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We are seeking an experienced and highly motivated Head of Service to lead Safeguarding within Children’s Social Care. This is a senior leadership role for a qualified social worker who can provide strategic direction, professional leadership and operational oversight across safeguarding services. You will play a key role in ensuring children and young people receive timely, effective and consistently high-quality support.

You will lead, manage and develop safeguarding teams, promoting a strong culture of practice excellence, accountability and continuous improvement. Your responsibilities will include overseeing child protection activity, managing complex and high-risk cases, ensuring effective partnership working, and maintaining robust quality assurance arrangements. You will support the delivery of statutory duties, relevant legislation and national safeguarding standards, while ensuring that children’s voices, wishes and feelings remain central to decision-making.

Working collaboratively with colleagues across social care, education, health, police and other partner agencies, you will strengthen multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and contribute to strategic planning and service development. You will monitor performance, identify areas for improvement and ensure learning from audits, reviews and practice evaluations is embedded effectively. The role will also involve preparing reports, contributing to governance forums and supporting the development of policies, procedures and workforce initiatives.

You will be a registered and experienced social worker with substantial post-qualifying experience in children’s safeguarding and demonstrable experience of leading teams or services. You should have a strong understanding of child protection processes, relevant legislation, inspection frameworks and evidence-informed social work practice. Excellent communication, analytical and decision-making skills are essential, together with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and build effective professional relationships.

You will be confident working in a demanding environment, able to manage competing priorities and committed to achieving positive outcomes for children and families. In return, this role offers the opportunity to shape safeguarding practice, support a skilled workforce and make a meaningful contribution to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.