, Training Events.

Measurable Result Areas

Contribute to the strategic planning of Horizon Team identifying interdependencies across projects/functions and services, potential impacts of activity on wider organisation, resource requirements and building in contingency and adjustments as necessary.

Contribute to the development of performance and governance strategies and the development and implementation of improvement programmes, in accordance with Trust priorities.

Contribute to the short, medium and long term service developments, for Horizon Team and Safeguarding Team to develop and achieve quality outcomes.

Contribute to the development of key Horizon Team and Safeguarding Team performance indicators for the successful assessment of individual and directorate success.

Monitoring and Information Management

Undertake regular and detailed analysis of the range of referrals received by the Horizon Team to identify trends and themes, which can inform service planning and delivery.

Contribute to the collation and production of health data on vulnerable populations across the health community.

Work closely with Health and Police partners to maintain and continually develop intelligence sharing to help mitigate intelligence gaps that inhibit the identification of exploitation.

Identify and map any patterns or trends across the health partnerships that could support partner agencies in the Police and Social Care to develop greater local Child Exploitation knowledge.

Training Responsibilities

Advise on training needs and the delivery of training for all health staff across the health community including those GPs, Paediatricians and Nurses undertaking health assessments for vulnerable children at risk of exploitation.

Deliver training as required to continually ensure professionals across the partnership are aware of the Child Exploitation landscape.

Play an active part in the planning and delivery of multi-disciplinary training.

Identify lessons learnt in the Horizon team and disseminate that learning via training to enhance colleagues understanding of the Horizon Team, process thresholds.

Supervision

The post holder will be expected to receive regular Safeguarding and Clinical Supervision in line with Trust policy.

For full details of the duties associated with this role please see the attached Job Description.