Fixed term contract - 12 months

Birmingham is a young city and a great city of opportunities, for children and young people to grow, excel and prosper. In our newly formed Education and Skills Directorate, we've a strong Education  Safeguarding service. The Education Safeguarding Service is the strategic single point of contact for all schools and Education services regarding safeguarding issues. This Local Authority offer is aimed at ensuring that all Schools and Education Services in Birmingham are effectively supported to fulfil their Duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, in line with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE).

The service works closely with the Birmingham Children Safeguarding Partnership and the Children's Trust to develop good early help and safeguarding practice. The service also positively engages with private and voluntary sector providers to support them understand the Local context and to ensure consistency, relevance, and sufficiency. In addition to fulfilling the Local Authority’s statutory safeguarding duty to support schools, the service has a comprehensive traded offer of school improvement regarding safeguarding policies and practice.

This is an exciting opportunity for you to actively contribute to the development, brokerage and delivery of strong safeguarding support services for schools. All in all, you will have the determination and the passion to drive forward good practice working together with multi-disciplinary partners to ensure that children and young people in Birmingham are safe and develop resilience. In ensuring these outcomes for Birmingham’s children, we are equipping them not just to flourish and succeed in later life, but also to actively contribute now as citizens to life in Birmingham and their local communities. This is  a truly fulfilling and exciting role offering a range of personal and professional development opportunities.

The purpose of the role is to assist the Head of Service  to develop and deliver Birmingham City Council’s safeguarding offer to schools aimed at ensuring that all schools and education settings are effectively supported to fulfil their duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, in line with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE 2020) and Working Together to Safeguard Children (WTSC 2020). The Post-holder will ensure that the traded schools offer is  of high standard, competitive, and cost effective.

The postholder will provide operational leadership developing and delivering an effective and safe service aimed at ensuring that all schools and education services in Birmingham are effectively supported to fulfil their duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, in line with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education, September 2020’ (KCSIE, 2020). In addition to fulfilling the council’s statutory safeguarding duty to support schools, the service has a comprehensive traded offer of school improvement with regard to safeguarding policies and practice.

All Birmingham schools receive the services in the universal offer. Access to the traded schools offer is through annual subscription.

The potholder will provide day to day leadership and line management of 2 Education Safeguarding Officers to develop and deliver both the universal and traded offer to schools. The Post-holder will ensure that the traded schools offer is of high standard, competitive, and cost effective.

The post holder must be educated to a degree or equivalent in Social Work, Education Welfare, Youth Work , Early Years, or Teaching (including further education). − Evidence of continued professional development to update skills and knowledge.

Registered with Social Work England.

A minimum of three years’ experience working in schools safeguarding either as a Headteacher or as a DHT of a large school.

Substantial experience of involvement in safeguarding children investigations, including child protection planning.  

The ability to chair complex meetings effectively including the management of contributions, summarising key issues and agreeing and creating outline plans; • To provide well referenced, accurate and relevant advice about Safeguarding and Child Protection matters;

High level of inter-personal skills both written and verbal including presentation and group work skills to communicate to a wide range of individuals;

Good organisational skills and be able to work under pressure, meet deadlines and prioritise a demanding workload;

Be able to write and present credible and well referenced developmental papers.

Be able to challenge poor practice effectively;

Have problem solving and analytical skills;

Be self-motivated, have personal confidence, leadership and negotiation skills;

Make independent judgements that take into account the views of others but are not unduly influenced by these;

Have a comprehensive knowledge of Child Protection legislation and guidance.

To have substantial knowledge of safeguarding in schools and settings.

Have substantial knowledge of services providing early intervention for vulnerable children and young people

Ability to:

Work independently to prioritise and manage time and workload effectively. Demonstrates good practice in casework and community-based interventions. Communicate clearly, concisely and logically both verbally and in writing. Build and sustain strong relationships with multi-disciplinary professionals at all levels in statutory, private, voluntary and independent sector organisations.

Understand the links between complex safeguarding issues; identify inconsistencies, gaps , overlaps and errors in reasoning. Approach problems in a consistent and systematic way Commitment to the value of education and social inclusion. Commitment to teamwork and an understanding of own role as a team member.

Ability to travel across the City to carry out the duties of the post.

An organised and professional approach in attitude, manner and appearance. Demonstrates a commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Creative, solution focused, analytical skills and interest in developing own skills.

Completed valid DSL training or demonstrate clear ability and willingness to undertake DSL training and any other training commensurate with the job and personal development. Completed single and multi-agency Child Protection training demonstrate clear ability and willingness to do so.

“Interviews for this post will take place virtually via video conferencing. Shortlisted candidates will be provided with further information”

For informal enquires please contact Micho Moyo, Head of Service, 07548713610, micho.h.moyo@birmingham.gov.uk

Ref: BCC002109

We welcome applications from people with caring responsibilities and flexible working options will be considered.

“Right to work in the UK documentation will be fully checked for all applicants.  All non-UK applicants (excluding Ireland) may require a Certificate of Sponsorship from Birmingham City Council and must have an approved visa from the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) before any employment offer can be confirmed. Unless they are an EEA or Swiss citizen or their family members, already living in the UK by 31 December 2020, then they will need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) instead.”

Supporting documents
Job Description / Person Specification