Safeguarding Services
What is the Safeguarding Service?
The Safeguarding Service is based at Wirral Women and Children’s Hospital (Arrowe Park Hospital) and consists of staff trained in all aspects of safeguarding and abuse, in order that they can provide advice and training for all staff and support for patients and the general public.
The unit’s responsibility for this service is managed and overseen by the Operational Lead for Safeguarding (OLS).
The OLS, a Registered General Nurse and Registered Midwife, has an active, operational role and maintains the lead responsibility for all categories of safeguarding. This diverse role encompasses membership of the Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board (SAPB) and Chair of Wirral's Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC).
What are the categories of safeguarding/abuse?
Areas of safeguarding are currently broken down as follows:
- Safeguarding Children (Child protection)
- Domestic Abuse
- Safeguarding Adults (Adult protection)
- Mental Capacity Act (MCA)
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLs)
- Aggression Management
- Perinatal Mental Health
- MAPPA (Multi-agency public protection arrangements)
Safeguarding Children (Child Protection)
There is currently 1 Named Nurse and 1 Named Midwife for Safeguarding Children who provide training, advice, support and supervision regarding child protection issues.
The Named Nurse and Named Midwife will provide advice regarding concerns you may have or help you to respond to a direct disclosure.
Some issues may also have to be raised with your Line Manager and the Operational Lead for Safeguarding.
Domestic Abuse
The Domestic Abuse Co-ordinator (DAC) who is a Registered General Nurse and a Registered Midwife provides advice, training and support for issues relating to domestic abuse, the DAC respond to any concerns raised by ward staff.
The DAC attend the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) which facilitates, monitors and evaluates effective information sharing between multi-agency partners, to enable appropriate intervention actions to be taken to safeguard "high risk" survivors of domestic abuse, and their immediate family members. The MARAC will identify "high risk" victims, survivors of domestic abuse, and will offer other professional support and guidance, which will reduce the threat of further harm and repeated domestic abuse to the victim / survivor and their immediate family members.
The practitioners also link into Wirral Family Safety Unit, which is a central point of access for individuals and their families that are experiencing domestic abuse, this is a Wirral-wide service. The Family Safety Unit's contact number is 0151 606 5440
Safeguarding Adults (Adult Protection)
There are 2 Named Nurses for Adult Protection who provide advice, training and support for issues relating to adult protection, the practitioners respond to any concerns raised by ward staff.
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust has a duty to safeguard all patients but provide additional measures for patients who are less able to protect themselves from harm or abuse.
Safeguarding adults is an integral part of patient care and covers a spectrum of activity from prevention through to multi agency responses where harm and abuse occurs. Safeguarding adults is shaped by the following principles:
Keeping patients safe cannot be effectively managed in isolation. Safeguarding adults needs to be supported through working in partnerships with those involved in their care and with partner agencies such as Adult Social Services and Merseyside Police. The Safeguarding Adults Team holds positions at the Wirral Safeguarding Partnership Board and related sub committees as well as Chairing the Wirral Mental Capacity Act Sub Committee to the Wirral Safeguarding Partnership Board.
Mental Capacity Act (MCA) & Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOL’S)
There are currently 3 trained DoLs Assessors within the Trust that work within the Safeguarding Team they will respond to the requirements laid out in the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.
The MCA DoLs system came into force April 2009 and is a system that helps to protect people who are not capable of making care and treatment decisions for themselves.
Aggression Management
There is an Aggression Management Specialist Nurse who provides advice, training and support for issues relating to aggression management, this practitioner responds to any concerns raised by ward staff.
Perinatal Mental Health
There is a Perinatal Mental Health Midwife who provides advice and support for pregnant women with mental health problems who require specialist care, referred into the service by the midwife or General Practitioner. This is not a self referral service.
MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements)
MAPPA is the mechanism by which all the relevant Criminal Justice and partner agencies come together to manage high risk offenders – usually those who have committed violent or sexual offences.
Section 325 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 imposes a duty to co-operate with the MAPPA Responsible Authority (police, prisons and probation) upon a number of authorities including health.
A statutory duty was placed on all agencies were to provide a “single point of contact” (SPOC). For Wirral health agencies this role is currently undertaken by the Head of the Safeguarding Service for NHS Wirral, a member of staff from the Safeguarding Team at Wirral University Teaching Hospital works in collaboration with this person.
The “single point of contact” role ensures that information is shared when appropriate to ensure that public safety and also staff safety is maximised.
Wirral University Teaching Hospital and local partner agencies consider child protection to be a key area of ongoing development and are keen to ensure that learning from local serious case reviews is shared across all agencies.