Named Nurse - Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)

NHS; Warwick; On-site; GBP 47,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Named Nurse to join the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). This critical role involves assessing referrals and safeguarding children, collaborating with various agencies to promote child welfare. Requires a registered nursing qualification and experience in safeguarding with a focus on analytical decision-making and communication.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Professional development opportunities

Working in a leading healthcare organization

Qualifications

• Registered Nurse with a degree in Community or Public Health.
• Extensive experience in safeguarding children and working in complex environments.
• Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications.

Responsibilities

• Work as part of a multi-agency team assessing notifications and referrals.
• Provide health perspectives on safeguarding concerns and risk assessments.
• Participate in internal and external working groups to improve service delivery.

Skills

Analytical skills

Judgemental skills

Communication

Negotiation

Education

Registered Nurse

Health Visitor or Community Paediatric Nurse Specialist Degree

Degree level education or equivalent experience in safeguarding

Tools

IT and community recording systems

Job description

Go back South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

Named Nurse - Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)

The closing date is 26 June 2025

The post holder will work as part of a dynamic multi-agency integrated team assessing notifications information and referrals in relation to children aged 0-18 and their families that are received by the MASH.

The MASH process includes searching for and collating health information from a range of NHS providers both locally and further afield. This must be carried out with due regard to patient confidentiality and consent.

The MASH professional needs to interpret and share the information that is necessary to safeguard and/or promote the welfare of a child. The MASH has been designed to facilitate information gathering and sharing within a fire-walled environment.

You will advise and sign post professionals from a health perspective regarding concerns for children, young people and their families, assess information and provide an analysis of risk to inform the outcome decision.

The Local Authority hold the statutory responsibility for the management of MASH and referrals, but the decision and planning required to inform the outcome of the notification or referral is made by the integrated MASH team. This type of multi-agency cooperation is a statutory duty of all professionals delivering care to children and families.

Main duties of the job

The five core elements of a MASH have been agreed by stakeholders as:

Providing a single front door for referrals and notifications.

Co-location of key partners.

Provides a safe confidential environment.

Enables analysis of risk or need on a case by case basis.

Enables wider victim identification within communities.

About us

Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further.

We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity.

Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are 'Trusted to provide safe, effective and compassionate care'. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn't matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.

Job responsibilities

Analytical and Judgemental Skills / Freedom to Act

Contribute to performance improvement of the MASH taking the health lead and for identified areas where agreed by the team.

Provide coordination of, and participate in, relevant internal and external working groups and provide advice, expertise and support where requested.

Provide relevant and timely advice and reports on the function of the MASH to the named professionals, for inclusion in Safeguarding Children Board Reports.

Undertake single and multi-agency audit when required and develop action plans to support change in practice.

Work with members of the MASH Team to investigate the causes of any variance in MASH activity and proactively contribute to the implementation of solutions.

Proactively participate to identify risks and issues with regards to the functions of the integrated team to facilitate resolution and/or escalation processes.

Record, interpret, assess and present health information and issues that can impact on the risk or needs assessment of child/children from a range of health perspectives. This may involve disclosing relevant information on the parents or carers in ensuring the information is processed fairly and proportionately.

Participate in the MASH multi-agency risk assessment to inform the case management, advising where necessary and challenging decisions when appropriate.

Advise on improvements to current safeguarding arrangements through, analysis and audit, reporting and suggesting procedures to enhance the safeguarding decision making processes across the health economy.

Ensure timely and accurate information analysis and reporting to Trust Named Professionals and senior management on agreed areas of work.

Participate in relevant internal and external working groups/projects, services and initiatives to provide, information and analytical advice and expertise.

Measurable Result Areas

Contribute to the strategic planning of MASH Team projects, identifying interdependencies across projects/functions and services, potential impacts of MASH activity on wider organisation, resource requirements and building in contingency and adjustments as necessary.

Contribute to the development of performance and governance strategies and the development and implementation of MASH improvement programmes, in accordance with Trust priorities.

Contribute to the short, medium and long term service developments, for MASH to develop and achieve quality outcomes.

Develop and implement data collection systems and MASH protocols that will provide accurate and timely data safely and effectively with due regards to the UN convention for the rights of children, The Children Act 1989 and 2004 and the Human Rights Act, and also within the bounds of patient confidentiality and the Data Protection Act 1998.

Identify service gaps and issues relating to effective clinical pathways and /or cross boundary arrangements. Escalate evidence of ineffective safeguarding arrangements within or outside of the MASH to the appropriate individual/s.

Contribute to the development of key MASH performance indicators for the successful assessment of individual and directorate success.

Physical Skills

Use of IT equipment.

Communications and Working Relationships

The post holder will be part of a co-located multi-agency team including police officers, social workers, SWFT Safeguarding Children team, administrative support and others.

The post holder will be required to maintain supportive and constructive relationships with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders and specifically health professionals from a wide range of services and disciplines.

Through liaison and dialogue identify and collate and assess the relevant health information to add to the multi-agency risk assessment.

Explain clearly and with sound rationale, highly complex safeguarding children information, to a wide range of professionals.

Explain and understand safeguarding risk clearly and with sound rationale.

Disseminate and communicate decisions and appropriate health information to relevant health professionals including the Named Nurse and/or Doctor where appropriate.

Share best practice on behalf of health professionals where appropriate e.g. best practice events.

Immediately report to the statutory Named Lead Nurse Safeguarding Children or the Executive Safeguarding Children Lead when issues require escalation or where the case is likely to become subject to press or public interest.

Record appropriate information about health outcomes on the appropriate MASH recording system on a case by case basis.

The job holder will carry out any other duties as may reasonably be required by their line manager.

The job description and person specification may be reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the changing needs of the Department and the Organisation.

Assist in the evaluation and analysis of the health contribution to the MASH process.

Responsibility for Staff

Take a health lead in the coordination of health training, development, and other learning opportunities to ensure a wide understanding of the MASH initiative to encourage succession planning activity.

Able to work as an autonomous clinical practitioner who provides Trust wide clinical expertise on safeguarding issues, using lessons learnt in the MASH process to deliver face to face training to enhance colleagues understanding of the MASH process and MASH partners thresholds.

Policy and Service Responsibilities

Contribute to the review and development of existing information management systems and contribute to the development of an integrated approach to, service or initiative management.

Develop policies and procedures in own work function with an impact on the wider organisation, as required.

Responsibility for Financial and Physical Resources

Provide regular reporting and monitoring from a value for money perspective.

Responsibility for Information

Responsible for ensuring the compilation of accurate records which are maintained in accordance with the NMC guidelines and local Record Keeping Policy.

Research and Development

Proactively inform Trust Research and Development activities, collating information about the MAQSH approach, analysing and reporting findings.

Physical Effort

Light physical effort.

Mental Effort

Frequent requirement for concentration; work pattern predictable.

Concentration required for checking documents and analysing statistics.

Emotional Effort

Limited exposure to distressing or emotional circumstances/Imparting unwelcome news to stakeholders e.g. where performance targets have not been met.

Working Conditions

Office conditions.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered Nurse
• Health Visitor, School Nurse or Community Paediatric Nurse Specialist Degree in Community or Public Health, RM
• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience in safeguarding / child protection

Experience

• Extensive experience of working in the community at significant experience at a senior level
• Significant experience of successfully operating in a politically sensitive environment
• Experience of managing risks and reporting and escalating concerns
• Experience of holding child protection case load
• Experience of assessing risk and need for children
• Experience of setting up and implementing internal processes and procedures
• Experience of managing a work-stream without on-site direct line management

Skills

• Significant experience/learning in domestic abuse
• Evidence of continued professional development in safeguarding children to level
• Understanding of the public sector
• Understanding of the wider healthcare environment
• Good understanding of IT and community recording systems
• Sound Knowledge of multi-agency working (children and families)
• Sound Knowledge of local and national legislation and policy, e.g. Children Act 1989, 2004, Data protection, and NHS Confidentiality Guidance
• Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications for dissemination to partners from a broad range agencies, disciplines and services Ability to analyse very complex issues where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources
• Numerate and able to understand complex data combined with good analytical skills
• Able to contribute the health perspective to multi-agency meetings
• Able to challenge decisions and articulate rationale effectively
• The promotion of equality of opportunity and good working relations (providing practical leadership)

Personal Qualities

• Demonstrated capability to act upon incomplete information, using experience to make inferences and decision making
• Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans accordingly
• Demonstrated capabilities to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight and often changing timescales
• Demonstrated experience of co-working in complex and challenging environments

Other

• Demonstrated capability to act upon incomplete information, using experience to make inferences and decision making
• Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans accordingly
• Demonstrated capabilities to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight and often changing timescales
• Demonstrated experience of co-working in complex and challenging environments
• Willing to undertake DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) enhanced clearance
• Ability to travel independently in a timely way

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.

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

£47,810 to £54,710 a yearper annum pro rata