Safeguarding children and young people declaration

Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, achieving and maintaining good compliance with national safeguarding standards and guidance and fulfilling its statutory responsibilities as stated in Section 11 of the Children’s Act 1989/2004.

A number of safeguarding children and young people arrangements are in place including:

• Meeting statutory requirements with regard to the carrying out of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks including compliance with Islington Safeguarding Children Partnership requirements. Human resources provide assurance via submission of DBS compliance data into the safeguarding children and young people group meeting.

• A process in place for following up children and young people who were not brought to appointments (WNB) to ensure their care and health is not affected in any way and an electronic system is in place for flagging children and young people for whom there are safeguarding and/or child protection concerns. The WNB policy and procedures were reviewed in 2022 incorporating audiovisual consultations in response to the recovery from the Covid-19 global pandemic.

• In line with government legislation and guidance, policies and procedures are reviewed regularly to strengthen safeguarding children practice. Newly published national guidance is scrutinised with recommendations for practice implemented.

• Working within the London Child Protection Procedures (2021) and where the trust has network sites: Bedfordshire Interagency Child Protection Procedures (2021) and Hertfordshire Inter Agency Child Protection Procedures (2021).

• A robust training strategy in place with regard to delivering safeguarding training to ensure that staff are trained to the appropriate level required for their role. The strategy is aligned with the competencies and levels of training and as detailed in safeguarding children and young people: roles and competences for health care staff intercollegiate document (2019). The trust also endorses the core skills training framework (2020) and competence still matters (2012).

• The percentage compliance of training as at 01 June 2022 is as follows against a target of 80%:
  • · Level 1 - 91% of staff eligible for level 1 training have been trained.
  • · Level 2 - 91% of staff eligible for level 2 training have been trained.
  • · Level 3 - 82% of staff eligible for level 3 training have been trained.
  • · Level 4 - 67% of staff eligible for level 4 training have been trained.

• Professionals who lead on issues in relation to child protection and the safeguarding of children and young people broken down by discipline as follows:
  • · named nurse for child protection and interim head of safeguarding adults and children 1.0WTE.
  • · safeguarding children & young people nurse advisor 1.0WTE.
  • · safeguarding coordinator for children, young people and adults 1.0WTE.
  • · named doctor for child protection – vacant post (July 2022)
  • · chief nurse and director of allied health professions is the executive lead for safeguarding and deputy chief nurse chairs the safeguarding children and young people committee.

• A commitment to strengthening the “think family” agenda and safeguarding the children of adult patients. The safeguarding children, young people and adult professionals are co-located and work collaboratively to address the shared aspects of the safeguarding agenda including domestic violence and abuse, modern day slavery, prevent and county lines.

• Being a member of Islington Safeguarding Children Partnership (ISCP) represented by the deputy chief nurse. The trust is committed to achieving ISCP key priorities in relation to safeguarding children and young people.

• Having robust audit programmes in place to assure the board that safeguarding systems and processes are working and monitored via Islington Directorate of North Central London Integrated Care System (ICS).

• In accordance with the Modern Day Slavery Act (2015) ensuring to the best of our knowledge slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business or our supply chains. The trust’s modern day slavery statement is available here.

• Working in partnership with statutory services and agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people.

• A quarterly safeguarding children and young people committee meeting which reports to the clinical governance committee.

• The trust board taking the issue of safeguarding extremely seriously and receiving via the quality and safety committee, the annual safeguarding children and young people (0-18y) report 2021 – 2022 on 19th July 2022.

Last updated: 31^st August 2022