Safeguarding Officer

Safeguarding Officer

Permanent

Grade D - £45,091 - £51,356

Consultation grade - subject to formal evaluation under the Pay Equity Review

Working 36.50 hours per week

This is a hybrid role, combining home-based work, office-based work, and on-site work across various settings.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a full-time officer to work within the Early Years, School Age Childcare and Family Hubs Service sectors. As one of three Safeguarding Officers, you will take a lead on the delivery of safeguarding support across the early years sector. You will work with partner agencies and internal teams to promote high-quality safeguarding practice. The role also includes direct support to Designated Safeguarding Leads across the Family Hubs, Early Years and School-age childcare sector.

You will also provide an interfacing role in supporting referrals made to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) regarding Persons in a position of trust and Children's Advice and Support Service CASS to support referrals received for children and young people accessing school-age childcare or HAF provision. You will have a sound understanding of early education and childcare policy, practice and the relevant legislative frameworks such as Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023, Local Authority statutory duties in respect of childcare sufficiency for children aged 0 -14 (16 for children with SEND) and early education as defined within the Childcare Act 2006, 2016 and Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025.

You will:

• take lead responsibility for raising awareness of all safeguarding issues to teams within the Early Years and Child Care Service, partner organisations and to all providers of HAF and school-age childcare services, including delivery of workshops and the development of guidance
• establish and maintain effective links with all Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership (BSCP), partner agencies, schools, internal teams, staffing agencies and any other key organisations
• ensure the safeguarding guidance offered to providers and colleagues is up to date and in line with national policy and BSCP procedures
• maintain close links with the Birmingham Children's Trust (BCT) safeguarding services, attending regular meetings, and ensuring working practices/procedures are consistent
• review files and provide high-quality, robust agency reports within given timescales as required relating to Serious Case reviews and Domestic Homicide Reviews, and to deliver workshops arising from lessons learned from Serious Case reviews
• engage Family Hubs, childcare, HAF and early education providers in continuous quality improvement about safeguarding practice

Please upload an up-to-date CV and Supporting Statement via the attachments part of your application. The Supporting Statement should outline how you meet the criteria for the role through your personal qualities, skills and experience and include your motivation for applying to the post. Note the Personal Statement should be no more than 1500 words. Unfortunately, we cannot consider any applications without a CV and Personal Statement attached.

Interviews for this post will be face to face.

Birmingham City Council is an accredited Disability Confident Leader employer, and we are committed to employing, retaining and developing all of our people.

We want to ensure your recruitment journey with us is a positive and equitable one, so please let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments, additional support, accessibility needs, or if there is any way in which we can support you through your application.

For any informal enquiries please contact the Resourcing Team.

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be undertaken.

Proof of Right to work in the UK will be required for all applicants in accordance with UK Home Office requirements, before any employment offer can be confirmed.

Birmingham City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our citizens and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. You can view our Corporate Safeguarding Policy Birmingham City Council here.

Job Description and PersonSpecification