Safeguarding Strategy and Assurance Lead Band 8B

Job description

Job responsibilities

Safeguarding

Demonstrate advanced skills and competencies to influence the pathways of care in the safeguarding of children, young people and vulnerable adults. The role requires a high level of legal literacy of the Children Act, Care Act, Mental Capacity Act, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and family law that interface with the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults agenda.

Demonstrate advanced skill and competencies to influence pathways of care in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults with expert advice and co-ordination for safeguarding. You will work closely with our teams to ensure The Childrens Trust meet its statutory responsibilities to protect the welfare of children and vulnerable adults.

Provide expert operational and strategic advice underpinned by highly developed specialist knowledge to the organisation on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, incorporating local and national policy and statutory regulations.

Work as part of a dynamic team in delivering an effective service, supporting managers and staff across The Childrens Trust in the areas of safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

Lead on partnership working with colleagues in local authorities and safeguarding partner boards.

Maintain knowledge and expertise on national policy in relation to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults across The Childrens Trust providing quality assurance and ensuring consistency of response across the safeguarding systems.

Ensure there are effective mechanisms to implement national recommendations from emergent safeguarding work across The Childrens Trust when relevant.

Play a key role in policy and service development and its implementation across the teams, working with others to achieve The Childrens Trust objectives.

Ensure there is a robust safeguarding training strategy and programme in place to meet all educational and training requirements which meets local and national standards.

Provide, receive and analyse complex and sensitive information, ensuring that frequent exposure to highly distressing information is managed effectively and sensitively.

Respond to enquiries regarding safeguarding issues from colleagues nationally and other partner agencies.

Able to effectively communicate local safeguarding knowledge, research and findings from audits, challenge poor practice and address areas where there is an identified training/development opportunity.

Facilitate and contribute to safeguarding audits, demonstrating and sharing your knowledge of how to implement and audit the effectiveness of safeguarding/child protection services on an organisational level against current national guidelines and quality standards.

Conduct safeguarding training needs analyses, in order to plan, design, deliver and evaluate training and teaching for staff at The Childrens Trust.

Provide specialist advice to practitioners, both actively and reactively, including clarification about organisational policies, legal issues and the management of complex safeguarding issues.

Provide safeguarding supervision and oversee the quality of supervision provided by colleagues, ensuring appropriate reflective practice is embedded in the organisation.

Undertake risk assessments of The Childrens Trusts ability to safeguard children and young people.

Contribute to providing information for inspections by regulatory bodies.

Leadership

Provide specialist professional leadership and support to all staff within The Childrens Trust in relation to safeguarding

Lead the Safeguarding Team, including two Senior Safeguarding Advisors, acting as the strategic lead for this specialist team.

Ensure a system for reporting to the Senior Leadership Team and Board of Trustees including the annual safeguarding report

Provide effective leadership on all aspects of safeguarding children and vulnerable adults agenda, maintaining professional competence and credibility

Be responsible for keeping The Childrens Trust up to date about any changes affecting safeguarding practice and any relevant Government Policies which may affect services

Identify and proactively manage the key risks and issues associated with the delivery of safeguarding responsibilities, ensuring appropriate actions are taken to mitigate and respond

Effectively influence others from partner agencies in order to achieve the best outcomes for children and vulnerable adults.

Strategic

Lead the development and implementation of a safeguarding strategy aligned with The Childrens Trusts organisational goals.

Shape collaborative working practices across clinical services to ensure consistent and robust safeguarding standards.

Lead on strategic planning for safeguarding training, supervision and workforce development.

Network with professionals externally to promote the organisation and develop alliances to improve practice, in particular (but not limited to) the Local Authority and local partnership boards.

Provide consultation and assistance for the development of The Childrens Trust information and marketing materials

In the course of duties, gather intelligence and informal research to support service and operational development including external factors which could impact the organisation.

Governance and Assurance

Oversee safeguarding quality assurance and improvement processes, including audits and inspections.

Ensure compliance with statutory safeguarding responsibilities and national frameworks.

Provide assurance to the Board and Senior Leadership Team through reports, dashboards, and annual safeguarding reviews.

Provide expert advice and scrutiny on safeguarding incidents, reviews, and rapid responses.

Ensure safeguarding governance structures are robust and embedded across the organisation.

Lead on policy development and implementation for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

Ensure safeguarding is integrated into clinical governance, risk management, and quality frameworks.

Ensure safeguarding supervision is embedded and monitored across all relevant teams.

Ensure incidents relating to safeguarding are investigated appropriately and learning is taken forward across the organisation.

Lead on safeguarding investigations and ensure subsequent learning is embedded and practice developed as a result. Monitor and oversee recommendations from investigations.

Professionalism

Takes action and raises concerns.

Adhere to the policies and procedures of The Childrens Trust.

Maintain professional boundaries and professionalism at all times.

Committed to demonstrating the organisations values and behaviours at all times.

Health and Safety

Adheres to all Health and Safety guidelines, principles, and regulations to perform your role and comply with The Childrens Trust policies and procedures.

Provide evidence of all vaccinations (or medical exemption) required for the post.

Adhere to manual handling procedures and complete mandatory manual handling training.

Promotes the health and safety of others.

Uses the incident reporting and risk assessment system (IRAR), to identify and report risks and incidents/actions if directed.

Responsible for identifying and mitigating risk within the work environment.

Wellbeing and Emotional Resilience

Maintains a positive approach and outlook when dealing with change and overcoming challenges and problems.

Recognises own limitations, develops realistic goals, and uses support network resource when or if necessary.

Treats challenges and problems as a learning experience.

Remains organised and focused when under pressure.

Responds appropriately and effectively to all constructive feedback.

Motivates self and other.

Person Specification

Skills & Abilities

Essential

• Ability to drive and influence change
• Ability to prepare reports and presentations to a variety of audiences with proven ability to act as an ambassador for an organisation
• Ability to problem solve and make decisions and take charge of events
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Strong influencing skills
• Highly organised with the ability to document concise and accurate records
• Professional, Positive, and Committed
• Adaptable and flexible, tenacious and persuasive
• Ability to undertake complex safeguarding investigations
• Ability to identify and challenge safeguarding practice

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Nurse
• Completion of post-registration training in safeguarding children and young people (including law, policy and practice at Level 2 or PGDip)

Desirable

• MSc

Experience

Essential

• Currently practising in the field of safeguarding
• Experience of leading on the management of complex safeguarding issues
• Experience of effective partnership working with internal and external stakeholders
• Experience of high-level multi-agency working
• Experience of working at an 8b level in a safeguarding field, with experience in both adult and child safeguarding.
• Experience in strategic leadership and assurance.

Knowledge

Essential

• The role requires a high level of legal literacy of the Children Act, Care Act, Mental Capacity Act, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, Looked after Children and family law that interface with the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults agenda

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Commitment to the vision and values of The Childrens Trust.
• Flexible and can do attitude to competing commitments in workload.
• Highly motivated and reliable.
• Ability to cope working in a demanding environment.

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.

Employer details

Employer name

The Children's Trust

Address

The Childrens Trust

Tadworth Court

Tadworth

Surrey

KT20 5RU

Employer's website

https://www.thechildrenstrust.org.uk/jobs (Opens in a new tab)