Safeguarding Children Assurance Statement – September 2009

In July 2009 the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published a report on their review of arrangements in the NHS for safeguarding children. In line with this, Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust has considered its own processes, procedures and policies with regards to safeguarding children and has worked with its partners to respond to initiatives and reviews at both national and local levels.

We are assured that safeguarding arrangements are in place within the Trust and that best practice and statutory requirements are being followed. In particular, the Board is assured that:

• The Trust is on plan to achieve Criminal Records bureau (CRB) before the target of March 2011;
  
• Child protection policies and systems are up to date and robust, including a process for following up children who miss outpatients appointments and a system for flagging children for whom there are safeguarding concerns;
  
• All eligible staff have undertaken and are up to date with safeguarding training at level 1;
  
• The Trust has named professionals who are clear about their role and have sufficient time and support to undertake it;
  
• There is a Board level Executive Director Lead for Safeguarding; the Board reviews Safeguarding across the organisation at least once a year and has robust audit programmes to assure it that safeguarding systems and processes are working.

                               Steve Peak                                                    Professor Ian Booth
                               Chief Executive                                            Interim Chair

This page was last modified on Thu Dec 23 2010