Headlines this month

New Prepayment prescription certificates are available to those Care Leavers aged 18-25 from South East London, who are not entitled to free prescriptions through other schemes. The offer is available to all Care Leavers, including those who are working or studying, asylum seekers and those who are now living out of area, but are eligible for Leaving Care Services within Southeast London. Please advise the Care Leavers to contact the Leaving Care Team in Local Authority they originate from in the first instance or ask their Personal Advisor (PA) to assist.

Refuge is the new provider of Southwark Domestic Abuse services. To make a referral (whether to an IRIS advocate or other services provided by Refuge) please find their new form on DXS and send this to sdas@refuge.org.uk. Please note they have recently changed their contact phone number to 0118 214 7150.

If you are worried that a domestic abuse case is particularly high risk (threats of death or serious violence), you can refer your patient for a MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference). If necessary this can be without the consent of the individual (on grounds of safety). The MARAC form is being updated on DXS. Please send referrals to Marac@southwark.gov.uk

Adult Social Care has also recently changed their Safeguarding referral form, and this has been updated on DXS as well.

SEL ICB Southwark Safeguarding Team

We are responsible for making sure that the services we commission are safe and effective, by working closely with many different stakeholders and organisations in Southwark and South East London.

The Southwark Safeguarding Team is involved in a variety of place based multi-agency forums. We make sure the relationships between the NHS and other health, care and social systems work at both strategic and operational levels to safeguard children, young people, and adults at risk of abuse and neglect.

Key contacts

Team contact
Southwark.safeguardingteam@selondonics.nhs.uk

Named GP Safeguarding Adults
Dr Megan Morris
megan.morris@selondonics.nhs.uk

Named GP Safeguarding Children
Dr Shimona Gayle
s.gayle@nhs.net

Designated Nurse for Safeguarding Children, Looked After Children and Care Leavers
Michele Sault
michele.sault@selondonics.nhs.uk

Designated Safeguarding Adults Nurse
Florence Acquah
Florence.acquah@selondonics.nhs.uk

Training

Training should be relevant to the role and responsibilities of the individual. This may be made up of a variety of learning opportunities (including face to face training, audits, e-learning, SEAs and case-based discussions), and this is recognised by the Appraisals Team and CQC.

Adult Safeguarding

The RCN published the first edition of the Intercollegiate Document on Roles and Competencies for Healthcare Staff in August 2018, which outlined the first formal guidelines on minimum training requirements in Adult Safeguarding.

  • Level 1 – all new non-clinical staff with no experience of safeguarding and all practice staff who do not have direct contact with patients;
  • Level 2 – all staff who have direct contact with patients, carers and members of the public, including reception staff and Practice Managers;
  • ​Level 3 – all GPs and Practice Nurses. Also suitable for Practice Managers and Health Care Assistants once Level 2 achieved ideally.
  • Practice Safeguarding Leads currently only need training up to Level 3, but will be expected to engage in quarterly Practice Lead Forums to support and broaden their knowledge.

Please see the Safeguarding Adult Training Requirements document for more information.

Children’s Safeguarding

The training requirements for all health care staff is set out in the Intercollegiate Document Safeguarding Children and Young people: Roles and Competencies for Health Care Staff

  • Level 1 – all new non-clinical staff with no experience of safeguarding and with no direct contact with children and families
  • Level 2 – all non-clinical staff with direct contact with children and families. Minimum requirement for Health Care Assistants and Practice Managers
  • ​Level 3 – all clinical staff (GPs, Practice Nurses, Clinical Pharmacists, Paramedics working with children and families
  • Practice Safeguarding Leads require training up to Level 3, but will be expected to engage in quarterly Practice Lead Forums to support and broaden their knowledge.

Please see the Safeguarding Children Training Requirements document for more information.

Level 3 Safeguarding Children PLT held Thursday 16th June, agenda to included key principles of safeguarding children, referrals and information sharing, adverse childhood experiences, looked after children and case vignettes. Slides, recording and resources available in Southwark training hub.

Further online and face-to-face training

Locally training provided via the PLT programme and quarterly safeguarding forums.

A range of free multi-agency face to face and e-learning topics are available through My Learning Source at www.mylearningsource.co.uk

To access training through My Learning Source, select NHS organisations from the partners folder and scroll to find NHS-Practice Name

You can also access a range of online learning modules on the e-Learning for Healthcare website www.e-lfh.org.uk, with overview Level 2 and 3 alongside topics including Perinatal Mental Health, Domestic Abuse Awareness and FGM.

Practice policy and procedure support

Key statutory guidance for Adult Safeguarding

Key statutory guidance for Children Safeguarding

Key local guidance

Practice Policy

The RCGP Safeguarding Children Toolkit provides a template policy to adapt.

To support this we have a Children Safeguarding Policy Checklist

Supporting documents to be uploaded

Child Was Not Brought to appointment guidance available here to support.

Recognition and response to DNA/WNB has been identified as key theme by the National Serious Care Review panel.

Was Not Brought – Did Not Attend Guidance – May 2021

Working Together 2018 update

GP safeguarding forums

This is a quarterly meeting open to all Practice Safeguarding Leads. It is an opportunity to meet and learn more deeply about local services and discuss cases and issues specific to the local area, and incorporates topics relevant to safeguarding adults and children. Case discussion constitutes an important element of level 3 training. For further details and to confirm attendance please contact s.gayle@nhs.net or meganmorris@nhs.net

Recent Forums:

July 2023 – Topics: Family Early Help and GP referral audit, Initial Child Protection Conference audit with health focus and Updated from Domestic Abuse Service Refuge and IRIS.

March 2023 – Topics: Case Child D and Cuckooing

Dec 2022 – Topics: Embedding policies and practices of the Safe Surgeries Network in your practice, Learning Disability Death Reviews, Improving Annual health checks for people with Learning Disabilities (with toolkit and resources), what are Liberty Protection Safeguards and how will this affect GPs?

Oct 2022- Topics: Safeguarding Adults Update (including making referrals to Learning Disability Death Reviews (LeDeR) and cases to Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs), GP MASH referral Audit, Safeguarding and Patient Online Access

June 2022 – Topic: Safeguarding Adults and Children Update, Modern Slavery Awareness Training delivered by Stop The Traffik

March 2022 – Topics: Parental Mental Health Team and the ‘Think Family model’, Safeguarding adult updates (Modern Slavery training, Safeguarding Adult Review referral and Domestic Homicide review recommendations), and Safeguarding and patient online access

November 2021 – Topics:  Adult Safeguarding (new draft referral new Adult Safeguarding referral for Southwark, Domestic Abuse Act 2021, General Practice responsibilities with respect of local bridging hotels/ initial accommodation centres), Child Safeguarding (Guide to assessing bruising in children in Primary Care), Community Harm and Exploitation Hub

July 2021  – Topics: Young Carers and Primary Care Safeguarding Annual Review summary

May 2021 – Topics: Liberty Protection Safeguards, Adult Safeguarding themes from DHRs

January 2021 – Topics:  Child A&B, Community Harm and Exploitation Pilot, Private Fostering

Primary care safeguarding annual review 2023/4

The Primary Care Safeguarding Annual Review 2023/24 process has completed. Many thanks to all practices for their input.

Whilst the outcome of this review is to provide assurance, we aim to provide opportunity to identify and share innovative practice, and also help practices reflect upon their own internal processes. The CCG safeguarding team use the review to identify areas of support. Many elements of the review are used to feedback to members of the Safeguarding Children Partnership and Safeguarding Adult Board.

Find original tool, power point presentation with summary of analysis and key resources in documents below:

 

NHS England safeguarding app

The new NHS England Safeguarding app provides 24-hour, mobile access to up to date safeguarding guidance and local contacts to report safeguarding concerns. The NHS England Safeguarding app can be downloaded on the App Store for iPhones and iPads and Google Play for Android phones and tablets.

South East London Integrated Care System

Visit ICS Website

Find out more