Senior Schools' Safeguarding Officer - Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom - Buckinghamshire Council

Description

Are you passionate about the safeguarding and welfare of children? Do you have experience in training, policy formation, and providing advice and guidance on safeguarding and child protection in an educational setting? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you to join our team as an Education Safeguarding Advisory Officer.

This is a fixed term position until April 2025.

About us

Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally.

Buckinghamshire is an ambitious, rapidly growing county, and our economy is one of the strongest in the country. It is an area of outstanding natural beauty and ranks as one of the top rural areas to live in the UK and yet it is incredibly well connected– only an hour from London on the train. The county has a rich history and heritage and is the birthplace of the international Paralympic movement.

We are looking for motivated, ambitious and inspiring people to join us on our journey. You will be entitled to a range of different benefits to make sure you are happy both at work and at home.

About the role

You will be responsible for supporting schools and the local authority in safeguarding and welfare of children through training, policy formation, advice and guidance. This is an interesting and varied role, where you will have the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of children and their families. Some of the day-to-day tasks and aims of the role include:

• Devise, develop and implement training strategies with regards to child protection and safeguarding for a variety of needs within education
• Monitor school's performance on child protection and safeguarding matters
• Provide advice, guidance and support to Designated Safeguarding Lead or child protection in schools and to other Education colleagues
• Line management responsibilities for the Education Safeguarding Team, consisting of 3 direct reports.

For more information on the responsibilities and duties of the role, please refer to the job description.

About you

We are looking for someone, with significant, relevant and recent experience of safeguarding in schools and effective child protection processes, excellent communication and line management skills, the credibility to build relationships with multi-agency partners and the ability to manage workload and work on their own initiative.

The successful candidate will have a teaching qualification or social work qualification or equivalent, and will have undertaken continual professional development and post-qualification training. The candidate will be able to demonstrate significant training and expertise relating to safeguarding in schools.

If you are passionate about keeping children safe and well, supporting a culture of vigilance and safeguarding to be developed in schools across Buckinghamshire and are keen to make a positive difference every day, we would love to hear from you.

Closing date : Midnight on Monday 27th May 2024

Interviews : Tuesday 4 th June

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Buckinghamshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, youngpeopleand adults at risk.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicantsare required todeclare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious , Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that's why we're working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it's important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Ensuring that children and young people in Buckinghamshire reach their potential is a primary focus within our Education service. It's essential that we provide inclusive and life-long learning opportunities for all of our young people - so we look to raise standards, attainment and aspirations in a number of ways.

Our key priorities include: improving the quality and timeliness of Education, Health and Care Plans and the support families of children with SEND receive; reducing the number of exclusions both permanent and fixed term; and providing the children of Buckinghamshire with the highest quality education possible.

We aim to provide the right support, at the right time for families requiring non-statutory intervention, and provide sufficient, high quality early years and school places for children in Buckinghamshire. Despite Buckinghamshire having a higher percentage of good or outstanding Early Years providers and schools than national averages, we are not complacent.

We are keen to strengthen the services we deliver to provide the children of Buckinghamshire the highest quality education possible.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That's why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. We also offer a salary sacrifice personal car lease scheme to those who are eligible and have passed their probation period. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.