Safeguarding - statement of compliance

The North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (North Mid) is committed to safeguarding all patients who access services across the Trust. The term safeguarding covers everything that assists a child, young person or adult at risk to live a life that is free from harm, abuse and neglect and which enables them to retain independence, well-being, dignity and choice.

Safeguarding is about preventing abuse and neglect, as well as promoting good practice for responding to concerns on a multi -agency basis.

We are committed to ensuring that safeguarding is firmly embedded within the wider duties of the Trust.

We confirm that North Middlesex University Hospital complies with the statutory requirement to undertake Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks on all staff (including volunteers) prior to employment. Dependent on role, staff will have a standard or enhanced level of assessment.

All of our safeguarding policies and systems are robust and are reviewed every two years or more frequently, if required, to comply with any new national guidance or legislation. We also have procedures in place for following up children who miss outpatient appointments within any specialty to ensure their care and ultimately their health is not affected in any way. In addition, we have a system in place for flagging children for whom there are safeguarding concerns. We have a robust training strategy in place with regard to delivering safeguarding training.

For safeguarding children, staff receive level 1, 2 or 3 dependent on their role, and we expect a minimum of 90% of the relevant staff to have received training.

For safeguarding adults, staff currently receive level 1 and 2 with level 3 in the process of being delivered.

We report safeguarding training compliance for all levels of training. All records of attendance are entered onto and monitored via our electronic staff record (ESR) system . Attendance is monitored and reported via the Safeguarding Committee. We have named individuals with clear roles and responsibilities for safeguarding children. They are clear about their role, have sufficient time and receive relevant support, and training, to undertake their roles, which includes close contact with other social and health care organisations. The total number of professionals is as follows:

• Named doctor 3 PAs
• Deputy named doctor 1 PA
• Named nurse 1.0 wte
• Named midwife 1.0 wte
• Safeguarding children advisor 1.0 wte
• Safeguarding maternity advisor 1.0.wte
• Senior administrator 1.0 wte
• Administrator 1.0 wte

The Trust has a named adult safeguarding lead nurse whose roles and responsibilities are clear and defined. There are also two safeguarding adult advisors to support.

The chief nurse is the executive director lead for safeguarding.

The Trust Board receives an annual safeguarding report.