• Suffolk County Council – Endeavour House, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 2BX - Hybrid
• £46,670 - £57,025 per annum (pro rata for part time)
• 37 hours per week - Flexible working options available
• Permanent

As a modern, flexible and effective organisation, we’re driven to make a positive difference to the environment, the communities we serve and the careers of our people. That’s why, when you join us as a Professional Advisor, you’ll be encouraged to share your fresh thinking and empowered to explore new ideas that will shape and improve our services as well as your career.

Reimagine the possibilities.

Your role and responsibilities

This is a great opportunity to join the Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership as a Professional Advisor hosted by Children and Young People Services.

You will:

• Multi-agency policy and quality assurance: Oversee multi-agency policy, quality assurance, audit, and practice development across health, police, and social care.
• Legislation expertise: Be an expert in child safeguarding legislation and ensure compliance across the system.
• Dynamic working: Work dynamically between different partner agencies and manage your own workload effectively.
• Practice development: Promote practice improvement among agencies using various mechanisms, drawing upon learning and best practice from reviews, legislation, and more.
• Partnership working: Build and maintain strong relationships with partners, ensuring effective communication and collaboration.

You will need

• Understanding of Safeguarding Legislation: Detailed understanding of children’s safeguarding legislation.
• Multi-agency experience: Ability to work across different partner agencies.
• Self-directed and prioritisation skills: Ability to manage your own workload, prioritise tasks, and be self-directed.
• Communication skills: Strong communication skills to effectively engage with partners and stakeholders.
• Subject matter expertise: Be a subject matter expert who is passionate about changing the system to help children and young people.
• Ability to challenge: Confidence to hold partners to account and effectively provide scrutiny and challenge.

You can view a full list of requirements in the Job and Person Profile (docx). If you believe you can succeed in this role, apply. Even if you don't meet all requirements, still apply. We would appreciate the opportunity to consider your application.

The team

The Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership is funded by multi-agency partners (predominantly Health, Police, and Social Care), and is a small team made up of an Independent Chair, Independent Scrutineer, Partnership Manager, two Professional Advisors (one for adults, and one for children’s), and a Partnership Coordinator.

Our team's core purpose is raising the profile of safeguarding in Suffolk and working with services to continually improve in keeping adults, children and families safe from abuse or neglect.

The workload is varied and can range from public campaigns, to auditing, to reviewing cases where significant harm has occurred, and much more.

The culture in the team is fundamentally about caring about the lives of the people in Suffolk, and wanting to improve systems to protect those most at risk.

Empowering Everyone

We’re big believers in potential, possibility and the power of different ideas. We’re always searching for ways to encourage, respect and enable everyone to be the best they can be. We want to represent the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all individuals, especially those from groups that are currently underrepresented in the organisation, as shown in our Workforce Equality Report

For more information

Please contact Sadie Barber for a casual conversation. You can reach her by calling 01473 264385 or emailing sadie.barber@suffolksp.org.uk.

How to apply

Step 1 - Read the Job and Person Profile (JPP) (docx).

Step 2 - Click ‘Apply Now’ to start your online application.

Step 3 - Upload a supporting statement answering the following questions below (no more than 400 words per question). You should use the Supporting Statement template.

1. Provide an example of a project where you worked dynamically between different partner agencies. What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them? What strategies did you use to foster collaboration and trust among the agencies? How did you handle any conflicts or disagreements that arose?
2. Describe a time when you had to interpret and implement safeguarding legislation at a local level. What steps did you take to ensure compliance, and what was the outcome? How did you communicate these changes to your team and partners?
3. Share an experience where you led a quality assurance or audit process within a multi-agency context. What were the key findings, and how did you address them? How did you ensure that the learning from this process was effectively disseminated and implemented?
4. Explain a situation where your expertise in safeguarding legislation made a significant impact on a project or initiative. What was the issue, and how did your knowledge contribute to the solution? How do you stay updated with the latest developments in safeguarding legislation and best practices?

We value authentic applications that showcase your genuine skills and experiences. Applications suspected of being generated by AI may be rejected. We ask you to present your own work and ideas throughout the application process.

Please note: Without a supporting statement, your interest will not be progressed. Any supporting documents must be in either PDF or MS Word format. If you would like an adjustment to this process due to a disability, please contact us at 03456 014412 or recruitment@suffolk.gov.uk.

Closing date: 11.30pm, 8 April 2025

This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks or police vetting will be required for relevant posts. #LI-Hybrid

As a modern and effective council, we offer a wide variety of careers to suit people with a range of skills, abilities and ambitions. We offer working options that flex to reflect the way people work today and take the time to understand and support your individual needs. We’re driven to make a positive difference to the world around us and encourage everyone with drive and focus to join us and build an influential and impactful career. Reimagine the possibilities.

In return, you’ll enjoy:

• up to 29 days annual leave entitlement (pro rata), plus UK bank holidays and two paid volunteering days
• membership of a competitive Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• travel, lifestyle, health and wellbeing benefits
• performance-related annual pay progression, in addition to an annual cost-of-living pay increase
• training and encouragement to expand your knowledge
• a variety of career development opportunities across our organisation
• diverse and active staff networks
• flexible working options, with the right to request flexible working from your first day

Plus lots more!

If you want to know more about our benefits, values and equality commitments please visit our Suffolk County Council careers website (careers.Suffolk.gov.uk).