Executive Leadership in Safeguarding (Board Level)

The course will explore the culture, attitude and ethos necessary to enable safeguarding to be “core-business” throughout the NHS. Current duties and responsibilities will be examined whilst considering the emerging Integrated Care Systems and Partnerships and their journey ahead. We will also look at the impact COVID-19 has had on safeguarding and how we emerge from the pandemic and beyond.

We will explore what Senior Executives must do to ensure that the legal framework for safeguarding within the NHS is being applied. This will focus on the importance of the obligations and duties the NHS as a public sector body has to Respect, Protect and Fulfil the rights that people have under the Human Rights Act 1998 when carrying out the functions of safeguarding.

The course will also take a look at the duties to eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity under the Equality Act 2010 and within the main statutes around adult and child safeguarding to include The Care Act 2014, The Children Acts 1998 and 2004, The Children and Social Work Act 2017, and the proposed Domestic Abuse Bill 2020, accompanying guidance and the importance of Making Safeguarding Personal, the Voice of the Child and Think Family.

The course will explore what this means for safeguarding at the strategic level with a focus on integration, prevention, collaboration and partnerships, and what this means for contracts and commissioning.

The course includes reflection on the consequences of poor safeguarding practice regarding outcomes for adults and children, including lessons learnt through audits, complaints, ombudsman case law, coroners and various types of safeguarding reviews.