Child Protection Coordinator

• This role offers hybrid working, allowing you to work either from home or from one of our offices.
• The role is Countywide and will involve regular attendance at Countywide management meetings and working from different office bases
• This is a crucial role ensuring the timely and effective chairing of child protection conferences, ensuring that child protection plans are reviewed, updated and progressed without drift and delay to ensure safeguarding of children. Internal and external partnership working is pivotal to the role. The post holder will have an active role in partnership training around child protection processes and ensuring positive outcomes for children in Somerset.
• 33 days’ annual leave (plus bank holidays)

We’re working to improve the lives of people in Somerset – and you’ll be a key part of that. Your day-to-day work will involve:

• Consultation before child protection conferences to ensure good preparation for children and families.
• Chairing Child Protection conferences in line with statutory guidance and Somerset protocols.
• Overseeing progress of Child Protection Plans via mid-point reviews.
• Working closely with colleagues within Children’s Social Care and partner agencies whilst maintaining independence to ensure strong safeguarding of children.
• Promoting the child’s participation by ensuring children have advocacy for their child protection conferences.
• Deliver training and raise awareness across agencies about the Child Protection Chair role and safeguarding responsibilities.
• Role modelling the very best standards as part of the quality assurance service.
• Quality Assurance activity.
• Where necessary, challenge practice that negatively impacts the child to achieve an outcome that positively impacts outcomes for the child.
• Be accountable to the Director of Children’s Services as per statutory guidance.

We offer ongoing support, training and guidance to help you be the best you can be. But it will really help if you:

• In-depth understanding of child protection legislation, statutory guidance (e.g. Working Together to Safeguard Children), and procedures for managing allegations against adults working with children.
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively with a range of professionals including police, children’s social care, education providers, and regulatory bodies to ensure coordinated safeguarding responses.
• Ability to assess complex information, apply thresholds for intervention, and make sound, evidence-based decisions under pressure.
• Skilled in providing clear advice, managing sensitive conversations, and maintaining professional relationships with stakeholders at all levels.
• Experience in managing a caseload, maintaining accurate and confidential records, and producing high-quality reports for internal and external use.
• You must hold a Social Work Degree.

We’re proud to be here for the people of Somerset. And that means everyone in Somerset. An important part of this is ensuring that we are as diverse and inclusive as the people and communities we serve.

We welcome applications from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences to enrich our team. You can always contact the hiring manager for a chat if there’s anything you want to talk about before you apply.

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
• Staff discounts in gyms.
• 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 cycle for work and health screenings.
• My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more

The salary for this role is £54,292 per annum (Inclusive of a £5,000 recruitment allowance per annum until 30/6/2028).

For an informal chat about the role, you can contact Rachel Bovingdon by emailing rachel.bovingdon@somerset.gov.uk or Stacey Davis by emailing Stacey.Davis@somerset.gov.uk

When completing your application/CV please provide your full employment history and ensure that any gaps in employment are explained. Please start with your current or most recent employment.

If you have all the information you need, just hit the apply button - we can’t wait to hear from you.

This post requires a criminal background check via the Disclosure procedure.