About the role
Are you an experienced social worker looking for a new challenge? Are you committed to ensuring that the safeguarding of children is central to all Cambridgeshire County Council's decision making? If so this could be your next exciting role!
Our Quality Assurance Practice & Improvement Service are looking to recruit a full-time, permanent Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).
The LADO is a statutory post in which you must act upon all cases where it has been alleged that a person who works or volunteers with children has:
- behaved in a way that has harmed a child, or may have harmed a child
- possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child
- behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates they may pose a risk of harm to children
- behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children
The team manage all allegations made against professionals who are in a position of trust and take responsibility for ensuring that appropriate safeguards are immediately put into place to safeguard children.
You will join our established, friendly and supportive LADO team in this hybrid role with a mix of office (Scott House, Huntingdon) and home working. We value our team and are passionate about your development and you will receive support in your role through regular 1:1 supervision.
Interested in finding out more? Contact Janet Farr, Service Manager, on 07748 333 596 or janet.farr@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Closing date 8 December 2024. Interviews will be held in person at Scott House in Huntingdon on 19 December and will consist of a panel interview followed by a written exercise.
Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
What will you be doing?
You will co-ordinate information in relation to all allegations made, ensuring that information is shared with relevant key professionals, such as the police.
You will be responsible for convening and chairing multi-agency Allegations Management Meetings where the threshold for LADO intervention is met.
To ensure policies and procedures are followed to safeguard children, you will provide training to partner agencies to raise the awareness of the LADO.
Cambridgeshire LADO also represent Children’s Services by attending Cambridgeshire and Peterborough MAPPA meetings.
About you
The role requires a Social Work qualification where you can evidence you have experience in working in a fast paced work environment where referrals received require a timely response, that you have experience in safeguarding children and are able to recognise, analyse and manage risk.
This is a great opportunity to use your skills and expertise to manage a busy and varied caseload ensuring safeguarding of children is paramount and central to all decision making.
For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification.
Our benefits
We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…
- A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
- Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
- Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
- Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
- Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
- Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
- Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
- Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
- An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes
About us
Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.
Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.
We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.
Attached documents
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