About Us
Sussex Alternative Provision College (WSAPC) is one of the largest and most diverse registered Alternative Provision organisations in the country, supporting hundreds of children and young people across West Sussex every year.
Our work spans primary, secondary and post-16 education, supporting pupils who are permanently excluded, at risk of exclusion, unable to attend school due to medical needs, experiencing significant barriers to learning, or requiring specialist intervention to successfully access education. We operate across multiple sites and services throughout the county, working in partnership with schools, families, health services and local authority teams to ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed.
At Sussex APC, we believe that every child deserves a sense of belonging, regardless of their starting point or the challenges they face. We are ambitious for our pupils and committed to helping them develop the confidence, skills and resilience needed to achieve positive futures.
We are looking for people who share our values and believe that relationships, compassion and high expectations can change lives. In return, we offer a supportive and collaborative working environment where professional development is encouraged, innovation is welcomed and every member of staff plays an important role in improving outcomes for children and young people.
If you are motivated by purpose, committed to inclusion and want to make a genuine difference every day, WSAPC offers a unique opportunity to be part of something special.
Job Details
An opportunity to shape safeguarding practice across Alternative Provision.
West Sussex Alternative Provision College is looking for an experienced and passionate safeguarding professional to join our Curriculum Access Team as our Safeguarding Practice Lead.
Working across our College, you will help ensure that strong safeguarding practice is consistently applied, proactive and continually improving. This is not a caseload-holding role. Instead, you will work alongside our Centre and Service DSLs to quality assure safeguarding practice, provide advice, guidance and professional challenge, and support colleagues with thresholds, referral pathways and appropriate escalation. A key focus will be helping to embed a strong safeguarding culture across WSAPC, one where staff are professionally curious, concerns are raised early, recording and decision-making are of a consistently high standard, and safeguarding is understood as everyone's responsibility.
You will take a College wide view of safeguarding, using audits, case reviews, safeguarding data and quality assurance of recording and reporting to identify emerging risks, themes, gaps and areas for development. Rather than taking over individual cases, you will support and strengthen the practice of those managing them, ensuring learning is shared and translated into improved policy, training and practice across the College.
You will be an integral member of our Curriculum Access Team, participating in referral panels, working collaboratively with DSLs and other professionals to consider vulnerability and safeguarding context alongside education, attendance, SEND, behaviour, mental health and wider barriers to engagement.
About you
You may already be an experienced DSL or Deputy DSL looking for an opportunity to broaden your impact beyond an individual school or setting. Equally, you may have developed your safeguarding expertise through Early Help, family support, children's services or another safeguarding service and be interested in bringing that experience into education. What matters is that you understand vulnerable children and families, can recognise risk and emerging need, and have the professional confidence to ask questions, challenge appropriately and help others strengthen their practice. You will understand the importance of good safeguarding decision-making: recognising thresholds, knowing when and where concerns should be referred, and ensuring that safeguarding records clearly demonstrate the concern, professional thinking, action taken and outcome.
You will need strong professional judgement, excellent communication skills and the ability to build constructive relationships with children and young people, families, colleagues and external professionals. You will also be comfortable analysing safeguarding information, undertaking quality assurance and translating findings into clear actions and improvements. Experience of Alternative Provision would be valuable but is not essential. We are particularly interested in candidates who understand the relationship between safeguarding, vulnerability, family circumstances and a child's ability to successfully engage with education.
The role
As Safeguarding Practice Lead, you will:
- Provide accessible safeguarding advice, guidance and professional challenge across WSAPC.
- Work alongside Centre and Service DSLs to strengthen consistency and share effective safeguarding practice.
- Provide advice and guidance on safeguarding thresholds and referral pathways, supporting staff to identify the right route for support, intervention, referral or escalation.
- Coordinate safeguarding quality assurance, including audits, thematic reviews and case sampling.
- Quality assure safeguarding recording and reporting, supporting consistently high standards in how concerns, decisions, actions, referrals and outcomes are recorded and followed through.
- Own and monitor the College Safeguarding Action Plan, ensuring identified improvements are progressed and embedded into practice.
- Analyse safeguarding information to identify emerging risks, contextual safeguarding concerns, recurring themes and areas for development.
- Produce and contribute to safeguarding reporting for Executive Leadership and Governors.
- Participate in CAT referral panels, working with relevant DSLs and professionals to coordinate safeguarding actions and ensure appropriate follow-through.
- Support the development and review of safeguarding and child protection policy and practice.
- Identify emerging training needs and contribute to safeguarding training, briefings and professional development.
- Build effective relationships with Early Help, children's services, health, police, education and other safeguarding partners.
Why WSAPC?
West Sussex Alternative Provision College is a diverse, multi-site organisation supporting children and young people across the county who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to access or successfully engage with mainstream education. Our pupils bring different experiences, strengths and challenges, and no two journeys through APC are the same. We work with young people experiencing exclusion, SEND, SEMH needs, difficulties with attendance and a wide range of personal, family and contextual circumstances. Our approach is relational, personalised and built around understanding the child beyond the presenting behaviour or concern.
Safeguarding sits at the heart of that work. We want staff to be professionally curious, confident to ask questions and alert to the wider context of a young person's life. We believe strong safeguarding comes from knowing our pupils, sharing information well, seeking support early and continually reflecting on the quality of our practice. For our Safeguarding Practice Lead, the breadth of APC creates a particularly interesting opportunity. Working across our Centres and Services, you will be able to see safeguarding through a College-wide lens, connecting themes, sharing learning and supporting our teams to embed consistently strong safeguarding practice for every child and young person we work with.
If you are an experienced safeguarding professional who enjoys developing others, joining the dots and turning learning into better practice for children and young people, we would be very pleased to hear from you. Interested candidates are strongly encouraged to visit WSAPC before applying.
Safeguarding Statement
West Sussex Alternative Provision College and West Sussex County Council are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect this commitment. All successful candidates will be subject to an appropriate Disclosure and Barring Service check along with other relevant employment checks, including satisfactory references.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff to share this commitment. All appointments are subject to pre-employment checks, including references, social media check and Disclosure & Barring Service check.
WSAPC is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications for all vacancies from appropriately qualified persons regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, religion or belief.
How to Apply
To apply for this role please download the job description and application form below.
Please complete the application form and ensure that you outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills in the job description).
Once complete please return this to [email protected]
The closing date is a guide only. We intend to review applications as they are received and call those shortlisted for immediate interview. An early application is advised, as once we have appointed, we will close the recruitment process.
Should you have any questions regarding the role or the application please feel free to email us or contact us on 01444 232771.
NOTE TO CANDIDATES - Please do not select the ‘Apply online’ button as the School processes your applications directly rather than through this site.
The reference number for this role is SCHO02935.
