Agenda item

Kelly Dudding, Safeguarding Nurse, delivered a presentation on the work of the NHS trust in relation to the use of language for children in our care (for copy of presentation, see file of minutes).

The Panel noted that an audit was carried out on 10 health assessments chosen at random, in order to assess the language used.  Overall, the findings were positive, the voice of the child was clear in assessments and the assessments acknowledged young people as individuals. However, there were some areas for improvement including adding the full description when using acronyms / abbreviations, and that phrases such as ‘contact’ and ‘decline’ should be replaced with ‘family time’ and ‘choose not to accept.’  In one assessment, text had been copied and pasted from one assessment to another, in error. 

In response to a comment from the Vice-Chair who sought assurance that the issues were being addressed, the Safeguarding Nurse confirmed that following the audit, the ‘cut and paste’ error had been brought to the attention of the staff member and regular deep-dive audits of health assessments are carried out, with inaccuracies being followed-up with the staff members concerned.