This is an exciting opportunity to join the friendly, dynamic, multi-disciplinary team at the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse as a Practice Improvement Adviser (PIA) for Social Work. This is a high-level practice improvement role leading on the development, management and delivery of programmes, strategies and training initiatives to improve the identification of and response to child sexual abuse across England and Wales.
About this role:
The Practice Improvement Advisor (Social Work) is responsible for developing and embedding evidence-informed practice improvement initiatives in the field of child sexual abuse across children's social work in England and Wales. You will lead the formulation, development and implementation of transformational change in the social work response to child sexual abuse, by developing, managing and delivering strategies, plans and training initiatives, and managing partner relationships at a high level across a range of single and multi-agency settings.
Working within our team of multi-agency practitioners, researchers and policy advisors, and in liaison with those with lived experience of sexual abuse, you will be supporting the CSA Centre to deliver an ambitious work plan rooted in our commitment to improving the knowledge, skills and confidence of professionals in identifying and responding to child sexual abuse. You will also play a key role in developing and delivering the CSA Centre's practice improvement plans for social work over the immediate and longer term, helping us to ensure that our evidence, learning and resources have the widest possible reach into policy and practice at both local and national level.
The role will include:
- Working with a range of stakeholders to develop a national, strategic approach (across England and Wales) to improving the identification and response to sexual abuse in social work settings;
- Engaging with key stakeholders to raise the profile of the CSA Centre across single and multi-agency settings in England and Wales;
- Developing the CSA Centre's approach to influencing training for professionals working with children and young people across the children's social work sector, including designing and delivering training where appropriate;
- Developing proposals for new resources to support the response to child sexual abuse across social work, drawing on your own understanding of current gaps and opportunities to improve practice in this area;
- Leading on the dissemination of existing CSA Centre resources and research, to social work settings across England and Wales;
- Providing practice expertise to a range of ongoing CSA Centre initiatives across our ambitious workplan, including the implementation of our child sexual abuse response pathway and related practice resources; (http://www.csacentre.org.uk/knowledge-in-practice/practice-improvement/).
- Improve understanding of and responses to specific aspects of child sexual abuse, (such as in online settings, within family law and for black, Asian and minority ethnic children and families), through partnership work with other sector experts.
CSA Centre roles are currently funded until 31 March 2027, in line with our current grant funding arrangements. This will be reviewed in late 2026, as future funding for the CSA Centre from 2027/28 onwards is confirmed.
About us
We are the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (the CSA Centre). Our aim is to create a future where children are free from the threat and harm of sexual abuse by radically improving how we prevent and respond to the issue through really understanding its causes, scope, scale and impact.
Funded by the Home Office and hosted by Barnardo's, we are an independent organisation and will challenge any barriers, assumptions, taboos and ways of working that prevent us from increasing our understanding and improving our approach to tackling child sexual abuse.
We bring about change by:
- Collating and analysing existing research, policy, practice and the real experiences of those affected, and filling the gaps we identify with new research, insights and analysis;
- Using that evidence and insight to challenge and improve existing policy and practice, develop new approaches and increase everyone's knowledge and confidence to more effectively tackle the issue.
This role is home based with occasional travel required, usually to London.
Permanent contract, grant funded until 31 March 2027.
Applications for full and part time working will be considered.
Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements. We also welcome applications from those who wish to apply for this post as a secondment from their current role.
The CSA Centre is committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce. We actively encourage applications from disabled candidates and from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, as they are currently under-represented in the CSA Centre's staff team. We also welcome applications from those who have lived experience of child sexual abuse.
