Specialist Safeguarding Practitioner- Social Worker

We are looking for a flexible, enthusiastic and compassionate social workers with expertise in safeguarding, particularly with some experience of health settings. These leaders would be central to a new multi-professional service delivering holistic care in a paediatric health context.

The post holders will work together within the proposed NHS Children and Young People Gender Service (South West) as part of an Multi-disciplinary team (MDT) providing leadership and services to and with a range of clinicians and health professionals, including dissemination, and training and consultation to other partner services and agencies. As well as being central to the new clinical programme, the Specialist Social Workers will work as part of Psychological Health Services to provide complex case input to other paediatric or staff support services. Representing the service within the wider national network of CYP Gender Services, as well as with local and national partnership organisations will be a feature of the role.

Main duties of the job

The Specialist Safeguarding Practitioners have a key role in ensuring the Children and Young Peoples Gender Service (Southwest) (CYP GS (SW)) safeguards children and young people and promotes their welfare working in conjunction with the patient, their families, UHBW safeguarding team, clinical MDT for CYP GS (SW) and local authority services and teams.

These roles support the patients, families and multidisciplinary team of the GYP GS (Southwest) by providing specialist safeguarding advice, supervision, and training on all safeguarding issues. When indicated this may include assessments of need and wider signposting advice to families for supportive early help services. The roles are supported by the Deputy Director for Safeguarding (Children) who is the safeguarding lead for the CYP GS (SW), with joint / delegated managed within the safeguarding structure and clinical service. The role will include contribution to other paediatric specialties will be within the governance structure of Psychological Health Services (PHS). The CYP GS (SW) is a newly formed service therefore changes in the core duties and responsibilities of these roles may be required. The job description is an outline of areas of activity and will be reviewed with the post holders considering changing service need.

Working for our organisation

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) is one of the largest acute Trusts in the country, bringing together a combined workforce of over 13,000 staff and over 100 different clinical services across 10 different sites, serving a core population of more than 500,000 people across South West England. UHBW has been rated by the CQC as ‘Good’ overall and our staff are proud to deliver excellent care to the people of Bristol, Weston and beyond. As a forward- thinking multi-award winning Trust and a digital exemplar committed to improving patient care, our world-leading research and innovations are having a positive local and global impact. Our hospitals are spread across Bristol and Weston, join us and you can enjoy the very best of both worlds; city living within a stone’s throw of the countryside or beside the seaside, both with easy access to all that the South West has to offer. UHBW is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. As an equal opportunities employer actively working towards a diverse workforce we aim to recruit and retain a workforce which represents the rich diversity of the local population at all levels and are committed to designing our services around the needs of individual patients and those around them. Anonymous information will be used from your application in order to ensure we’re meeting our pledge.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For a more detailed job description, main responsibilities, and person specification, please refer to the job description document attached to this vacancy.