Somerset County Council Hiring for Education Safeguarding Officer Job at Taunton, England , UK Full Time

We are looking for an Education Safeguarding Officer to join our Education Safeguarding Service on a 30 hours per week, term time (39 week) basis for a fixed term period of 12 months.

The Education Safeguarding Service is pleased to offer an exciting opportunity to join our developing team as an Education Safeguarding Officer. ESOs cover specific regions of Somerset providing support and advice to schools around attendance and safeguarding practices as well as delivering the Local Authority’s statutory responsibilities regarding poor attendance, Elective Home Education and Children Missing from Education.

Here’s what you can expect to be doing

You would be part of a busy team of Education Safeguarding Officers, Education Safeguarding Assistants and Traveller Education Liaison Officers supporting children, families, schools and other services. You will hold a caseload, advising and supporting schools in a locality and working with parents and students to resolve issues around accessing education. Using specialist knowledge and experience of direct work with children and families, you will build, maintain and develop good working relationships with attendance leads, head teachers and other services concerned with the welfare and education of children.

As well as representing the Education Safeguarding Service at regular Team Around the School meetings, you will attend, convene and chair meetings with parent and carers, pupils and schools and lead criminal investigations using our statutory powers. Where appropriate you will prepare, on behalf of the Local Authority, prosecution cases in relation to poor school attendance. In addition, you will make use of appropriate statutory functions to ensure that all children and young people are able to reach their full academic potential.

A few things about you

Flexibility and the ability to adapt to changing needs of the service is a necessary part of the role, making a positive and committed attitude a necessity. You will be a self-motivated team player who is able to act as a champion for children and families and support the Education Safeguarding Service to identify areas where our practice can be developed.

Additional information

The salary for the role is Grade 12, ranging from £15,811 to £18,162 per annum for 30 hours, 39 weeks per year.

For an informal discussion about this role, please call Jane Weatherill on 01823 355014 or 07976697042.

Why choose Somerset County Council

We are proud to offer an environment that is supportive and rewarding, working as part of a team who are passionate about the work they do to improve the lives of people in Somerset. We offer great training and development opportunities, with supportive management. As well as this, we have some fantastic employee benefits available:

• We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.
• Generous annual leave allowance, with the opportunity to purchase additional leave.
• Employee Assistance for the times you may need some support and a variety of employee wellbeing services.
• Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme and optional pension enhancement through our Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme.
• A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice to obtain a car or bicycle for work
• Staff benefit scheme offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits, holidays, gym membership and more.

DBS information

This job requires a criminal background check (DBS) via the disclosure procedure.

Job Reference: SCC03191