Child Protection School Liaison Officer

Job Title: Child Protection School Liaison Officer
Starting Salary: £48,226 progressing to £53,460 per annum (pro rata for part time)
Hours: 22.2
Location: Countywide
Contract Type: Permanent
Directorate: Childrens Services

About the team

The Child Protection School Liaison Officers (CPSLOs) are part of the Quality Assurance, Improvement and Practice Service, managed by the Service Manager for Child Protection.

The role of the service is to act as the interface between the Local Authority and Education settings to provide advice, guidance, training and consultation to support senior leaders and designated safeguarding leads to ensure safeguarding practice within their settings is effective and contributes to keeping children safe from harm, abuse, neglect and exploitation.

The service also has quality assurance functions to assist school leaders, governance, HSCP and regulatory bodies in understanding and gaining reassurance about the quality of practice within education settings in accordance with schools/colleges’ responsibilities outlined in statutory guidance and local child protection procedures.

The service is available to support all schools/colleges in Hertfordshire (e.g. maintained, academy, free and independent, PRU, ESC). This also includes nurseries that are attached to and are part of a school setting.

About the role

The successful applicant will be required to:

• Provide safeguarding training to whole school staff groups and specialist packages for new and experienced Designated Safeguarding Leads. The role is a key team member in developing training content to strengthen safeguarding in education in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education and HSCP’s local priorities and procedures.
• Provide bespoke safeguarding training for agencies who work with children within educational settings to ensure compliance with their responsibilities in accordance with Keeping Children Safe in Education.
• Provide safeguarding supervision to Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) individually or as teams, facilitating reflection on their practice to strengthen their personal and professional confidence in their role.
• Provide professional advice through the operation of a dedicated advice line for DSLs when they have concerns about a child/ren and are unsure of the appropriate threshold or pathway to seek support or make a referral to statutory agencies.
• Provide model child protection policy and other guidance templates to education settings.
• Provide a model template for schools to account for how they effectively self-evaluate their safeguarding activities in line with their core Leadership and Management responsibilities as outlined in Keeping Children Safe in Education.
• Provide templates for Risk Assessment Management Plans (RAMP) and Safety and Support Plans (S&SP) which provide education settings with a framework to assess and review information and safety measures for specific children.
• Act as the conduit between schools/colleges and Multiagency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) process for children and families experiencing domestic abuse and in need of safety planning.
• Attend Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) meetings where appropriate when an allegation has been made against a member of staff/volunteer within a school setting.
• Develop a series of templates that support and guide education settings to quality assure the standards for their safeguarding policies and procedures are in accordance with statutory guidance.
• Carry our quality assurance activity as requested by Ofsted, Department for Education or Independent Schools Inspectorate.
• Support schools when they are contributing to a Local Safeguarding Children Practice Review or Learning Event being undertaken by HSCP in line with its statutory obligations to assess and review practice when a child/ren has suffered harm and/or death and there are concerns about multiagency practice and procedures.

About you

Essential:

• A relevant qualification and/or relevant professional experience in safeguarding is required. You will have proven experience and commitment to your own continuous professional development and development of best practice.
• A robust and sound knowledge of legislation and practice in relation to safeguarding children is essential for this post, for example Keeping Children Safe in Education, Working Together to Safeguard Children and The Children Act.
• Significant experience in safeguarding children and working with families. You must have experience of leading safeguarding and child protection work, including direct work and decision making with children and families but also in leading or being accountable for the safeguarding of a whole team or setting.
• Demonstrative experience of safeguarding children, excellent skills and knowledge in recognising and responding to risk to children and an ability to facilitate discussions to provide support and guidance around local thresholds for support and intervention.
• Must be an effective communicator, whether in meetings, on the phone or in a training environment. You must demonstrate skills in translating formal and statutory information into numerous medias to assist professionals in education to implement and embed effective safeguarding practice within their settings and within their multiagency working around children.
• Excellent communication skills and able to evidence your ability to critically analyse and challenge practice of individual professionals but also wider systems such as safeguarding cultures within education settings or multiagency procedures related to specific safeguarding themes.
• The ability to prioritise your workload to meet deadlines is essential, as is a good working knowledge of ICT.
• Driving licence and access to a vehicle.

Desirable:

• A social work qualification is desirable alongside experience of working in a Local Authority social work team for children and families and/or evidence or experience of working with or in safeguarding in education roles.
• Experienced trainer.
• Experience in providing supervision or holding a lead role in performance/practice development of teams or individuals.

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

This is a rare opportunity to take up a role in this growing service, that holds a key position to supporting designated safeguarding leads in education with the complex navigation of safeguarding practice but also raising the profile of the hard work and commitment shown by schools to support their children and families, represent their voices, expertise and views on how multiagency safeguarding practice can be shaped to support children and families in Hertfordshire. As Hertfordshire embed the national reforms to social care it is also an exciting time to join the service and contribute to supporting designated safeguarding leads through a period of change and development to strengthen safeguarding multiagency practice and collaboration between key players of change.

The service manager responsible for the CPSLO service holds a membership role in HSCP panel meetings where feedback and information from a safeguarding in education perspective contributes to multiagency discussions and decision making. The role will therefore provide opportunity to contribute to systemic learning and policy development, supporting the commitment of HSCP to embed education into its safeguarding partnership arrangements.

This job role is within the Health and Social Care Services, level HSC12 job profile. Please locate this via:

Job profiles - Health and social care

To hear more about this opportunity please contact Kassiane Papageorgiou (kassiane.papageorgiou@hertfordshire.gov.uk)

Interview Date: TBC

Benefits of working for us

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Additional information

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Safeguarding
This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Driving required
You’ll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.