Project and Policy Officer - Safeguarding Childrens Partnership Business team

We are looking for an accomplished individual to work in the Dorset Safeguarding Children’s Partnership project team, supporting the safeguarding partnership to progress key priorities and update relevant partnership policies.  This role will support with the co-ordination of partnership work across Dorset, and you’ll work alongside our partners, NHS Dorset and Dorset Police.

The Dorset Safeguarding Children’s Partnership holds statutory responsibility for leadership and multi-agency co-ordination of “arrangements to work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.”

This role will co-ordinate the work of the partnership across Dorset and work alongside accountable organisations, Dorset Council, NHS Dorset and Dorset Police to provide training and information on procedures and signposting. 

Dorset Council, NHS Dorset and Dorset Police collectively hold accountability and a “shared and equal duty” to engage with all other “relevant agencies” working with children and young people to ensure a coherent approach to the wider, local safeguarding system.  As Project & Policy Officer, you will support the co-ordination of the work of the partnership by fostering excellent working relationships with partners and ensuring timelines for partnership activity are adhered to and actions are completed.

You’ll join us at an exciting time as we focus on children and young people within the Dorset Council area, allowing us to embed new ways of supporting our families. Our Children’s Advice and Duty Team (ChAD) has been extended to include an Early Help Hub and a multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH). It will be a single point of contact and act as a ‘front door’ for all safeguarding concerns and early help referrals.

You’ll continue to support our colleagues and partners across the Dorset Council area such as schools, nurseries and voluntary sector colleagues by ensuring training courses meet the needs of our children, young people, families, partners and accountable organisations.  As part of this, you will also be expected to work closely alongside our Pan-Dorset Training team to ensure that outcomes of Partnership activity is reflected in the training provided to professionals across the safeguarding system.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate:

• experience of delivering on projects to achieve project outcomes and priorities in a variety of contexts
• experience of co-ordinating the development of policies and procedures
• experience of motivating and developing relationships with stakeholders and within project teams to help achieve successful results
• an awareness of local government transformation agendas and policy strands in relevant area of service in the public sector
• excellent interpersonal and organisational skills
• sound knowledge of IT systems such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint with excellent report writing and presentation skills.

Here in Dorset, we keep children at the heart of everything we do.  The successful candidate will carry this ethos with them, ensuring children’s voices are heard and reflected upon when shaping conversations, work and programmes.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Sophie Cole (DSCB Business Support Manager): [email protected]

This is a full time role at 37 hours per week.

This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

This post involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders.

See our policy on safeguarding children and young people.

Dorset Council: A great place to work

We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

• provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
• have ambitious aspirations
• are excited about our future
• care about Dorset and all the people who live here
• know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success

You will:

• have access to a range of employee benefits 
• be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
• have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.

Find out more about how to apply.