About Us

North Somerset Council is dedicated to providing high-quality services to our community. We are committed to creating a fair, green, and more inclusive environment for all our residents. Join us and contribute to making a positive impact on our community.

The Role

We are seeking a dedicated and experienced Local Authority Designated officer (LADO) to join our Quality Assurance and Safeguarding Team.

The position has been created to lead on managing allegations for staff and volunteers who work with children across North Somerset. This post has been recently strengthened and is now a fulltime permanent post with support from a newly created Co-ordinator post to work in tandem. The post sits in the QA and Safeguarding Service, where you will benefit from working in a close and supportive team. There is plenty of development opportunities as one of our priorities is to increase the knowledge about the role across the Safeguarding Partnership. Ensuring colleagues are fully aware of the role and the support it can offer to safeguard children and young people. This will entail building strong relationship with partner agencies, delivering training and creating robust mechanisms for reporting. We have recently strengthened our practice approach with the introduction of restorative practice, where we aspire to be absolutely child centred offering high challenge and high support in a kind and compassionate manner.

In this role, you will be involved with reviewing and developing new procedures and processes to embed safe working practice into the culture, behaviours and performance within the Local Authority.  The role will focus on allegations involving children and this will include the promotion of the role, offering training and building strong relationships with wider partner agencies.  There will at times be the need to work with the equivalent role in adult services.

Key Responsibilities:

• The LADO is a statutory role and is responsible for:
  
  • Providing advice, information and guidance to employers and voluntary organisations around allegations and concerns regarding paid and unpaid workers.
  • Managing and overseeing individual cases from all partner agencies.
  • Ensuring the child’s voice is heard and that they are safeguarded.
  • Ensuring there is a consistent, fair and thorough process for all adults working with children and young people against whom an allegation is made.
  • Monitoring the progress of cases to ensure they are dealt with as quickly as possible
  • Referring matters to Children’s Services or the Police and chairing the strategy meeting in cases where the allegation requires investigation by Police and/or Social Care.

This position is exempt under the provisions of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions) Order 1975 and is subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Valid driving licence and own transport, or be able to provide alternative, suitable method of travel is an essential condition for this role.

About You

We are looking for an individual who is passionate about the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children, and who possesses the following skills and experience:

Essential Criteria:

• An approved professional qualification for Social Work, registration with Social Work England and significant practical experience of working within children’s services giving rise to a variety of technical skills and thorough understanding of the principles of safeguarding work practices, regulation and processes.
• Significant post qualification experience in relevant work area including chairing complex multi-agency meetings and statutory social work with children and families including working with adults who pose a risk to children.
• Experience in service development and embedding improvements into work methodologies
• Practical experience in service delivery and in leading others to deliver the service.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of working with adults at risk would be desirable.

What We Offer

At North Somerset Council, we value our employees and provide a supportive and inclusive work environment. We offer:

• Competitive salary and benefits
• Flexible working arrangements
• Opportunities for professional development
• Staff groups
• Opportunity to purchase up to an additional 10 days annual leave each year
• Dedicated Wellbeing Team
• Salary sacrifice cycle to work and Electric vehicle schemes

Further details of our excellent rewards package can be found in our Benefits booklet.

How to Apply

If you share our vision and values and are ready to make an impact to North Somerset, please select the apply button below. If you are interested in this exciting opportunity, please submit your application by 11.59pm on the application closing date. When completing our online application form, please detail how you meet the essential criteria for the role.

Contact Information:

For further information about the role, please contact Sue Gambier, Team Manager, at susan.gambier@n-somerset.gov.uk or 07385 039416.

Important Information

Interview Date: To be confirmed.

We are currently only able to accept applications from candidates who have full permission to work in the UK.

Equal Opportunities

At North Somerset Council we want all our employees to feel valued and appreciated.  We aim to ensure equality of opportunity and prevent discrimination irrespective of your sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or belief, race, age, disability, including neurodiversity, if you are married or in a civil partnership or are pregnant or currently on maternity leave.  We strive to create a workplace that reflects the communities we serve and where everyone feels empowered to bring their full, authentic selves to work.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job role.