CQC - Children’s Services Inspector – National Operations Multiagency

Job description

Grade B - £39,390 National Framework) or £44,729  (London Framework – if you are homebased and live within the boundary of the M25).  There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £553 per annum for those working from home and an Operational Car Working Allowance of £482 per annum.

Contracted Hours: Full time 37 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Location: Homebased - Flexible - This post is for a national programme and the ability to travel regularly and be accommodated away from home on a regular basis will be required.

Closing date: Sunday 12th May 2024 at 11.59pm

This role is NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

Are you committed to helping us regulate health and social care within England?

When thinking about what drives you every day in your job, what keeps you motivated and passionate about your work what comes to mind?  For 3000+ people at the CQC we end each day knowing that we have made a difference to the lives of those most in need in our communities.  We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and encourage care services to improve.  We are looking for people who are caring, demonstrate integrity and work well as part of a team to join with us and share in this sense of achievement.  If you would like to help us make a positive impact to health and social care within England, then read on.

Why this could be a great role for you….

An exciting opportunity for a Children’s Services Inspector has arisen within our Children’s Services Inspection Team.
As a Children’s Services Inspector you will be part of a highly skilled, specialist team, you’ll enjoy a varied remit as you inspect children’s health services in a number of single agency and multi-agency inspection programmes.  You will carry out a small number of regulatory inspections, however you will be predominantly responsible for leading on, and contributing to, national inspections you’ll undertake on-site activity, analyse evidence, assess risk and produce high quality written reports, maintaining an audit trail of key records and information on a regular basis. It’s a role with plenty of autonomy and team-working too so you’ll need to be able to work successfully at all levels both internally and externally.
Of course, you will live our vision, objectives and values in everything you do. It’s a challenging, unpredictable environment so you’ll need to be flexible and willing to travel to a variety of locations and stay away from home on a regular basis. You will be based at home when not on inspections. This post is for a national programme and the ability to travel regularly and be accommodated away from home when on site for week-long inspections will be required.

What we can offer you...
Your health and wellbeing are important to us and are supported through generous annual leave (starting at 27 days and rising with service to 32.5days, plus 8 Bank Holidays), a cycle to work scheme, discounted gym vouchers and access to a free employee assistance service 24 hours a day. We also understand the importance of financial health and offer membership of the NHS pension scheme, contributing about 14% of basic salary. You will also be able to access discounts to supermarkets, high street stores, electronics, fleet cars, plus we also have an internal reward scheme which could see you earn yourself a voucher or two! All of our Homeworkers are also kitted out with everything they need to comfortably work from home.

We want to support you to succeed and be your very best, with opportunities for training and development along with the support of experienced managers and mentors.  

We want to make working for CQC a great experience for everyone, and to role model a diverse and representative culture. To support an inclusive environment where colleagues feel empowered to bring their whole self to work, we support a variety of staff networks, including the Race Equality Network, LGBT+ Equality Network, Carers Equality Network, Disability Equality Network and Gender Equality network.

What you will bring…

With the ability to use analytical information and risk-based methodology to inform decision-making, you’ll ideally have leadership background within health services, with knowledge and skills in child safeguarding, children with special educational needs and disabilities, looked after children and the multi-agency landscape of children’s services.  You will have experience of managing challenging scenarios and difficult conversations. Computer literate and an excellent communicator, you’re confident at articulating coherent rationales for action based on robust evidence.
You’ll come from a professional health or social care background where you have gained a thorough understanding of the needs of people who use these services.
We require our inspectors to be highly autonomous and have the motivation and drive to apply initiative and discipline to your work. You will work as part of a geographically dispersed homebased team and as such we are looking for people who are self-driven and have the energy to manage the dynamic of life in a non-office based environment.  This post is for a national programme and the ability to travel regularly and be accommodated away from home on a regular basis will be required. 

Accountabilities:

Accountable to: Children’s Services Team Manager

Carries out reviews and inspections for the joint inspection programmes and other CQC programmes.
Contributes to schedule setting and programme planning meetings.
Assesses and analyses information received from multiple evidence sources to contribute to risk assessment and to determine relevant inspection and regulatory responses.
When leading on an inspection the post holder would be responsible for planning on-site activity, requesting additional inspectors, allocating staff, setting timelines and priorities and co-ordinating, managing and reviewing the work of the inspection team, which may include specialist professional advisors and other multi-agency inspection partners.
Takes ownership for tasks and have the ability to work independently when organising inspection activity and agreeing schedules with multi-agencies and multi-disciplinary personnel at multiple locations.
Ensures appropriate agreed methodologies are followed.
Liaises and engages with children, young people and their families who use services.
Evaluates evidence from multiple sources (statistical, documentary and verbal accounts) against key lines of enquiry.
Ensures issues and risks are escalated to line manager as appropriate.
Accurately records and presents evidence verbally and in writing.
Collates evidence from inspection team, evaluate evidence in conjunction with team, reach conclusions and make evidenced recommendations, promoting best practice from government publications.
Ensures judgements and ratings are supported by corroborated evidence and analysis.
Produces a high quality report suitable for publication within the agreed timescales.
Ensures all records of evidence and contemporaneous notes are uploaded electronically and all paper evidence is retained according to the retention policy in force and to maintain an audit trail.
Builds and maintains wider relationships to ensure knowledge and information is shared across internal and external stakeholders.
Supports and remains committed to the delivery of team and national goals and is willing to adapt to changing political and operational environments. 
Maintains ongoing liaison with local regional teams on children’s health input, and also provide timely feedback on children’s health inspection activity.
Contributes to the investigations of concerns and complaints regarding children’s health in registered health and social care settings as required.
Provides input on related matters to events and queries from colleagues within the regions, and contributes to expert advice and support on children’s health issues.
Contributes to the development and maintenance of children’s inspection and review toolkits, methodologies, handbooks and training tools for use by other staff groups that are in line with current guidelines and legislation.
Maintains personal expertise in children’s health and the regulatory processes by participating in continuing professional development and the implementation of personal development plans.
Ensures individual Personal Development Plan is maintained and updated from discussion in regular line management meetings.
Actively contributes to Performance Development Reviews and completes the required documentation.
Maintains an understanding and awareness of CQC policies and procedures and ensures these are reflected in everyday practices.
Attends and contributes to all relevant meetings as appropriate. 
Attends mandatory and other training as required to support individual development.
Encourages a culture that values openness, honesty, rigour and challenge to embed the CQC values and behaviours.
Actively promotes and protects equality, diversity and human rights through the duties of the role.

Essential Skills and Experience:

Thorough knowledge and understanding of the Commission structure and its strategic objectives and how it influences the improvement of the quality of children’s health, mental health and social care.

The post holder needs to be confident and informed of the provision of all aspects of healthcare to children, to include that provided by community services (to include health visitors, school nurses, child sexual and substance misuse services), primary medical services, acute hospitals and child and adolescent mental health services

Thorough understanding of how agencies from health, social care, probation and police work together to protect children at risk of significant harm

Knowledge of the relevant legislative and statutory remit of CQC and thorough understanding and knowledge of legislation supporting children and families with special education needs and disability, to include but not limited to

SEND code of practice: 0 – 25 years.
Working Together to Safeguard Children Published 26 March 2015, updated 9 December 2020.
Safeguarding accountability and assurance framework. Safeguarding children, young people and adults at risk in the NHS.
Learning Disability Improvement Standards for NHS Trusts
.
Safeguarding Children and Young People: Roles and Competencies for Healthcare Staff published 31/01/2019.
Looked after children: Roles and Competencies of Healthcare Staff.
The Children Act 2004
The Children and Families Act 2014

The post holder requires the following skills and experience:
A thorough understanding of the role of the Care Quality Commission and its relationships with key stakeholders, including the full range of partner agencies in health, social care, police and probation. 

Thorough knowledge and understanding of the Commission structure and its strategic objectives and how it influences the improvement of the quality of children’s health, mental health and social care.
A sound knowledge of current children’s policy and practice within local authorities.
Ability to take initiative and deliver high quality outcomes in line with agreed objectives.
Ability to demonstrate a successful track record of delivery of personal achievement.
Sound use of IT / ability to analyse data quickly and form hypotheses.
Self-motivated with ability to show initiative, take responsibility and meet tight deadlines through flexible working.
Willingness to travel and be accommodated away from home for up to five nights whilst on inspection.
Ability to gather information and conduct research from a wide range of sources.
Understands the bigger picture and can make the link between issues.
Shows an open mind with the intellectual rigour to generate original ideas and develop practical solutions from them.
Highly effective presentational skills, underpinned by the ability to secure and maintain the confidence of a range of Commission stakeholders.
Strong evidence of working collaboratively to engage a range of internal and external partners to achieve demanding communications objectives.
Ability to organise own workload, work under minimum supervision and meet deadlines
Good interpersonal (including negotiation) skills:

With the ability to explain to individuals and organisations the purpose of an inspection or investigation (legal framework, methodology, outcome, roles and contribution).
Approachable, listening and valuing each parties’ contribution to the process
Able to conduct thorough interviews and test evidence with all tiers of an organisation, from frontline service delivery to senior managers and governance processes such as Commissioners.
Able to present inspection findings to senior managers including NHS Chief Executives, Directors of Children’s Services and Directors of Public Health and to manage giving difficult messages.
Able to manage conflict

Please note this role is subject to a satisfactory DBS check

For an informal discussion or further information on the role, please contact Lea Pickerill, Children’s Services Manager at [email protected] or Louise Holland, Children’s Services Manager at [email protected]

We are committed to being open and transparent around our processes and we endeavour to offer every candidate the opportunity to perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. We seek to support candidates to identify potential challenges and work with them to identify and facilitate reasonable adjustments as appropriate. Should you require assistance and/or would like to request a reasonable adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process, please contact a member of the team via email: [email protected] 

CQC is committed to promoting a fair and inclusive workplace where all our people can flourish and reach their full potential. We know diverse teams allow for a more creative and productive environment and therefore encourage applications from everyone regardless of: age, gender/sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

Our Values

Excellence – Meeting our challenge to be a high-performing organisation
Caring – Treating everyone with dignity and respect
Integrity – Demonstrating our passion for ‘doing the right thing’
Teamwork – Enabling us to be the best we can