Child Protection Chair

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.
 

• Job Title:                           Child Protection Chair
• Job Location:                     Countywide Service covering Gloucestershire.  
• Salary:                              £52,413 - £54,495 per annum
• Hours per Week:                37.00 
• Contract Type:                   Fixed Term 
• Duration:                          One year 
• Closing Date:                    24/08/2025
• Job Requisition Number:    12007 
• This post is open to job share

We are currently looking to recruit a Child Protection Chair to our dedicated Child Protection Conference team.

Reward and Support

For all your hard work, you will receive the following:

• between £52,413 - £54,495 per annum subject to experience
• welcome payment of £5,000*
• retention payment of £2000*
• flexible and agile working opportunities
• 25.5 days annual leave rising to 30.5 days after 5 years continuous service
• option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part-time staff)
• family friendly policies and benefits to help support you and your family
• supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
• Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone
• an in-house Occupational Health service
• employee discount scheme
• cycle to work scheme
• links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) and the Young Employees Network
• career development and qualification opportunities
• access to our Social Work Academy

Our vision

Right child, right support, right time, every timeIn our recent inspection in June 2025, our Children’s Services have been officially judged as ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ elements. Ofsted also said ‘Leaders have set out a clear vision for delivering success for children, by modelling values and creating a culture where the workforce, children and families feel valued and heard; risk is managed confidently with bottom lines clearly set out.’This marks an important step in our journey to improve outcomes for our children and young people, and we remain focused on our mission: to continue building on this success and ensure that every child and young person in our county has the opportunity to thrive. Gloucestershire offers a range of opportunities to develop your career, supported by a phenomenal Social Work Academy offer, a developing systemic practice methodology, an ambitious leadership team and an award-winning workforce.We are a local authority adopting, and training all colleagues in, systemic social work practice. If you would like to be part of an authority that takes a relational approach to working with families and focuses on what needs to change in the system around a child and family to enable children to thrive, then consider a role with GCC.

About the role

This is a very exciting time for Gloucestershire and for the Child Protection Conferencing team, as we focus on our journey to Outstanding and continue to embed systemic practice in our work with children and families. We are offering the opportunity to join a strong, stable team where you will find colleagues with expertise in safeguarding children and young people. There is good supportive management for all team members and a wider recognition of the importance of the role of a Child Protection Chair across Children’s Services.  You will be working directly and innovatively with children and their families to make positive changes in a timely way, that will make a real difference to their lives and outcomes.

Child Protection Chairs in Gloucestershire can have difficult conversations, which challenge practice of professionals, for families and young people. We ensure the absolute best for children and implementing our statutory and regulatory obligations, while ensuring that children at risk of significant harm in Gloucestershire receive the best practice we can give. The voice of the child or young person is at the centre of all of that we do, and we are committed to ensuring their parents or carers feel respected and are supported to work together with professionals to reduce risk of harm.

For the past two years, the remit of the Child Protection Chair has been extended to include chairing My Safety Meetings for our children in care and care leavers who are found to be at risk of critical or significant harm. We provide oversight and quality assurance of My Safety Plans aiming to reduce risk in a youth focussed way. The Conference Chair’s role is to be further extended to include chairing of initial Child In Need meetings and providing oversight of those plans.

Good communication and leadership skills are essential as you use your skills to help children and their families to participate in meetings and achieve the best outcomes possible. Experience of chairing complex meetings is highly desirable. A relational, trauma informed approach to practice is essential.

You will have a pivotal role in quality assurance and the opportunity to contribute and make a difference to improving outcomes for children; recent developments will see a further extension to the Conference Chair’s role with increase quality assurance activity.

We pride ourselves on our supportive team culture and our willingness to embrace learning to improve our knowledge, practice, and outcomes for the families we are working with.

We are inviting applications from enthusiastic, child focused, aspirational, and competent professionals who are SWE registered, have a degree in social work (or equivalent), have a minimum of 5 years post qualifying experience with relevant management experience in social work. We expect you to possess excellent knowledge of relevant childcare legislation and procedures.

About you

• to chair child protection conferences (CPCs) according to legislative requirements, policy, and procedures, and monitor the progression of case management and protection plans.

• to be responsible for the accurate recording of CPCs in line with policy and procedures ensuring that services and plans are child centred, needs based, and outcome focussed.

• to contribute to reflective discussions with social workers and managers in relation to the planning, review and conferencing processes and procedures and effectively fulfil the responsibilities of a critical friend.
• to utilise escalation protocols effectively to challenge concerns, providing ongoing oversight through to satisfactory resolution.

• to undertake specific projects, investigations, and training to contribute to the development of service delivery, referencing evidence-based practice, performance indicators and relevant research.
• to contribute to audits of long and repeat plans as well as service evaluations on a quarterly basis.
• to undertake such personal training as may be deemed necessary to meet the duties and responsibilities of the post.
   

How to apply

For an informal chat about this role, please contact Audrey Neath on Audrey.Neath@gloucestershire.gov.uk  

*Please note, all our welcome payments and retention payments are non-contractual, pro-rata for part time staff and subject to National Insurance and tax deductions.

The council will consider sponsorship for this role, in line with Home Office regulations and subject to satisfactory pre-employment checks 

Additional Information

To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-

Child Protection Chair Job Profile

This position is subject to a DBS check.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities.  Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.