Suzanne Cunningham

Manage, support and lead a team of inspectors (Children's) and one senior inspector. Contribute to their effective discharge of RQIA's statutory functions. Provide expert professional advice to the team and guide staff to put in place effective plans and decisions that are proportionate, drive improvement and assure safe care. Use excellent communication skills to liaise internally with all levels of staff to deliver a inspection programme of registered and non registered services.

Develop and maintain relationships with a range of stakeholders internally and externally to the organisation to ensure safe care and quality improvement are the focus of our work.

Communicate complex and contentious information effectively, both orally and in writing in relation to RQIA's regulatory role; safe, effective, compassionate and well led care; development of new services and standards/ guidance.

Use leadership and organisational skills to build a strong team that is innovative and effective.
Set targets in relation to statutory and non statutory work to deliver objectives and meet deadlines. Contribute to the RQIA business plan and lead the team in their planning and objectives each year.
Schedule and attend discussions regarding budget and prepare analysis of needs and deficits when required.
Apply legal, policy, operational and regulatory context to executive team decision making, team decisions, case load decisions and risk/ enforcement decision making.
Discuss with legal advisor areas of contention regarding interpretation of legislation and standards.
Use positive behaviour modelling, quality improvement approach and person centered model to drive improvement of service users outcomes in services we regulate.
Assist; develop; guide; coordinate; be innovative; deliver; advise using my professional knowledge and skils; to produce procedures, inform decisions, processes, frameworks, governance processes, quality improvement initiatives and address risk.

• Contribute to the registration and inspection of Children's Homes, Supported Accommodation, Adoption Agencies, Family Centre, Boarding Schools, Nursing Home for Children, Children's hospice and children's mental health wards. Allocate work to three inspectors to ensure a programme of unannounced inspections is undertaken in the children's services inspected by RQIA. Report on findings in relation to is care is safe, effective, compassionate and well led. When concerns, deficits or unsafe practice is identified ensure RQIA use their powers proportionately to ensure care is safe and improvement is achieved to improve outcomes for children being cared for. Monitor and review inspection outcomes to ensure the right level of inspection that is compliant with the minimum frequency is achieved. When necessary support, coach and enable the inspector to present concerns to enforcement decision meetings and follow RQIA enforcement policy and procedures. Quality assure inspection reports and supervise/ support staff to ensure their interventions and inspections are consistent with relevant legislation, they are evidence based and drive improvement in the sector. Furthermore they inspect against the settings standards and regulation's; focus on the impact of care on the children and young people receiving care, promote improvement in the quality of care where possible and improve service users outcomes.
  Report to the Director of Assurance in relation to team performance and wellbeing, inspection scheduling, the availability and quality of care for children and young people in Northern Ireland and enforcement decisions. High level reporting to DoH, HSCB and other professional bodies such as NPM and SBNI on inspection scheduling, availability and quality of care including enforcement decisions when necessary and on their request.

• Report to the equivalent of Assistant Director of Programme from 2007 to 2014 in relation to arranging a programme of announced and unannounced inspections for Children's Homes, boarding schools, Family Centre, jointly commissioned services for young people. From 2013 I also inspected Day Care settings and care homes registered with RQIA at a frequency that is compliant with the fees and frequency of inspections legislation. Ensure inspections inspect for compliance with the settings standards and regulations; and also promote improvement in the provision of safe, effective and compassionate care, and promote good leadership and governance practices. When inspecting for is care safe, ensure assessment and planning in relation to safeguarding and child protection is documented, there is a clearly recorded safety plan and it is focused on improving outcomes for the child. When concerns are identified plan and coordinate a response that is consistent with RQIA's role and responsibility that will drive improvement and ensure the child is safe which requires excellent communication skills. Act up for the Head of Service absence in their absence as required. From 2014 to December 2018 as an inspector of children's services and day care I reported to the senior inspector. I was involved in strategic development projects in RQIA such as review and implementation of the revised model for the Duty Desk and development of RADaR (risk assessment model) which I presented to the nursing and care homes teams, National Preventative Mechanism (NPM) representatives and RQIA board. Involvement in external agencies development of resources such as the NISCC Adult Care Toolkit included development of the safeguarding module.

I moved back to Children's Team full time as an inspector to undertake inspections in 2016 and 2017. I returned full time to the children's team on 02 January 2019 to support the induction of the newly recruited inspectors in the Children's team in a number of areas relevant to inspection such as inspecting for safe, effective, compassionate and well led care which included a significant focus on safeguarding, the protection of looked after children and addressing risks/ gaps/ concerns identified, identifying what an effective assessment and care plan looks like and monitoring progress/ outcomes, using a child centered approach, evidence based approach to review, inspection and analysis, understanding the impact of Adverse Childhood experiences (ACEs) on children's and young peoples development and responding to children's needs not deeds.

Manage five senior practitioners and allocate child protection investigation work to them, provide daily support in relation to decision making and guidance. Provide monthly formal supervision for the five senior practitioners, quality assure and sign assessments, manage court applications and give evidence. To ensure accurate reporting of the teams compliance with statutory functions and ensure the trust were informed regarding the caseloads of staff in the team and unallocated referrals I developed systems to produce statistics, produce weekly referral lists for allocation in community teams and attended meetings with the senior management team (principal social workers and above) to ensure children in need and children in need of protection received a responsive service and a safeguarding/ protection response.

Liaise with PSNI in relation to the supervision of schedule one offenders and joint protocol decision making.
Liaise with Mental Health, child health, and Learning disability colleagues to ensure decisions that involve children are protective of them and focus on improving outcomes.

• Assess and produce care / protection plans for children in need of protection and safeguarding; and looked after children. Give evidence and produce professional reports for the court; and for child protection and looked after children meetings. Contribute to team development and partake in the duty rota. Mentor staff as requested by the senior social worker.

Assess and produce care / protection plans for children in need of protection and safeguarding; and looked after children. Give evidence and produce professional reports in court and in professional meetings. Contribute to team development and duty rota.

Supervise and mentor team of 10 social workers and one social work assistant in assessment, planning, team planning, professional meetings, court applications. Quality assure case files, timescales and develop assessment / planning documentation

Take calls regarding children who may need protection, assess and produce care/ protection plans for children. Give evidence and produce professional reports in court and in professional meetings. Contribute to team development and duty rota

Supervise and support 10 social workers and one deputy team manager to manage case loads involving looked after children, adoption, court applications, children in need of protection. Manage budget/team spending. Ensure compliance with legislation.

There was no manager in post so supervised and supported 10 social workers and one assistant social worker to take duty calls, complete initial and comprehensive assessments, prepare court reports and professional reports. Develop team skills in assessment/analysis

Assess and produce care / protection plans for children in need of protection and safeguarding; and looked after children. Give evidence and

produce professional reports in court and professional meetings. Contribute to team development and duty rota.

Manage/supervise staff and crash bed residential facility, supervise assessments and planning for children looked after in the placement. Support children looked after in the community to prevent breakdown of placements. On call for out of hours duty team

Social worker for looked after children; and children who were awaiting adoption. staff the duty rota and undertake assessments of need / protection. Present evidence in court and at professional meetings.

This was a sessional post and I did this while I was studying for DIPSW. Support young people in the community and who attended youth clubs in two locations to achieve their potential and develop as healthy young people

Completed Diploma in Social Work

Assess and produce professional reports regarding parenting and needs of children for social workers and as directed by court.

I have no gaps in employment - prior to starting the DIPSW from september 1990 till september 1992 I worked in social service day nurseries on temporary contracts to cover absences as NNEB nursery nurse, in a private day nursery and as a nanny. Prior to commencing the NNEB qualification I trained as a travel agent when I left school, from september 1986 till september 1988.