Professionals Online Safety Helpline Practitioner

• Reporting to: Professionals Online Safety Helpline Team Leader
• Salary: £24,500 per annum
• Working Hours: Term-time only
• Closing Date: This vacancy will remain open until a successful candidate is appointed.

SWGfL is a not-for-profit charity ensuring everyone can benefit from technology free from harm. Forming 1/3 of the UK Safer Internet Centre, our experts advise schools, public bodies and industry on appropriate actions to take regarding safeguarding and advancing positive online safety policies.

SWGfL has been at the forefront of online safety for 25 years, delivering vital solutions, engaging presentations and training to a wide variety of audiences nationally and internationally. Our work has brought online safety to the forefront of public attention, ensuring everyone can develop their understanding of what online safety truly means in an ever-changing world.

The successful applicant will work on our leading safeguarding and education Helpline, the Professionals Online Safety Helpline (POSH). The role will involve responding to calls, emails and reports, offering advice and support that will help to resolve issues relating to online safety/safeguarding. The service primarily supports schools (and other children’s professionals), so the post holder will be able to offer advice on a wide range of issues from cyber-bullying, monitoring and filtering and more complex safeguarding issues.

A large portion of time will be spent viewing content and reporting this to industry platforms for removal. This will usually be low-level harmful content, however, there will be times where the post holder may be exposed to graphic content while undertaking this work. Appropriate support and clinical supervision will be offered to staff to help deal with this.

Responses will be made via email and telephone using an internal database to log call notes and send replies to incoming emails. Training to use telephone system and database will be provided. Working with a range of stakeholders will be necessary including, police, teaching unions, online safety NGOs and primarily social media/other platforms.

The successful candidate will have GCSEs in Maths and English (or equivalent), with further study to A Level or degree level desirable, and experience in a support environment, ideally including helpline or telephone counselling and working with young people.

You will be confident using computer systems including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and project management tools, with strong data handling and reporting skills, and have a clear understanding of the Violence Against Women and Girls agenda, safeguarding young people and their online world, relevant policies and procedures, and the confidence to discuss challenging topics.

Desirable additional knowledge includes understanding of the Criminal Justice system and the Online Safety Act, as well as the ability to record and log written and verbal communications within call management systems. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills are essential, including the ability to work calmly, effectively, sensitively and collaboratively, and personal qualities such as tenacity, resilience, accuracy under pressure, and a logical, methodical approach are key to delivering high‑quality support.

To learn more about the role, please visit the SWGfL website.