Designated Doctor - Safeguarding Children

Nhs Bristol, North Somerset And South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board; Gloucester; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

NHS Bristol, North Somerset And South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board is seeking an experienced Designated Doctor for Safeguarding Children to provide system-level clinical leadership, expert advice and independent assurance across the BNSSG Gloucestershire cluster.

The post supports statutory safeguarding duties under the Children Act 2004, works with the Associate Director and Designated Nurses, and operates with professional autonomy to drive safeguarding leadership and improvement.

Qualifications

• Full GMC registration and ongoing appraisal are required.
• Specialist safeguarding training and extensive paediatric experience are essential.
• Experience providing senior-level medical advice and multi-agency safeguarding work.

Responsibilities

• Provide system-level clinical leadership and independent assurance to BNSSG Gloucestershire ICB and partners.
• Offer strategic expert advice to Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and program work.
• Support statutory safeguarding duties under the Children Act 2004 and SAAF framework.
• Collaborate with Associate Director, Designated Nurses and place-based leads to ensure coherent safeguarding leadership.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Communication skills

Analytical thinking

Digital literacy

Education

MBChB / medical degree (GMC)

GMC registration

Specialist safeguarding training

Ongoing appraisal and revalidation

Job description

Job summary

Are you an experienced Clinical Consultant Paediatrician with a curious and critical mind to improve safeguarding practices for children and young people? Can you think strategically to work in partnership with other organisations and are motivated to develop into a senior strategic safeguarding leadership position? If so, please do get in contact.

The Integrated Care Board (ICB) is recruiting a Designated Doctor for Safeguarding Children to support the statutory safeguarding duties for children alongside the Designated Nurse for Safeguarding Children and other colleagues in the clustered Gloucestershire and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICBs. This role is specific to Gloucestershire, however will require some travel to the ICB Bristol office for team meetings and some flexible working when needed across the cluster etc.

Interviews to be held Wednesday 28th October

Main duties of the job

The postholder will be exposed to working at a strategic level within the Gloucestershire system, closely supported by the other Designated statutory roles for Children, Associate Director for Safeguarding and Executive Place Clinical Directors. The key purposes of the role are to offer strategic expert advice and clinical leadership to the Safeguarding Children's Partnership and system, contribute to work programmes determined by either the ICB or Safeguarding Children's Partnership including statutory safeguarding reviews and provide independent professional assurance to the clustered ICBs and its partners, including making available advice relating to strategic commissioning. In addition to the above, a statutory part of the Designated Doctor role is to provide expert advice and support in complex health safeguarding situations including safeguarding supervision to safeguarding leads across the health system.

About us

We are committed to creating an inclusive organisation that promotes and values diversity. We know from experience that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger, more creative workplace that helps us to deliver the best services. We welcome applications which represent the rich diversity of our community; from people of all ages, disabled people, all genders, people from ethnic minority groups, LGBTQ+ people, people with diverse gender identity and expression, people from all religions and beliefs and other diverse characteristics, and we have processes in place to ensure that all applications are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process.

Job responsibilities

The Designated Doctor for Safeguarding Children is a statutory senior medical role providing system-level clinical leadership, expert advice and independent professional assurance to the BNSSG Gloucestershire Cluster Integrated Care Board (ICB) and its partners.

The postholder supports the ICB in discharging its statutory responsibilities for safeguarding children in line with the Children Act 2004, Working Together to Safeguard Children and the NHS Safeguarding Accountability and Assurance Framework (SAAF).

Operating with a high degree of professional autonomy, the role provides authoritative medical advice, scrutiny and challenge across all commissioned services including primary care, acute, community, mental health and independent sector providers. They must have consultant level experience in the field of paediatrics.

The postholder works in close partnership with the Associate Director, Designated Nurses and Place-based safeguarding lead to ensure a coherent and robust system of safeguarding leadership, assurance and improvement across the BNSSG and Gloucestershire system.

Person Specification

Knowledge, Training and Experience

Essential

• Full registration with the General Medical Council (GMC)
• Evidence of ongoing appraisal and revalidation.
• Relevant specialty training related to safeguarding children and young people.
• Significant clinical experience working with children and young people.
• Extensive post-qualification clinical experience.
• Significant safeguarding children clinical experience.
• Experience of multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.
• Experience providing senior-level medical advice and challenge.
• In‑depth knowledge of safeguarding legislation and statutory guidance.

Desirable

• Previous experience as a Named Doctor or Designated Doctor.
• Experience contributing to safeguarding children practice reviews.
• Experience working across system or IC…

Communication Skills

Essential

• Excellent communication, influencing and report‑writing skills.
• Ability to manage complex, sensitive and contentious issues.
• Dynamic personality and the ability to build trusted stakeholder relationships and wide support networks in a political context like the NHS.
• Strong external communications skills in a politically sensitive environment.
• Ability to provide professional challenge and support to clinicians.
• Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications for dissemination to senior stakeholders and a broad range of stakeholders as required.
• Extensive experience of delivering presentations to large groups of stakeholders in often pressured and politically sensitive environments.
• Demonstrates excellent overall digital literacy, with the ability to confidently use computers and digital systems required for day-to-day work.

Analytical

Essential

• Advanced clinical judgement in complex safeguarding situations.
• Ability to analyse highly complex issues where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources.
• Demonstrated capability to act upon incomplete information, using experience to make inferences and decision making.
• Ability to analyse numerical and written data, assess options and draw appropriate initiatives.

Planning Skills

Essential

• Leadership, vision, strategic thinking and planning with highly developed political skills.
• Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long‑term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly.
• Experience of managing and prioritising a large budget.
• Ability to provide informative reporting on finances and impact to Board management.

Management Skills

Essential

• High professional integrity and credibility.
• Confident system‑level clinical leader , compassionate and learning‑focused professional approach.
• Ability to delegate effectively.
• Ability to work effectively between strategic and operational activities where required.

Autonomy

Essential

• Demonstrated capabilities to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight and often changing timescales.
• Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues.

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.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).