This is an exciting opportunity to work with the AWP Head of Social Care and Safeguarding Governance to shape the development of the AWP Safeguarding function.
We are looking for someone with a passion for ensuring that children, young people and adults at risk are effectively safeguarded. The successful applicant will be an experienced registered professional, with an understanding of Safeguarding, who has the skills to promote a culture across AWP where all practitioners and staff accept safeguarding as their core business, alongside the ability to develop systems and processes that support this culture. We are looking for an experienced manager who can lead, support and develop the safeguarding team, enhancing their engagement with multi-agency safeguarding in all its forms and inspiring them to provide a high quality safeguarding service.
Working under the supervision of the Head of Social Care and Safeguarding Governance the post holder will be responsible for providing operational leadership to ensure that children, young people and adults at risk are effectively safeguarded across the Trust.
The Head of Safeguarding provides visible leadership and day-to-day management of the Trust’s Safeguarding Team, ensuring strong governance, high-quality supervision, and continuous learning.
As the Trust’s senior safeguarding professional, the post-holder leads the development, implementation and continuous improvement of safeguarding systems, policies and governance frameworks in line with NHS England (NHSE) safeguarding requirements, national legislation and statutory guidance.
The post-holder provides authoritative, evidence-based advice on safeguarding children under the Children Acts, safeguarding adults under the Care Act 2014, and offers expert guidance on domestic abuse, historical abuse, MAPPA, Prevent, FGM, CSE and Modern Slavery.
We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.
Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.
At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.
Provide operational coordination and oversight of high‑quality safeguarding practice across all AWP services, ensuring compliance with national legislation, NHSE safeguarding requirements, regulatory standards, and local policies and procedures.
Ensure robust and comprehensive safeguarding arrangements are in place and consistently applied, meeting all statutory, regulatory and legal frameworks for children, young people and adults at risk.
Work in partnership with the Mental Health Legislation Lead and the Social Care Leads to support an integrated and compliant approach to the Mental Capacity Act (2005), including the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (2008), ensuring effective implementation at both strategic and operational levels.
Ensure timely, expert safeguarding advice and support is available to clinical colleagues regarding the assessment, care and management of children, young people and adults where safeguarding concerns arise, while reinforcing individual professional accountability.
Act as a specialist adviser to Named Professionals, HR colleagues, police, social care and other statutory and voluntary agencies, providing expert guidance on safeguarding matters as required.
Ensure effective Trust representation and participation in multi‑agency Safeguarding Boards, partnerships, networks and committees, supporting assurance, collaboration and delivery of safeguarding responsibilities.
Lead a consistent and evidence‑based approach to the implementation, delivery and continuous improvement of safeguarding practice, holding responsibility for the development, maintenance and review of all safeguarding policies and procedures.
Oversee the Trust’s participation in multi‑agency and statutory safeguarding reviews, including Serious Case Reviews, Safeguarding Adult Reviews and Domestic Homicide Reviews, ensuring high‑quality contributions and organisational learning.
Work in partnership with the Trust Patient Safety Specialist to ensure learning from safeguarding reviews is translated into meaningful action, embedded in practice and monitored for impact.
Lead the development, review and revision of safeguarding‑related policies, procedures and guidance, ensuring they reflect emerging issues, learning from investigations, national policy developments and NHSE safeguarding expectations.
Work collaboratively with Operational Service Managers to support regulatory inspections and reviews of safeguarding arrangements (e.g., CQC, JTAI, Ofsted), ensuring preparedness and high-quality evidence of compliance.
Lead on the development and implementation of the Trust strategy and service provision in respect of safeguarding.
Lead on developing the safeguarding annual report for the Trust, including the development of the Trust annual safeguarding action plans and overseeing the implementation of these.
Provide quarterly safeguarding assurance reports to the Trust Quality and Standards Committee and to commissioners and Safeguarding Boards.
Develop robust strategic and operational relationships with managers and staff to ensure Operational Services are well placed to deliver high quality safe services, in line with legislation and best practice.
Actively promote equality, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of service delivery and employment, ensuring that patients, carers and staff are treated fairly, with dignity and respect.
Provide senior leadership in high-profile and complex safeguarding investigations, taking the lead where appropriate and chairing or attending strategy meetings to ensure effective
multi-agency coordination and decision-making.
Critically analyse complex, sensitive and often high-risk information relating to adult safeguarding cases and statutory reviews, using professional judgement to inform recommendations, actions and learning.
Promote a culture whereby all practitioners and staff accept safeguarding as their business and understand the rights of children and vulnerable adults to be safeguarded from harm.
Work strategically across the Trust, ensuring Safeguarding is considered in all new business and service development.
Ensuring safeguarding training and support is available to all Trust staff and is aligned to national training standards and best practice.
Fulfil the role of Trust Prevent Lead, ensuring delivery of the Prevent Duty, compliance with NHSE Prevent standards, and effective partnership working with regional Prevent leads and external agencies.
Lead safeguarding audit and benchmarking activity, working collaboratively with Governance colleagues to ensure that learning, themes and outcomes are identified, disseminated and embedded in practice in line with NHSE safeguarding assurance standards.
Provide specialist advice to Operational and HR colleagues on the management of allegations of abuse or neglect involving staff, ensuring compliance with statutory guidance, safer recruitment principles and the Trust’s disciplinary and safeguarding procedures.
Develop and maintain a robust database for safeguarding allegations, ensuring accurate, timely and comprehensive information is recorded to support oversight, trend analysis and reporting.
Monitor and analyse safeguarding activity and performance data, including key performance indicators, and provide required reports to the Trust, Local Authorities and other partners to support statutory returns and NHSE assurance processes
Build strong relationships across internal and external organisations, representing the Trust professionally and raising the profile of safeguarding services through effective communication, partnership working and cross‑site engagement.
Ensure the effective and efficient use of safeguarding resources, managing staffing and service delivery within agreed budgets while maintaining high standards of quality, safety and compliance, reflecting current and emergent service needs and ensuring the highest quality standards within finite resources.
Please see Job Description for full details
