KGH leads the way as it achieves safeguarding accreditation

The hospital has been given the Leaders in Safeguarding Quality Mark for its safeguarding arrangements, a nationally recognised accreditation for high standards in the way it works to protect children and adults from abuse and neglect.

Leaders in Safeguarding – a national expert organisation – sent its consultants to conduct a thorough audit of the safeguarding arrangements at the hospital and they found it met their standards.

KGH’s named nurses for safeguarding, Jacqueline Barker and Tabby Tantawi-Basra, said: “We are all delighted to have become the first NHS trust to achieve this accreditation.

“It underlines our staff and our organisation’s commitment to protect those at risk of abuse and neglect within our community.

“We will continue to build on this strong foundation. For example we have recently developed a new three-year safeguarding strategy that will further embed positive safeguarding models throughout the trust.”

All health providers are required to have effective arrangements in place to safeguard children and adults at risk of abuse or neglect and to assure themselves, and their regulators and commissioners, that these are working.

KGH’s arrangements include:

• Safe recruitment practices and arrangements for dealing with allegations against people who work with children or vulnerable children as appropriate.

• A suite of safeguarding policies

• Effective training of all staff commensurate with their role and in accordance with national competencies

• Effective supervision arrangements for staff working with children / families or adults at risk of abuse or neglect.

• Effective arrangements for engaging and working in partnership with other agencies.

• Identification of a named doctor and a named nurse (and a named midwife if the organisation provides maternity services) for safeguarding children.

• Identification of a named lead for adult safeguarding

• Developing an organisational culture such that all staff are aware of their personal responsibility to report concerns and to ensure that poor practice is identified and tackled.

Founder of Leaders in Safeguarding, Dr Dan Grant, said: ‘Kettering General Hospital has received this accolade because it has created a strong safeguarding culture to ensure all patients remain safe.

“We congratulate the trust and recognise its highly effective and robust safeguarding arrangements. It works very hard and is highly committed to keeping all patients safe.”

The Leaders in Safeguarding award, which is valid for two years, involves a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements.

It includes a close examination of the skills, knowledge and experience of staff, audits how well statutory requirements are met, the effectiveness of policies and practices, staff recruitment and training.

A full audit is conducted and a detailed report is produced. Once this has been completed the safeguarding consultant presents their assessment and report to the Leaders in Safeguarding scrutiny and validation panel for approval – a panel consisting of expert professionals from health, education and social care sectors.

Kettering General Hospital’s director of nursing and quality Leanne Hackshall is responsible for the trust’s safeguarding arrangements.

She said: “Safeguarding is a difficult and sensitive area and our teams need to be well trained and well versed in how we go about this.

“Having external experts in to assess our policies and procedures, practices, staff training, and compliance with national standards, was a very useful exercise for this often complex area of care that requires good interagency working.

“I am delighted this expert assessment shows that we are doing the right things to detect and support vulnerable children and adults.”