Education Safeguarding Lead

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.

• Job Title: Education Safeguarding Lead
• Job Location: 92-96 Westgate Street
• Salary: £45,441 - £48,474 per annum
• Hours per Week: 37.00
• Contract Type: Permanent
• Closing Date: 12/04/2024
• Job Requisition Number: 8618
• This post is not open to job share

About the Team and Role:

Are you passionate about working to support children and young people live happy and successful lives and dedicated to making a difference?

This is a new role which will work across the wide range of service areas in the Education Directorate focusing on how council Education services and education settings in Gloucestershire can keep children safe in line with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023’.

About you:

In collaboration and close working with the Gloucestershire Children’s Safeguarding Partnership (GSCP), the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) Education team, the Local Area Designated Officers (LADO), Education Safeguarding Service Area responsibility holders, the safeguarding traded service and the GSCP Business Unit and senior leaders in schools you will be responsible for giving support and advice to the rest of the Education Directorate and settings in the county education system on safeguarding matters.

You will investigate and respond to concerns or complaints affecting the safety and welfare of our children and young people in Gloucestershire’s schools. You will ensure appropriate action is taken to promote their welfare and protect them from harm, being accountable for decisions and action taken to have the best possible outcomes through advice and guidance.

• Be an expert in safeguarding children and young people - Responsibility to promote safeguarding of children and young people
• Support and develop school leader and officer safeguarding understanding, maintaining high standards of care, values, ethics, equality and diversity and policies and procedures
• Ensure that all officers in the Education Directorate are appropriately trained and aware of their safeguarding responsibilities
• Provide support and guidance to officers across Education directorate to enable them to undertake their safeguarding responsibilities with confidence
• Ensure legislation requirements are met
• Champion a culture of safeguarding and wellbeing excellence always
• Undertake appropriate organisation and administration to undertake the role
• To work seamlessly across directorate or team boundaries in a collaborative and constructive manner to implement the directorate’s strategic direction
• To demonstrate a commitment to customer service excellence
• To work within Council’s policies and procedures.

Experience:

• Experience of the education system and legislative framework relevant to safeguarding in education settings
• Undertaken the role of Designated Safeguarding Lead in an appropriate setting and/or extensive experience of working in or with education settigs, including work on attendance and related issues. Working with children, young people and families.
• Management experience in relevant sectors which have led to positive outcomes for children, young people and families
• Experience of effective multi-agency work and working across organisational boundaries and use of influence within multi-agency settings which has led to improved outcomes for children, young people and families
• Experience of implementing strategies for service development which has led to quality improvement
• Experience or developing/leading changes in services and/or policies that have led to service improvements

• Experience of effective partnership work with parents, children, young people and families and institutions /settings to develop and improve service provision

About us:

The Education Directorate sits within the wider Children’s Services directorate alongside Children’s Social Care and Early Help. The Education directorate comprises of the following service areas:

• The Special Educational Needs Service – EHCP statutory caseworker service; the Advisory Teacher Service; the Education Psychology Service; the Specialist Commissioning Team
• The Inclusion Service – focused on Attendance and access to education
• The School Improvement Service – focused on support direct to schools around school development and quality of education both for maintained schools and as a traded service off to the whole education system
• Education, Planning and Infrastructure – focused on school building projects, transport, place planning and Admissions
• Early Years Service – focused on supporting the quality and ensuring the sufficiency of early years childcare settings
• The Virtual School – Educational support for children in care
• Post-16 Team – focused on post-16 education, training and into employment support and post 16 pathways
• Traded Services – The management and development of services offered to educational settings by the Council

The Education directorate works closely with services both within the wider Children’s Services and the corporate service areas beyond the directorate. The directorate is committed to providing high quality services to children, young people and their families.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for this role, giving the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing the service need and individual choice, with a mix of remote working, visiting education settings and office working.

You will receive the following:

• Flexible and agile working opportunities
• 25.5. days annual leave rising to 30.5 days after 5 years continuous service
• An option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part-time staff)
• Family friendly employer offering benefits to help support you and your family
• Career development and qualification opportunities
• Supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
• Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone.
• An in-house Occupational Health service Employee discount scheme
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Gloucestershire Salary Sacrifice Green Car Scheme (T&Cs apply)
• Links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) network and the Young Employees Network

Additional Information

If you feel you have the skills, desire and experience required to make a positive difference then please submit your application and personal statement today by clicking the “Apply Now” Button.

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Kirsten Harrison, The Director of Education by contacting her PA, Hannah Swankie via email at Hannah.Swankie@gloucestershire.gov.uk .

To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-

Education Safeguarding Lead Job Profile

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.