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About the role

The role is for a Lead Safeguarding Officer in the Safeguarding in Education Team based in North Northants. The team work closely with social care education teams, local authority teams as well as safeguarding staff in early years, primary, secondary and further education settings and will be an effective conduit for information sharing and service development across Children’s Services and Education.

The post holder will work closely with the Team Manager for Safeguarding in Education and support with the operational delivery of Safeguarding advice and support to schools.

The Team sits within the Directorate of Education and reports to the Head of School Effectiveness Service.

The team are based in North Northants and operate on a hybrid working arrangement. The team consist of Service Manager, two Safeguarding Officers and a Business Support Manager.

The focus of the team is to build upon established operational relationships with educational and partner agencies and develop robust safeguarding pathways between education establishments including schools, Northamptonshire Children’s Trust and the LADO service.

What will you be doing?

Provide high quality safeguarding advice and support

Foster great professional relationships across settings and social care and other agencies

Gather and present complex information to both individuals and groups in a way they will understand

Complete safeguarding practice reviews with settings to develop, improve and support practice

Deliver targeted safeguarding training to Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs), school staff and other multi agency colleagues

Represent the service at multi agency meeting

Prepare comprehensive reports for diverse audiences

Liaise with other professionals at the Local Authority to share intelligence about education settings in order to provide a targeted and joined-up approach to school improvement

Work with partners / other services to address a range of safeguarding related issues through conferences and network meetings e.g. neglect and child exploitation, in order to reduce the issues that lead to increased safeguarding concerns

Participate in LA auditing process on behalf of education such as, Care Planning, Thresholds and Missing/Return Home Interviews.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of job purpose and accountabilities.

About you

Applicant Requirements:

Qualifications: Qualified Teacher, Qualified Social Worker or equivalent.

Experience: 1+ year of post-graduate experience within a similar role.

Compliance: Proof of ability to work and live in the UK. Current DBS check and references covering the last 3 years.

Travel: Clean UK driving license with the ability to commute to and from work independently.

Where you will be working:

The Safeguarding in Education Team’s working pattern includes working from home, attending education settings and other venues in the community across Northamptonshire and occasionally out of the county, and some days working from our office at Bowling Gren Road, Kettering.

Our Benefits

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we’re transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You’ll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a competitive salary
• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About us

Our Values and Behaviours

Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

Customer-focused
Respectful
Efficient
Supportive
Trustworthy

Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

Disability Confident Employer

We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.

Our Employment and Disability Service provides bespoke support to individuals facing barriers to employment, helping them work towards their goals to start, stay and succeed in employment. For further information please click here The Employment and Disability Service (EADS) | North Northamptonshire Council

Armed Forces Community

The council obtained the Gold status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS).

Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)