Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust
Safeguarding Specialist Nurse
The closing date is 20 May 2026
This is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated nurse with experience of safeguarding children, vulnerable adults and/or children in care with a genuine commitment to promoting the welfare of children. The successful candidate will have substantial experience as a paediatric nurse and be educated to degree level with evidence of further academic study relevant to safeguarding, children in care or the public health agenda.
As part of Safeguarding and Statutory Services you will be responsible for providing visible leadership, knowledge, and expertise in relation to safeguarding and children in care for all Trust staff. You will work with a range of multi‑disciplinary colleagues as well as external health colleagues and multi‑agency partners such as primary care, Local Authorities, Local Safeguarding Children Partnerships and Local Safeguarding Adult Boards.
You must be a registered nurse, with experience of safeguarding children and knowledge of current statutory legislation and excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
Main duties of the job
The Safeguarding Specialist Nurse is an integral member of the Safeguarding and Statutory Services Team. The role is to support the Senior Safeguarding Team to fulfil the statutory and safeguarding responsibilities of the Trust. To ensure safe and effective service provision in respect of safeguarding and Children in Care, and delivery of high standards of holistic family centred care. To provide specialist safeguarding and children in care advice, and high‑quality safeguarding supervisory support to staff; to contribute to an ethos, in which reflective practice and self‑questioning are accepted and actively promoted; to identify practice areas or systems that may place children, young people, or vulnerable adults at risk of harm; to work with relevant practitioners to reduce the level of risk and inform/support the Senior Safeguarding Team; to deliver and monitor compliance of Safeguarding and Children in Care Training Strategy; to undertake audit projects and implement findings to improve service provision; to act as point of contact for other professionals in meeting the needs of vulnerable children, e.g., 0‑19 Services, Social Services, Police and Education; to work as part of a multi‑agency team to ensure children, young people and adults at risk are safeguarded and able to reach their full potential.
Job responsibilities
- Provide safeguarding advice and support on the Safeguarding Duty Rota, sharing information to Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and Multi‑Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) as requested;
- Support staff across the Trust and provide quality assurance of Social Care and Early Help referrals;
- Provide reactive and planned safeguarding supervision;
- Respond to Access to Health requests on behalf of Safeguarding and Statutory Services;
- Attend multi‑disciplinary and multi‑agency meetings to represent Safeguarding and Statutory Services (e.g., Discharge Planning Meetings and Strategy Meetings);
- Review and manage Safeguarding Inpatient Lists;
- Support clinical teams around delayed and complex discharges where there is a safeguarding need;
- Support Child Protection Medicals and Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) forensic examinations as required;
- Facilitate and lead team daily safety huddles;
- Co‑ordinate and complete daily safety checks within the department;
- Escalate any issues of patient safety or concern to the Senior Nurse on Duty and/or Named Nurses;
- Support the Sudden Unexpected Death in Childhood (SUDiC) Protocol;
- Support the Acute Life‑Threatening Event (ALTE) Protocol;
- Contribute to the development and implementation of Safeguarding and Children in Care policies and procedures;
- Quality Assurance of Initial Health Assessments (IHAs) and support care planning discussions for children/young people entering the care system or being adopted;
- Impart specialist safeguarding statutory knowledge and guidance to all staff at Alder Hey in regard of children, young people, and adults at risk;
- Develop and deliver mandatory and key topics training in line with the safeguarding and Children in Care training strategy;
- Support safeguarding and Children in Care administrative colleagues to maintain activity reports for internal and external governance reporting;
- Represent the safeguarding service within external partnership forums and sub‑groups;
- Work with partner agencies ensuring information sharing, training, and good partnership working;
- Provide specialist advice and support to all staff in relation to child deaths, alongside the Safeguarding Consultant;
- Support the Named Nurse for Safeguarding Children, Young People and Adults in fulfilling child death statutory responsibilities;
- Act as a link Specialist Safeguarding Nurse to the Trust division providing a point of contact to services/teams, supervision, and training as per their needs;
- Support the Named Nurse for Safeguarding Children, Young People and Adults and the Named Nurse for Children in Care with the collation of safeguarding and Children in Care data and evidence for Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
- Provide specialist safeguarding support, advice, and supervision to identified team/service within the Trust, potentially spending part of the working week co‑located with specialist teams based off the main hospital site within community settings (e.g., Violence Reduction Team (Navigator Team), Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)).
Person Specification
Education & Training
- Current Registered Children's Nurse (RSCN / RN Child)
- Evidence of ongoing professional development and training
- Specialist Community Public Health Nursing BSc / PG Dip (SCPHN)
- Master's Degree or working towards it
- Qualification in safeguarding supervision
Experience
- Extensive current/recent experience of working with children and their families in a health setting.
- Evidence of working with families where safeguarding concerns have been identified.
- Evidence of working in highly stressful environments.
- Substantial experience of multi‑agency working.
- Experience conducting safeguarding supervision.
- Ability to formulate policies and protocols.
- Experience planning, delivering and evaluating safeguarding training.
- Experience of professional challenge and escalation.
- Community experience.
- Experience working with Children in Care and/or Care Leavers.
- Basic understanding of forensics.
- Accredited training qualification.
- Understanding of Child Death Review process and the NHS statutory responsibilities following a child death.
- Involvement in Safeguarding Practice Reviews.
- Experience of undertaking research.
Knowledge & Skills
- Demonstrates evidence of relevant continued professional development.
- Demonstrates expert knowledge of local and national policy relating to safeguarding and children's agenda.
- Demonstrates expert interpersonal, communication and leadership skills.
- Demonstrates ability to negotiate and manage change.
- Ability to work co‑operatively and manage conflict within the multi‑agency arena.
- Expert written and oral communication skills for variety of audiences, including presentation skills and ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and simply.
- Expert interpersonal skills, including ability to work effectively with people at different levels of an organisation.
- Ability to prioritise competing demands, work effectively to specific timescales and demonstrate good organisational skills.
- Demonstrates motivation.
- Ability to collate and summarise complex information and critically analyse.
- Demonstrates IT skills to a high standard including PowerPoint, data and spreadsheet management. Ability to navigate, document and review Electronic Patient Record Systems.
- Advanced knowledge of computer literacy skills.
- Evidence of advanced audit and research skills.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
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