Lead Child Protection Practitioner

Location:

Ely with countywide travel expected, CB7 4EX

Are you an experienced Child Protection professional, Team Manager, Child Protection Conference Chair or Senior Practitioner looking to further your career development? Do you want the opportunity to use your expertise to support the development of a new Families First model? Are you passionate about improving outcomes for children, young people and their families? We'd love to hear from you.

As a Lead Child Protection Practitioner (LCPP), you will work collaboratively with managers, social workers, colleagues within the Family Help Service and partner agencies as part of a Multi-Agency Child Protection Team.

This is a senior practice leadership role with a focus on strengthening and promoting high-quality child protection practice across the partnership. You will provide professional oversight, scrutiny and challenge to support effective decision-making, consistency of practice and positive outcomes for children.

This role carries significant responsibility for safeguarding decision-making and requires sound professional judgement, confidence and substantial safeguarding expertise. A central aspect of the role is making complex threshold decisions for children suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. You will lead multi-agency decision-making forums, including decisions relating to Section 47 enquiries, determining when multi-agency investigations are required, chairing strategy discussions and child protection conferences, and making recommendations on threshold for Child Protection and Child in Need plans.

You will ensure safeguarding processes are robust, supportive, transparent and child-focused, while also supporting frontline practitioners through professional advice, guidance, consultation and mentoring.

While this is not a line management role and does not have direct responsibility for a team, you will be expected to influence practice through your expertise, consultation and professional leadership, supporting practitioners and managers to make safe and effective decisions for children and families.

This role commences in a pilot scheme within East Cambridgeshire with a mix of office, based at Noble House in Ely, and home working. Beyond the pilot, more LCPPs will be recruited to various other locations across Cambridgeshire and you will have the opportunity to look at these alternative locations. There is also an expectation to attend conferences and potentially home visits across the county.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

wellbeing package to cover

all aspects of wellbeing
, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family

• 6 days of

protected time each year to support in maintaining your Continuous Professional Development

• A

relocation package (eligibility applies)

• A

Refer a Friend Scheme
where if you refer another Social Worker to us who is subsequently employed by us as a result of that introduction, we’ll pay you an introduction fee of £350

• Access to our

Cambridgeshire Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) who will support your development, enabling you to become the best practitioner you can be

What will you be doing?

The successful candidate will:

• Convene and chair strategy meetings, providing leadership, professional expertise and effective oversight of decision-making.
• Lead complex multi-agency decision-making, including determining when joint investigations with partner agencies, such as the police, are required and identifying when medical examinations should be undertaken.
• Sign off Section 47 enquiries and in some instances, support the Family Help Practitioner to visit families.
• Provide oversight, scrutiny and quality assurance of child protection practice and processes.
• Chair…