Job summary
Are you passionate about safeguarding and making a meaningful difference to the lives of children, young people, adults, and families on the Isle of Wight?

Join our dedicated Safeguarding Support Team and play a key role in embedding a Family Approach to Safeguarding across the Isle of Wight. This is an exciting opportunity to support frontline practice, provide specialist advice and supervision, contribute to complex safeguarding decision-making, and work collaboratively with professionals across health, social care, education, and partner agencies to improve outcomes for local communities.

Based within our Isle of Wight geographical safeguarding hub and supported by the wider Safeguarding Support Team, you will help frontline staff identify risk, respond effectively to safeguarding concerns, and ensure the voices of children, adults and families remain central to decision-making and intervention.

The Isle of Wight is more than a place to work. It is a unique community where partnership working, and relationship-based practice can make a genuine and lasting difference. Working across our Island communities, you will build strong professional networks and contribute to services that promote safety, wellbeing, and resilience for our population.

Main duties of the job
About the Role

As a Safeguarding Practitioner (Family Approach), you will:

• Provide specialist safeguarding advice, support, and supervision to NHS staff.
• Champion a whole-family approach, recognising the interconnected needs of children, adults, carers, and wider support networks.
• Support practitioners to identify, assess, manage, and appropriately escalate safeguarding concerns.
• Contribute to safeguarding enquiries and review processes, including Section 42 enquiries, Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs), Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews (DARDRs) and other safeguarding learning activities.
• Represent health services at multi-agency meetings, including Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARAC).
• Deliver safeguarding training across the organisation.
• Help identify emerging themes, trends and lessons learned to improve practice and service delivery.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across health, social care, police, education, and voluntary sector organisations.

This is a varied and rewarding role where no two days are the same. You will work alongside colleagues from community, mental health and learning disability services, supporting practitioners to navigate complex safeguarding situations and make confident, proportionate decisions that improve outcomes for individuals and families.

About us
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides joined-up mental and physical healthcare for around two million people across our communities. With over 13,000 staff working in the community and local hospitals, we deliver care at every stage of life, helping people live their best and healthiest lives.

Our mental health services include community-based support and early intervention in psychosis (EIP) for both adults and young people, alongside a network of specialist inpatient wards covering forensic, learning disability, eating disorder and older person's care.

We deliver extensive physical health services too, from urgent community response teams helping frail and older patients remain safely at home, to hospitals at home teams providing acute-level care in familiar surroundings. Our neurological services offer rehabilitation and treatment for conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Head Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Stroke. Across Hampshire, our community hospitals provide inpatient rehabilitation as a step down from acute care, and our dedicated teams also staff Treetops Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Portsmouth, offering expert, compassionate support.

Everything we do is underpinned by our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect and excellence

Essential Qualifications

• Registered Professional on Part 1 of the NMC Register (Nursing and Midwifery Council), or relevant qualifications as a Midwife, Allied health professional or social worker with relevant and current professional registration.
• Degree level qualification or Equivalent
• Evidence of ongoing Professional development.

Desirable Qualifications

• Teaching and assessment qualification.
• Evidence of Specialist specific safeguarding training

Essential Experience

• Evidence of experience relating to safeguarding adults and / or children using a family approach.
• Have sound clinical background and relevant post qualification experience.
• Experience of inter-agency partnership working
• Experience and knowledge of attending multiagency safeguarding meetings
• Evidence of skills required to assess and interpret complex safeguarding needs of patients/clients
• Experience of completing reports, care plans and risk assessments.
• Demonstrates strong team player attributes, working collaboratively with colleagues from diverse disciplines to ensure the best outcomes for vulnerable individuals.
• Is approachable, friendly, and committed to fostering a positive team environment.
• Maintains a non-judgmental attitude, ensuring all individuals are treated with respect, dignity, and empathy, regardless of background or circumstances and upholds high standards of personal and professional integrity.

Essential Additional Criteria

• Demonstrate a good knowledge of current safeguarding legislation, including the Children Act 1989 and 2004, the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, the Care Act 2014 and The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005.
• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the different forms of abuse and neglect.
• When required, undertake and support complex analysis of risk for adults and/or children.
• Be Familiar with local safeguarding policies, procedures, and protocols to protect individuals across all age groups.
• Have knowledge of both child and adult safeguarding frameworks, including any relevant local or national safeguarding boards or committees and their processes.
• Knowledge of the Local Authority safeguarding interface.
• Excellent verbal, written, interpersonal and IT skills
• Demonstrate critical analysis skills to appraise and analyse health information and share information proportionally in a multi-agency environment.
• Be able to work with all staff groups offering advice and support and provide individual review and consultation of complex cases
• Contribute to and support Professional development of staff
• Be adaptable, Self-Motivated and self-directed in managing workflow and deadlines and be able to work across Trust divisions and communities of practice.
• Manage stress generated through regular exposure, reading, and listening, to significant adverse events/experiences.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details
Employer name: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Employer's website: https://hiowhealthcare.nhs.uk/

Contact: Becky Lawson, Hiring Manager, Becky.lawson3@nhs.net

Closing date: 15 November 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 6
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 348-COR-13067
The Trust will seek to resolve any accessibility or inclusion concerns; flexible working requests can be discussed as part of the interview process. Apply through our website.