Director of Safeguarding
- Location:
- 3 The Boulevard, WD18 8AG
- Salary:
- Circa £80,000 per annum
- Contract Type:
- Permanent
- Position Type:
- Full Time
- Hours:
- 35 hours per week
- Work From Home:
- Yes
We're thrilled that you're considering a career with Action for Children so here's what you need to know….
About Us
At Action for Children, we believe that every child should have a safe and happy childhood. Last year, we helped more than 600,000 children and families across the UK. We work to ensure their voices are heard and we campaign to bring lasting change to their lives.
About the Role:
Reporting to the Managing Director of Children's Services, this is a fantastic career opportunity for the successful candidate to lead a UK-wide safeguarding quality assurance service in a leading national children's charity. You will lead the development, review and delivery of safeguarding standards and foster a culture which encourages support and challenge and high quality practice and learning at all levels across the organisation. You will provide strategic and expert advice on safeguarding to all levels of the organisation from trustees to fundraisers and frontline staff delivering services . You will also lead the expert health and safety service to ensure that there is assurance of arrangements to keep children, families, staff, volunteers, foster carers, and others safe at work.
You will make a difference by:
- Holding the role of Chief Safeguarding Officer across Action for Children as a whole, taking account of requirements of the role of chief social worker or other similar lead positions in statutory organisations and holding responsibility for setting of practice standards.
- Leading and managing safeguarding and health and safety and related functions organisationally, ensuring that appropriate strategies, policies, and procedures are in place to ensure the effective delivery of services.
- Providing strategic leadership with the development and direction of Safeguarding and Health and Safety and related strategies and quality assurance through the management of the functional leads and specialists employed within the department, utilising Action for Children's policies to do so.
- Taking the leading role on the organisational response to multi-agency and single agency case reviews. Providing leadership across the organisation in securing and sustaining necessary changes to culture and practice, so that services achieve the best and safest outcomes for children, young people, families and that a culture of continuous improvement is promoted, with regards to safeguarding and health and safety.
What are we looking for from you?
- We want someone who has the experience and knowledge to be able to take ownership and initiative in ensuring that children and young people are safeguarded well by services and other functions in the charity. We want someone who is an excellent people manager capable of managing the expert health and safety team and other specialist posts as required. We want someone who can communicate well with all levels of staff, with young people and with senior colleagues and managers and trustees. You should have:
- Significant experience working at a senior management level in a Children's Services organisation.
- Experience of developing and achieving strategic plans and corporate objectives and ability to see the bigger picture and make connections across different areas.
- In depth knowledge and understanding of safeguarding and associated legislation and guidance in at least one UK nation and ability to assimilate health and safety legislation and regulations to oversee risk management.
- Excellent stakeholder skills with the ability to negotiate, influence, challenge and support and generate confidence, trust, and respect at the highest levels of the organisation including trustees.
- Excellent person-management skills to manage and develop a range of professional staff to deliver challenging targets.
- The ability to respond quickly to challenges, understand data and manage and enhance reputation.
Working here is so much more than a job. Whether this is a career change for you or the next step in your journey, we'd love to hear from you.
We work together to reach our vision of safe and happy childhoods. A diverse workforce enriches the lives of the children and young people we work with and we welcome applications from everyone. We value and celebrate our differences and as an inclusive workplace we want everyone to be themselves.
We are committed to safer recruitment practices to protect our service users; therefore, all applicants are expected to have an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding best-practice.
Interviews are provisionally scheduled for 13th April 2022
If, for any reason, you need support with your application, please contact David Simpson on 01923 361732. We'll be happy to give you any support you require.
If you want to get to know us a little better, check out our socials on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube.
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