Specialist Safeguarding Midwife | East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust

East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust; Ashford; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading hospital trust in Ashford is seeking a Specialist Safeguarding Midwife to provide expert clinical support in maternity safeguarding. The role involves delivering training, collaborating with various safeguarding teams, and improving care quality for vulnerable families. Ideal candidates should have significant experience in safeguarding practices and leadership skills. This is a unique opportunity to enhance the care of women and babies at risk.

Qualifications

• Expert practitioner in maternity safeguarding with clinical experience.
• Ability to deliver safeguarding training in line with national guidance.
• Experience in collaborative working with safeguarding teams and agencies.

Responsibilities

• Support midwives in care for families with safeguarding concerns.
• Contribute to safeguarding meetings and case management.
• Foster professionalism and clinical leadership in the safeguarding team.

Skills

Clinical expertise in safeguarding

Leadership skills

Effective communication

Team collaboration

Education

Relevant midwifery qualification

Job description

The Specialist Safeguarding midwife will be an expert practitioner from whom all clinical staff can seek advice and support on maternity safeguarding concerns. They will support the delivery of robust safeguarding planning, in order that effective and compassionate midwifery care is delivered to vulnerable groups of women and their babies, identifying areas of risk and contributing to birth planning.

The post holder will contribute to the All Age think family duty with their clinical expertise and delivery safeguarding training, in line with national guidance and legislation, to support the safeguarding within the Trust. The post holder will contribute to improve the quality of care to patients.

They will work closely and collaboratively with the Named Safeguarding Midwife, Senior Midwifery Team, the All Age Safeguarding Team, specialist maternity professionals and partnership agencies to create a robust, structured approach to the safeguarding service across EKHUFT. They should support the Named Midwife and the all age safeguarding team in activities necessary to ensure that EKHUFT meets its responsibilities to safeguard birthing people, babies at risk of significant harm and enable the Trust to proactively respond to the changing safeguarding agenda.

Four Pillars of Practice

• Clinical Practice
• Leadership
• Facilitating Learning
• Evidence, Research and Development

Provide in hours support at base site to midwives delivering care to families with significant safeguarding concerns both within the hospital and local community settings.

• Provide support to midwives and obstetricians contributing to relevant safeguarding meeting for families i.e. discharge planning meetings, child protection meetings. With the ability to attend on midwifery’s behalf when named midwife for patient, or appropriate member of the midwifery team is not available.
• Attend and contribute to weekly case management with the children’s safeguarding practitioners and advisors.
• Foster a culture of professionalism and clinical leadership to achieve excellence in clinical practice through the workings of the safeguarding team as a whole.
• Promote and provide positive professional leadership including motivation of staff across EKHUFT.
• Support the local teaching and orientation of all learners and new members of staff, to include student midwives, student nurses and medical students allocated to the Safeguarding Service, in conjunction with the student lead and Named Midwife for Safeguarding.

We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference’. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Please note that if you require a Certificate of Sponsorship to work in the UK you must declare this on your application form, even if you currently have a certificate of sponsorship or a work permit for another role and are already working in the country. Please note we are only able to sponsor candidates on a Skilled Worker Visa applying for roles Band 5 and above.

Please scroll down to access the full Job Description and Person Specification located in ‘Documents to download’.

If you have further queries please don’t hesitate to contact the Named midwife for safeguarding using the contact details below.

This advert closes on Tuesday 28 Oct 2025