About Southwark:
We are the largest local authority social landlord in London, managing 55,000 homes lived in by 40% of Southwark’s residents. We are home to over 18,300 businesses including iconic London venues and social enterprises and we have a young, diverse and growing population.
At Southwark we are committed to making our borough just and fair and are taking positive action to tackle inequalities. Our residents and communities are our greatest asset and the passion we have for Southwark is shared by millions of Londoners who enjoy our outstanding cultural offer, use our hospitals and attend our universities. Our refreshed borough plan and focus on Southwark Stands Together, (which is our work with Southwark’s communities and the council’s staff to tackle racism, injustice and inequality) underpins all that we do.
The role:
We are looking for a full time Safeguarding in Schools Lead.
As a Safeguarding in Schools Lead, you will provide consultation on child protection issues to schools, provide a quality assurance function to child protection work in schools. You will act as liaison between the local authority and Safeguarding Children Partnership and schools. You will help the local authority’s discharge its duties in relation to safeguarding for all Southwark children in Southwark Schools, supporting schools to improve their safeguarding functions.
You will be passionate about improving the lives of vulnerable children and their families and supporting families so that children can remain with their families. You will have a passion for partnership working with parents and their extended family, so that children are supported within their communities. You will set high expectations for all multiagency professionals working with children and provide a focus on children’s rights.
This is an exciting time for the service. We are implementing our Safeguarding in Schools Team as Education and Children’s Social Care merge. You will work closely with the LADO and provide supervision to the Schools Safeguarding Coordinator.
When you join us, you will help us to lead in practice development in these areas.
We are seeking highly motivated individuals who are qualified social workers and registered with SW England, and have experience of working in teams that carry out casework and child protection work.
About you:
You will have:
- A recognised social work qualification and be registered with Social Work England.
- Knowledge of key legislation and guidance central to the implementation of a professional social work service especially with respect to Child Protection, regulations, family court processes, communicating with children and children’s rights and representation.
- Experience of providing training in child protection.
- Experience of working with schools.
- Experience of chairing multi-agency meetings and managing disagreements.
- Experience of applying the principles of equal opportunities and diversity in social work practice.
Additional details
This is a 1 year fixed term contract
This post requires a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) DBS check at Enhanced level.
Benefits and more information:
In your role, we want you to feel supported, challenged and rewarded. You will benefit from our family-friendly policies including flexible working, home working, and a local government pension scheme, plus many other staff benefits. You will join a motivated, driven and supportive team that strives for excellence and values its members. You will also be part of a successful and high-achieving development team that is making a real difference to the lives of residents in the borough. For more information about the wide variety of benefits you can take advantage of please visit our Staff Benefits page.
Recruitment timetable
Closing date: 23/09/24
Interview date: 30/09/24
Guaranteed Interview Scheme:
As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:
• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care, or have previously been in care
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition
We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together programme. We particularly welcome applications from members of the Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.
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