Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will:

·         Identify, provide support and assist the Care Group and Governance team with the ongoing development of a proactive approach to risk management and robust governance in the organisation.

·         Develop, implement and evaluate a positive culture to risk management and support the Care Group with the updating of risks on the live risk register.

·         Provide clinical challenge and advice on how to populate and review risks.

·         Continue to develop a just and fair no blame culture where staff are encouraged to report errors to improve quality of care to patients.

·         Provide advice to all clinicians on matters relating to patient safety and risk management.

·         Support and maintain relevant policies, systems and databases that enable risk management to be implemented across the organisation in line with the organisations governance structures and processes.

·         Work across the organisation to encourage the development, implementation and maintenance of risk registers at service and divisional level.

·         Contribute to the achievement of national standards (e.g. standards for better health, safeguarding standards, CQC standards) and preparation for internal and external assessment (e.g. NPSA, NHSLA, internal / external audit, Healthcare Commission etc).

Clinical:

·         The post holder is required to undertake all duties with complete regard to the NMC Code to ensure open and honest practice is adhered to.

·         Maintain professional credibility. (Including participating in paediatric clinical work if required in times of Trust /departmental extremis.)

·         Facilitate an environment where clinical governance and risk management are perceived as essential to the care and wellbeing of clients and staff, promoting a culture of participation, openness and accountability throughout the service.

·         Ensure all neonatal and paediatric incidents are reviewed and investigated in accordance with the Trust Incident Reporting Policy. (Including the review of paediatric patient related incidents that may occur outside the Paeds setting; such as Paeds ED and Fracture clinic.)

·         Be responsible for reviewing the grading and inputting incident reports onto the Trust incident reporting system; producing reports to allow monitoring and sharing of themes and trends within the Care Group.

·         Facilitate investigations following serious incidents, near misses and accidents, undertaking PSIRF framework where appropriate; interview staff as required and support the production of a report within a specified time frame, generating recommendations and an action plans to improve and thus reduce risks.

·         To review clinical incidents using the PSIRF framework via the database system.

·         Be approachable and available to staff to support and debrief following a clinical incident, providing structured reflection to nurses, midwives and doctors to facilitate learning and promote and relevant changes in practice.

·         To participate and ensure paediatric clinical guidelines and policies are being developed in line with current best practice and reviewed in a timely manner to support proactive risk management and clinical effectiveness. This is to include the oversight of the Trust’s robust archiving system of all guidelines/ policies in the event of clinical claims or complaints.

·         Ensure dissemination of risk issues to all paediatric and medical staff through a clinical governance/risk newsletter, departmental meetings and presentations.

·         Identify and participate in the audit process, ensuring all rolling/core audits, as components of the service, are undertaken in a timely manner and identifying audits relevant to trust guidance and NICE compliance.

·         Support staff in the completion of statements and/or seek appropriate support from the wider governance team or legal team as necessary.

·         To ensure compliance to key governance issues such as DoC compliance and complaint response time frames

·         To write key documents within the PSIRF framework. and to be responsible for the outcome reports following the PSIRF framework and monitoring compliance of actions

·         To have a functioning understanding of key frameworks and national documents that contribute to and dictate governance key performance issues and processes

Managerial:

·        To always demonstrate effective leadership, acting as an advocate for patient safety.

·         Contribute to the induction and competency programmes for newly appointed staff.

·         To actively participate and provide regular progress reports to the divisional management team in relation to patient improvement plans.

·         Prepare timely reports for Trust, Care Group and Divisional level committees as required.

·         To identify any gaps of non-compliance in paediatric standards of care and escalate appropriately.

·         To identify any gaps of non-compliance to the Trusts requirements and escalate as appropriate.

·         Organise regular professional meetings in line with the Trusts Terms of Reference.

·         Attend all managerial meetings relevant to the post relating to risk and governance, as an invited attendee or as delegated by direct line manager or divisional director.

·         Report to the divisional management team any information or educational developments received from other external agencies.

·         For active involvement and participation in morbidity and mortality reviews for the Care Group (e.g. PMRT)

·         To be an active member of the senior nursing team for the care group and including participation on the on-call rota. 

Communication:

·         To maintain a productive working relationships and optimal communication channels within neonatal/paediatric and wider Trust teams.

·         To maintain communication links between all risk management and governance groups.

·         To communicate complex/sensitive information concerning clinical governance issues with patients, relatives and staff during feedback sessions and following investigatory meetings.

·         To share professional knowledge and risk management knowledge to assist with underpinning additional specialist clinical governance areas, supporting and maintaining quality of care within the service.

·         Support the review of incidents and outstanding actions from incident via the weekly Divisional Safety Huddle.

Project and Performance Management:

·         To support with the coordination and responses of information for external inspections on behalf of the Care Group and the Division.

·         To hold responsibility for the monitoring of actions as part of learning and improvement projects across the Care Group and Division.

·         Implement a robust system across the service to evidence and monitor the nursing contribution to national and local standards of care.

·         To support the care Group on the work across the Division to ensure compliance with the CQC essential standards.

Public Involvement:

·         Ensure that all users of Children, Young People and Family services contribute to the development of nursing practice and inform the design and delivery of future nursing services.

·         Represent the team in forums outside the Care Group acting as a professional ambassador.