Clinical Commissioning Groups have a duty to safeguard adults and children. As commissioners of local health service provision, we need to make sure local service providers have effective safeguarding arrangements in place and support GP practices in their safeguarding duties.
The safeguarding team is part of the wider Quality and Safety Team, led by the Director of Nursing, Quality and Patient Safety to ensure that we fulfil our statutory duties.
The designated professionals, both medical and nursing, are statutory posts and provide strategic leadership and expertise to the health community of Northumberland, other agencies and the statutory safeguarding partnerships for both children and adults on our behalf.
The Safeguarding Team
The safeguarding team comprises of:
- Designated Nurse Safeguarding Children
- Designated Doctor Safeguarding Children
- Designated Nurse Looked After Children (LAC)
- Designated Doctor LAC
- Safeguarding Adults Lead (including MCA, DoLS and Prevent)
- Named Nurse Primary Care (vulnerable people)
- Designated Doctor Child Death
- Business Support Officer
The team are based within the CCG and can be contacted on 01670 335160
Safeguarding key responsibilities
The Safeguarding Team is responsible for:
- Providing expert advice and guidance to clinical colleagues in relation to the management of individual safeguarding concerns.
- Providing health expertise on safeguarding issues to multi-agency partners.
- Ensuring the needs of Looked After Children are met.
- Involvement in the statutory the Child Death Review Process.
- Developing and facilitating single agency training for GP’s and relevant practice staff.
- Ensuring the CCG has policies and procedures in line with the multi-agency procedural frameworks.
- Ensuring the CCG and commissioned health care providers discharge their responsibilities in relation to statutory reviews including Serious Case Reviews, Safeguarding Adult Reviews and Domestic Homicide Reviews.
- Share relevant learning from local and national case reviews and seek assurance as to how learning is embedded.
- Lead and develop multi agency working to ensure robust and effective safeguarding processes are maintained and to ensure an appropriate health contribution to multi-agency working across the Health and Social Care economy.
- Represent the CCG and support the statutory Safeguarding Boards for both Children and Adults to undertake their statutory functions with the support of stakeholders and partners.
- Support the CCG and health care providers during the statutory inspection process.
You can find our safeguarding policies for both adults and children on our plans and policies page under the heading of corporate policies.
New safeguarding arrangements for children
Under new legislation, as statutory safeguarding partners, the CCG along with the police and local authority are equally responsible for delivering on the statutory duty to work together with relevant agencies for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children across Northumberland. The new arrangements were published June 2019 and implemented by September 29th 2019.
Safeguarding children – information for professionals
Please see the Northumberland County Council website for information to help professionals working with, or caring for children/young people in an employed or voluntary role in safeguarding and promoting welfare.