Head of Service Safeguarding & Support

This pivotal role is responsible for ensuring the highest standards of service and practice delivery, continuous improvement and compliance with statutory requirements.

The postholder will act as a specialist advisor to the whole of Children's Services and beyond into wider partnerships where required, developing and maintaining effective relationships with members, commissioners, providers and regulators (Ofsted, DfE, SW England) and other stakeholders including children, young people and families/carers.

Key Accountabilities

• Strategic and operational management including development of the service informed by best practice, national and local guidance, legislation, customer and policy requirements.
  
• The delivery and embedding of a robust and effective duty response to need. This will include the enabling of a multi-agency timely response.
  
• Lead on the delivery of a comprehensive improvement plan in response to Ofsted recommendations and ensuring alignment with local and national standards.
  
• To thoroughly understand the presenting demand and complexity of need and create resilient services with partners that are able to respond.
  
• Support the Right help at the Right time' ethos for service delivery and ensure smooth transition to statutory need or to Early Help and community based services.
  
• Ensuring high quality, effective assessments that have service user participation and capture needs, risk, support and strengths.
  
• Ensuring an effective and skilled Emergency Duty Service is able to respond effectively and meet statutory need out of hours
  
• Manage, prioritise and allocate resources to ensure services are delivered to meet statutory requirements, the required specification, performance standards, value for money expectations and national inspection standards/frameworks.