Child Protection Coordinator

CHILD PROTECTION CO-ORDINATOR

Oakhill (Children) Secure Training Centre (STC), Milton Keynes

G4S Care and Rehabilitation Services

Salary: £38,480.00 per annum, full-time (40 hours per week)

About Us

G4S Oakhill Secure Training Centre (STC) cares for children aged 12 to 18 years old who have been remanded or sentenced to periods of detention. The children in our care can be vulnerable and challenging, with a wide range of complex social and emotional needs. This is an environment that calls for high standards of social care and service delivery to provide a secure and stable environment for children to develop their life skills and address their previous behaviours. We aim to support change and learning.

We strive to help every child feel safe, giving them an opportunity to heal from trauma and feel supported in developing a more positive identity. We ensure our children have equal access and opportunity for change and are celebrated for their strengths. We want the children in our care to leave better equipped for life emotionally, mentally, physically, and socially. Our hope is that they will go on to make decisions and life choices that will lead to increasingly positive and productive lives. We aim to support the constructive resettlement and transition of our children, whether returning to the community or moving to other custodial settings. We are committed to working in partnership with them and their families, significant others and wider community organisations, to develop a quality regime at the centre.

About the Role

Oakhill STC is a fast paced, complex and challenging environment and as such the successful candidate needs to be resilient, innovative, passionate and work collaboratively.

You will be responsible for positively contributing to the safeguarding and welfare of children and assist the social workers in the management of child protection incidents at the Centre.

You will ensure the action we take to promote the welfare of children protects them from harm. This will support the healthy development of children and the role will be accountable for supporting decisions and actions to enable all children to have the best possible outcomes.

This is an opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of children. You will motivate, inspire and lead them to success, despite the significant challenges of a complex environment.

Some of the key responsibilities of this role are:

• Promote the safeguarding of children in supporting the Safeguarding lead for the centre and ensuring that a stable and secure environment is provided for all children. Support the external links with local safeguarding teams, bringing community expertise into the strategy of the centre.
• To support the Safeguarding lead in ensuring that all staff understands the expectation that everyone is responsible for contributing to keeping children safe, supporting the prevention of harm and promoting well-being.
• To support the effectiveness of the conduct of robust investigations of all child protection concerns raised by young people, their families, colleagues and/or external parties/professionals to best legislative and best practice requirements.
• Support processes and procedures in listening and capturing children’s views about what they need to be kept safe. These views will be used to inform decisions, policy and procedures.
• Support information sharing in a timely and appropriate decision making in line with legislation and guidance, which is based on individual need and prevents harm and supporting wellbeing.
• Able to support the completion of numerous documents and reports
• To complete and maintain spreadsheets and extract data with commentary as required for a number of different audiences
• To support residential and other front line staff understand their safeguarding obligations by working alongside them operationally.
• To encourage the open door policy of listening to both staff and young people regarding concerns and thereafter managing them appropriately to their outcomes
• Maintain effective working relationships with external stakeholders including MASH and the LADO with the internal responsibility of managing allegations with the social work manager including the appropriate pathways.
• To encourage and support collaboration between departments working towards the reduction of ‘young peoples’ risk and to ensure adherence to operational policies relevant to the safety and security of young people, staff and visitors.
• Support the delivery of Safeguarding training with the Head of Safeguarding and Safeguarding social worker and in partnership with Milton Keynes Safeguarding Board (MK Together) to ensure training is delivered in line with national guidance and research.
• To attend a number of safeguarding meeting which could include on occasion the completion of minutes
• Provide a full administrative service so that the needs of the functional/departmental team are met.
• Maintain effective work systems, ensuring that all correspondence and documentation is dealt with in a professional manner that meets audit requirements.
• Deal with all routine queries so that an appropriate response is provided.
• Undertake some sessions with children and collate information gathered to enable continuous improvement of service delivery and youth participation.
• Liaise with the external agencies when required to support the work of the safeguarding team

About you

To succeed in this role, you will need to be a dynamic and engaging individual, with significant experience in a similar role. It is important you have a good knowledge and understanding of current legislation around safeguarding, in particular around young people and an understanding of the investigation process and judicial system.

The role will require you to promote a child centred approach which prioritises both the safeguarding of the children’s welfare and wellbeing.

Leading by example, we are looking for a highly motivated and determined person, with the ability to be resilient, confident with a tenacious can-do attitude, have the ability to embrace complexity and be a part of a busy and fast paced team.

Benefits

• 5 weeks annual leave plus bank holidays
• Flexible holiday scheme
• Free parking
• Contribution company pension
• Life Assurance Scheme
• Training programmes and study support
• Employee discount scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme

Diversity, equality and inclusion is an important part of G4S Care and Rehabilitation Services and we actively encourage applications from a diverse range of backgrounds.

This role is subject to a checkable history and the strict vetting standards set by G4S and the Youth Custody Services and are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. You must be eligible to work in the UK and must have been resident in the UK for a minimum period of 3 years. You will also need to provide full details of your employment and education history as part of the security screening process for this role.

It is every employee’s responsibility to promote and safeguard the welfare of the children in our care; as such all employees are required to hold a current Enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Scheme) Certificate.