Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, Band 7

This is an exciting time to join The Children's Trust  as we have reviewed our Speaking Up ambitions for the organisation and are seeking to recruit a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian to help us realise them and who shares the values set out in our Promises. 

The Children's Trust aims to ensure colleagues are able to raise concerns openly, without fear, and that all concerns are heard, responded to, acted upon and learning is shared and disseminated. As a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian you will proactively develop and strengthen an open speaking up culture across the Trust as well as respond sensitively to concerns raised.

You will remain impartial and independent when colleagues raise concerns handling them with integrity, confidentiality and tenacity; and then work through senior leaders and appropriate policies and processes for responses, approaches and actions.

The right candidate will be motivated and passionate about the speaking-up agenda, encouraging an open culture within the organisation. The successful candidate will have the ability to work with Senior Leaders, and Board Members, as well as engaging with colleagues at all levels. We would prefer candidates to have a good understanding of patient safety and quality in a healthcare environment as well as previous experience of working within a freedom to speak up role.
           
Staff benefits include London weighting, shuttle bus, and more… Read more below

Role Requirements

The role will contribute to ensuring a safe environment for our children and young people and employees of the organisation. You will support the Senior Leadership Team, Chief Executive Officer and  Board with the development of an open culture where speaking up becomes normal practice to address concerns about patient safety, the safety of colleagues or malpractice. In addition, you will encourage and make clear to all colleagues the benefits for themselves, patients and the public from the improvements made in response to the issues identified.        

You will work across the Trust with all staff groups, identifying and removing barriers to speaking up, listening up and following up; ensuring all colleagues have the capability, knowledge and skills they need to speak up themselves, and are able to support others in speaking up, listening up and following up. Reporting to the Director of Nursing and Quality, you will ensure action is taken to ensure individuals and groups facing barriers to speaking up have the support they need.

Maintaining a database as well as analysis of concerns raised will also be required and the sourcing of feedback to improve the service. You will develop and deliver FTSU reports and will be required to present to the Board of Trustees twice a year and also a range of other meetings across the Trust. Report writing, presentation formulation and building positive relationships are essential skills.       

Interview Date: To be confirmed.

If you would like to discuss the role, please contact the Recruitment & Compliance Team, on 01737 365 880 or email: recruitment@thechildrenstrust.org.uk

For more information, a copy of the candidate briefing pack and application form please click here

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY – ‘How to Apply’

Please do not complete the online application form, instead please use the link above to access the internal application form and email this as directed below.    Return your completed form by email to the Recruitment and Compliance Team, email recruitment@thechildrenstrust.org.uk 

About Us

The Children’s Trust is the UK’s leading charity for children with acquired brain injury, providing expert rehabilitation, education, therapy, and care at our national specialist centre in Tadworth, and to children and their families across the UK, via our Brain Injury Community Service.

Boasting a beautiful 24-acre site in Surrey, we are located just outside of London, close to the M25 (accessible via Junction 8, A217 to Tadworth) and easily accessible via National Rail, by way of: Clapham Junction, Sutton, and Epsom.

Staff Benefits

The work we do is highly rewarding, and in addition to an attractive salary, we offer a valuable range of benefits, including our staff flexible benefits platform, on-site nursery, free eye tests, enhanced Maternity and Paternity Pay, time out days for those experiencing menopause symptoms and time off for gender reassignment.

We also offer additional annual leave days for those with long service, with entitlements ranging from 35 to 41 days (including bank holidays) depending on your length of service.

Other benefits include free on-site parking; a staff shuttle service from Epsom and Sutton train stations to Tadworth Court, subsidised cafeteria, on-site staff accommodation (subject to availability), the ability to retain your NHS pension (where applicable), Teacher’s pension (where applicable) or the opportunity to join an alternative scheme, and the opportunity to develop your career in a supportive and collaborative environment.

Rehabilitation of Offenders

Many roles at The Children’s Trust are exempt from the provisions of Section 4 (2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, by virtue of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013 and 2020) and as such, are subject to an Enhanced DBS check.  Successful applicants will be required to complete an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check, which will disclose all unspent convictions and adult cautions and any spent convictions or adult cautions that would not be protected.  The exceptions to this are our retail roles within The Children’s Trust shops, which are subject to Basic DBS checks which will disclose unspent convictions or adult cautions.

Equal Opportunity Employer

To help us achieve our ambition to give children and young people with brain injury and neurodisability the opportunity to live the best life possible, we want to accurately reflect the UK’s diverse population. We want equity, diversity, and inclusion to be at the heart of everything we do, and our people, services, and culture to reflect the diverse needs of all. Through our diversity and inclusion strategy, we have made a commitment to increase the diversity of our charity and create an inclusive culture. We have networks across the organisation working to ensure that these aims are met - including an LGBTQIA2S+ group, Ethnic Diversity Group, and Spark – our broad EDI group. Read more about our EDI work here. We welcome applications from all who share our ambition regardless of background. We will strive to ensure that any reasonable adjustments are made in respect of interview and working arrangements.

Online Searches

In accordance with statutory safeguarding and child protection guidance, online searches will be conducted for shortlisted candidates before interview. The online searches will be conducted by a person who is independent of the interview and selection process and will focus on relevant information returned via searches of the candidate’s name (and variations thereof). Social media searches will be limited to professional platforms such as LinkedIn. Any concerns relating to suitability for work with children and young people will be forwarded to the interview panel, for discussion during the interview.