Specialist Safeguarding Midwife

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Luton; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in the UK is seeking a Specialist Midwife for Safeguarding Children to lead safeguarding efforts in maternity care. The role involves providing expert advice, championing best practices, and working with a multidisciplinary team to ensure vulnerable families receive quality care. Applicants should be autonomous midwives with experience in antenatal, intranatal, and postnatal care.

Qualifications

• The post holder will be a midwife practicing autonomously, attending women during antenatal, intranatal, and postnatal periods.

Responsibilities

• Act as operational lead for safeguarding children within midwifery.
• Provide expert advice to midwives and other colleagues.
• Support the Named Midwife for Safeguarding.
• Attend antenatal, intranatal and postnatal care as a midwife.
• Develop and review safeguarding policies.

Job description

Overview

Are you passionate about protecting vulnerable families and making a real difference in maternity care? We are seeking a Specialist Midwife for Safeguarding Children to lead safeguarding across our services. This role provides expert advice and support on safeguarding issues, acting as a key resource for the multidisciplinary team. You will champion best practice, share your specialist knowledge, and empower colleagues through education and training tailored to maternity care.

Responsibilities

• Act as operational lead for safeguarding children within midwifery; shape and drive the safeguarding agenda; work with the Directorate and frontline staff to uphold duty to protect children from harm.


• Provide expert advice to midwives and other colleagues to enable high-quality, individualised care to vulnerable groups; supervise and support multi-professional staff in safeguarding matters.


• Support the Named Midwife for Safeguarding and act up in their absence.


• Attend antenatal, intranatal and postnatal care as a midwife practising autonomously.


• Develop and review safeguarding policies to ensure they are current, evidence-based, and aligned with national standards.


• Provide supervision/case management guidance to safeguarding staff and ensure good standard of record keeping; assist staff with timely referrals to appropriate agencies.


• Advise and support staff in managing sensitive and complex safeguarding matters; provide direct support to maternity colleagues when conflicts arise with clients or external agencies.


• Attend strategy meetings and case conferences as required; promote holistic, non-judgemental care for vulnerable clients.


• Ensure women receive evidence-based information; assist in adoption documentation; assist in reporting child deaths; contribute to data submission (e.g., female genital mutilation data).


• Assist in Child Safeguarding Practice Review process and implement findings and recommendations.

Qualifications and Requirements

• The post holder will be a midwife practicing autonomously, attending women during antenatal, intranatal, and postnatal periods.

About the Trust

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to around 700,000 people across Bedfordshire and surrounding areas, across two sites in Bedford and Luton. We offer A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. The Trust is committed to staff wellbeing, training, and development, and to delivering high-quality patient care using current clinical knowledge and technology.

Additional information

We operate a values-based recruitment approach and are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion. Vacancies may close early; all new staff are subject to a probationary period (first six months). Travel between sites may be required. All staff will review attached documents to understand job requirements.