Safeguarding children
The Royal Marsden is fully committed to ensuring robust systems and processes are in place to safeguard the welfare of children and ensure safe, secure and compassionate care for them and their families.
We work in partnership with other organisations to provide safe care, and proactively identify any children who are at risk from harm.
The measures we have in place can be divided into five key areas:
1. The right staff
We follow all national recommendations and statutory requirements in relation to Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks, and we have a robust policy in place. All eligible staff who have direct contact with patients undergo CRB checks prior to employment and those working directly with children undergo an advanced level of assessment.
2. The right policies and procedures
We work closely with our partners in the local authority, the police and the voluntary sector to ensure that policies and procedures are shared, and that the different organisations are able to work together for the greater good of children and their families. The policies relating to safeguarding children at The Royal Marsden mirror the pan-London policies and are reviewed annually.
Our child protection policy was last reviewed in August 2011.
3. The right follow-up
It is essential that children and families about whom we have concerns receive the correct support and supervision in a timely manner. We have processes in place to follow up children who have missed outpatient appointments to ensure their health is not affected by the missed appointment. We also have systems in place for ‘flagging’ children for whom there are safeguarding concerns so that our staff can support the child and family as much as possible. All children admitted to The Royal Marsden have access to a named social worker who can offer them advice and support.
4. The right training
All eligible staff undertake training in safeguarding children and this is regularly reviewed to ensure it is up to date. Depending on the level of contact staff have with children they are required to attend annual training level one (all staff), level two/three (staff who work frequently with children) or level four (named professionals).
- 92% of eligible staff are up to date with L1 training (the target is 80%).
- 82% of eligible staff are up to date with L2/L3 training (the target is 80%).
- 100% of eligible staff are up to date with L4 training (the target is 80%).
Our aim is to attain 100% compliance in training at all levels.
Training numbers are reported quarterly to the Integrated Governance and Risk Management Committee.
5. The right experts and assurance
We have named professionals who lead on issues relating to safeguarding children. They are experts who have had extra training and who are given time and support to concentrate on their safeguarding role. They link closely with colleagues in other health and social care organisations such as the police, social services and education. The list below outlines the professionals in place and how many times they are allocated for their named professional role:
- Louise Soanes, named nurse for safeguarding children
- Dr Mary Taj, named doctor for safeguarding children.
The named nurse sits on the Sutton and Merton Local Safeguarding Children Board. Shelley Dolan, the Chief Nurse, is the Trust Board lead for safeguarding children and she chairs the Integrated Governance and Risk Management Committee which reports directly to the Trust Board. The Trust Board takes issues of safeguarding extremely seriously and receives an annual report on safeguarding children. The last annual report on safeguarding children was presented to the Trust Board in August 2010. Data on children’s safeguarding (activity / outcome and training) is discussed quarterly at the Integrated Governance and Risk Management Committee and any problems immediately escalated to the Trust Board.