Early Years Safeguarding Advisor

Job Introduction

This permanent role has a starting salary of £43,923 per annum based on a 36-hour working week.

We are excited to be hiring a new Early Years Safeguarding Advisor to join our fantastic Early Years Educational Effectiveness Team. The team is based in Fairmount House, Leatherhead and the role involves hybrid working, supporting Early Years providers across the county, working remotely (sometimes from home) and combining this with working from any of the Council’s offices.

Rewards and Benefits

• 26 days’ holiday rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years’ service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer’s leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

About the Team

The Early Years Educational Effectiveness Team sits within the Children, Families and Lifelong Learning Directorate.

The team provide support and challenge to a range of Early Years providers including full day-care, pre-schools, maintained nurseries, childminders and out of school provision to promote quality improvements and maintain high quality provision.

We provide advice and guidance on quality of provision and the implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage as well as supporting settings to meet the requirements set out by Ofsted and other relevant legislation. We also support owners and managers with their recruitment and retention of staff and provide advice and guidance on suitable qualifications in line with the Department for Education requirements.

About the Role

We are looking for a resilient and innovative individual to coordinate safeguarding advice and challenge for early education and childcare settings across Surrey.

In this role, you will be instrumental in ensuring that safeguarding training and advice is available to the whole Early Years sector across Surrey. You will coordinate and review safeguarding advice, information and support that is delivered to early education and childcare providers, and promote the development of high quality, inclusive early education to ensure the best outcomes for all children.

Working together with the team and Early Years providers you’ll embed the ‘Surrey Continuum of Support’ across the county to ensure that safeguarding systems, processes and procedures are fully embedded and ensure that settings deliver effective safeguarding support to children and families.

A key aspect of this role will be to lead on the development and delivery of safeguarding training across the sector to support the development of the Early Years’ workforce in Surrey, acting as an expert lead to the team.

You’ll support the Senior Early Years Advisor with line management responsibilities, ensuring that safeguarding plays a key role in effective supervision of all staff. This will involve providing advice and guidance to enable the Advisory team to carry out their duties; ensuring the Early Years’ sector in Surrey has the most up to date safeguarding advice offer.

Shortlisting Criteria

As part of your application you will be asked to submit a CV and answer the following questions:

• Please give us an example of when you have worked with other agencies to safeguard a child/children.
• Please tell us about your experience of developing and delivering training programmes, evaluating these and using data to support future programmes.
• Please give us examples of when you have challenged others regarding safeguarding practice to ensure children are kept safe.
• What do you think are some of the current key challenges facing Early Years practitioners and teachers in relation to safeguarding children?

In order to be shortlisted your CV and answers to the questions above will clearly evidence:

• Professional qualification in Early Years, education or children’s social care
• High level working knowledge of relevant legislation, procedural frameworks and practice standards
• Proven written and oral communication and interpersonal skills with good negotiation and influencing skills, and the ability to maintain effective working relationships at all levels
• Competent in a range of IT tools including MS Office and database management systems
• Ability to communicate with compassion and authority in challenging situations and effectively engage with a variety of other teams and professionals in a multi-disciplinary environment
• Extensive experience of delivering training
• Experience of monitoring safeguarding outcomes for children and young people.
• Ability to be creative, dynamic and an innovative attitude to problem solving

Contact us

Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.

For an informal discussion please contact Philippa Gray by e-mail and/or telephone at Philippa.gray@surreycc.gov.uk or 07854211010.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 02/04/24 with interviews planned for 11/04/2024.

We look forward to receiving your application, please click on the apply online button below to submit.

An enhanced DBS ‘Disclosure and Barring Service’ check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) and the Children’s and Adults’ Barred List checks will be required for this role.

Our Values

Our values are as important as our abilities and shape who we are as an organisation. Discover more about our values.

Before submitting your application, we recommend you read the job description. Our Life at Surrey handbook also attached provides insights of the culture at Surrey and how as a valued employee, you can help shape our Council.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.

We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.