Safeguarding Manager

Main Responsibilities

Safeguarding Social Worker

Oakhill Secure Training Centre, Oakhill, Milton Keynes

Salary range : £32,000 - £35,000 per annum

Full-time (40 hours per week)

Oakhill Secure Training Centre forms part of G4S Custodial and Detention Services who work closely with the Home Office, Youth Custody Services for England and Wales and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that its regimes and designs reflect best practice in residential care to prevent offending.

At Oakhill Secure Training Centre, we look after young people aged 12 to 18 years old who have been remanded or sentenced to periods of detention. The vulnerable young people in our care can be challenging with a wide range of social and emotional complex needs. This is an environment that calls for high standards of social care and service delivery to provide a secure and stable environment for young people to develop their life skills and address the behaviours that have led them into custody. 

The aim of the role is to positively contribute to the safeguarding and welfare of children, ensuring the action we take to promote the welfare of children, protects them from harm, being accountable for decisions and taking action to enable all children to have the best possible outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Promote the safeguarding of young people, acting as the Safeguarding lead for the centre and ensuring that a stable and secure environment is provided for all young people. Develop and maintain external links with local safeguarding teams, bringing community expertise into the strategy of the centre.
• To ensure that all staff understands the expectation that everyone is responsible for contributing to keeping children safe, supporting the prevention of harm and promoting well-being.
• To effectively conduct robust investigations of all child protection concerns raised by young people, their families, colleagues and/or external parties/professionals to best legislative and best practice requirements. It is expected that the post holder will conduct evidence based investigations and be empathetic towards the needs of our young people and staff concerned.
• Coach, support and develop staff, including supervision & appraisal, to maximise their performance and ensure high standards of care, values, ethics, equality and diversity, policies and procedures, legislation and contractual and inspection  framework requirements are met.
• Ensure there are processes and procedures in place to listen and capture children’s views about what they need to be kept safe. These views will be used to inform decisions, policy and procedures.
• Ensure information sharing supports timely and appropriate decision making, which is based on individual need and prevents harm and supporting wellbeing.
• Develop effective Partnerships, sharing knowledge and expertise in the spirit of stimulating reform and being inclusive of others. Maintaining relationships with other child-focused stakeholders for the benefit of children and their communities.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with external stakeholders including MASH and the LADO with the internal responsibility of managing allegations with the social work assistant including the appropriate pathways.
• Support the Team around the Child approach that identifies priority needs of young people and addresses barriers to education, integration and resettlement success within the TAC meeting through weekly contributions.
• To encourage collaboration between departments working towards the reduction of ‘young peoples’ risk and to ensure adherence to operational policies relevant to the safety and security of young people, staff and visitors.
• Develop and co-ordinate delivery of Safeguarding training with the Social Work Assistant and in partnership with Milton Keynes Safeguarding Board (MK Together) to ensure training is delivered in line with national guidance and research.
• Monitor and review management information to ensure contractual compliance and best practice.
• Role model a positive health and safety culture to meet and maintain relevant external accreditations thereby ensuring that young people are fully supported to achieve their potential.
• To attend a number of safeguarding meeting including Chairing the Safeguarding meeting when required.
• All staff employed by G4S has the responsibility for their own Health & Safety and to their colleagues in order to assist G4S in its obligation to achieve British Safety Council Requirements at all times.

Please note that the above responsibilities are not exhaustive and we reserve the right to add relevant duties in line with the service needs.

The Ideal Candidate

Essential Skills

• A qualification in social work
• Understanding of current legislation around safeguarding  in particular around young people
• experience within the Safeguarding Arena
• Extensive and proven experience conducting investigation process and judicial system
• Line Management Experience

Desirable Skills

• Experience developing /delivering training
• Experience of developing and implementing policy
• Experience of working in a custodial environment with young people and understanding the complexity of their needs etc.
• Experience of the LADO process

If you have the qualities that we are looking for and the ability to make a difference, we want to hear from you!

It is every employee’s responsibility to promote and safeguard the welfare of children and young persons he/she is responsible for or comes into contact with. Therefore every employee will be required to hold a current enhanced DBS (Disclosure & Barring Scheme) certificate.

Please note that these vacancies are subject to a 10 year checkable history and the strict vetting standards set by G4S and the Youth Custody Service are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

You must be eligible to work in the UK and must have been resident in the UK for a minimum period of 3 years. You will also need to provide full details of your employment and education history for the last 10 years as part of the security screening process for this role.