Discussing safeguarding at Nursing Live

Safeguarding in different settings and amongst different groups will be explored by expert speakers at Nursing Live, a free event for nurses in Liverpool on November 10-11, 2023. 

>Join us there: book free tickets to Nursing Live today

Many of the UK's leading experts on safeguarding in nursing will be at RCNi's free event for nurses in Liverpool this November, including:

• Sally Shearer OBE, Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel member for the Department for Education
• Philip Winterbottom, Head of Safeguarding at Cygnet and an Honorary Fellow at Buckinghamshire New University’s Institute for Health and Social Care
• Daljit Athwal, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer for Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Trust
• Professor Lucy Bray, Professor in Child Health Literacy, Nursing and Midwifery at Edge Hill University
• Dr Trainor, who is Associate Professor in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Salford, and former member of the NICE Self Harm Guideline Development Committee

Safeguarding Review Panel Data

Sally Shearer OBE, Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel member for the Department for Education, is leading a session entitled 'Raising awareness of the realities of safeguarding incidents seen by the national Panel to improve safeguarding practice at the front line'. This will draw upon Safeguarding Review Panel data to demonstrate how nursing staff in all roles can improve safeguarding practice.

Sally’s presentation will explore:

• The role of the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel in the oversight of child protection in England
• What Panel data tells us about trends in serious safeguarding
• Six key themes to make a difference
• Key messages for frontline nurses from the national review into children and young people with disabilities and complex health needs in residential settings

The complexities and sensitivities surrounding safeguarding, and balancing safeguarding interventions with patients’ rights, will also be a core theme.

Safeguarding in mental health services: balancing risk, rights and responsibilities  

Mental health nurse, Philip Winterbottom, Head of Safeguarding at Cygnet and an Honorary Fellow at Buckinghamshire New University’s Institute for Health and Social Care, will be presenting a session entitled, 'Safeguarding in mental health services: balancing risk, rights and responsibilities' which will consider how safeguarding within mental health services creates a unique challenge.  

One area Philip will focus on is the relationship between providing the least restrictive services, and the promotion of service-user recovery through positive risk taking, and the need to ensure appropriate safeguarding measures are in place.

He’ll also be posing the challenging question “Does system architecture and expectations mean there will always be ‘failures to protect’?”.

This will be complemented by a talk from Daljit Athwal, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer for Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Trust, entitled 'Leading safeguarding: championing a no-blame culture from board level to the front line'.

Children and young peoples' patients' rights

The issue of patient rights will form the basis of another session: 'Children having tests, treatments and examinations: what does good practice look like?'  Led by Professor Lucy Bray, Professor in Child Health Literacy, Nursing and Midwifery at Edge Hill University, this presentation will examine how children and young people can be supported before, during and after a procedure to prioritise their rights, and reduce their short and long-term risk of anxiety, distress, and harm.

Professor Bray has said her talk will also include “a critical consideration of the use of holding and restraint during procedures” and highlight “international work being undertaken to develop the iSupport rights-based standards for children undergoing clinical procedures.”

Protecting children and young people will also be central to Dr Gemma Trainor’s talk entitled 'Assessing, managing and preventing recurrence of self-harm in children and young people'.  Dr Trainor, who is Associate Professor in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Salford, and former member of the NICE Self Harm Guideline Development Committee, will use this session to look at some of the key recommendations in NICE’s ‘Self-harm: assessment, management and preventing recurrence’ guidance which was published last year.

For details of all these sessions, and over 100 other talks, discussion panels and presentations at this unique event for nurses, visit the Nursing Live website to book your free ticket.