We are responsible for the entire range of children’s education, health and social care services in all three boroughs. We use a Signs of Safety practice model and approach which ensures the voice of the child is at the heart of everything we do. There’s never been a better time to join AfC, we are growing our workforce, implementing new flexible working arrangements and have increased our virtual wellbeing offer.
This exciting role includes managing a multi-agency team who respond to all contacts into children’s social care, leading and developing the return interview service responding to children who go missing, managing the Contextual Safeguarding lead to drive the development of systems, increasing knowledge and understanding about exploitation of children within the whole of AfC, partners and community.
This is a rare opportunity to join a well-established service. As the Head of Service you will provide stability, leadership and management of our Single Point of Access (SPA). This will include maintaining and developing working relationships with partner agencies, ensuring robust processes in the SPA that provide timely and effective decision making, reviewing the MASH process and monitoring the performance within the service. You will work with other managers to achieve the best partnerships to support the work as well as staff performance with the expectation to set, review, praise and address performance across the service area. Incorporated into the SPA is the lead for developing our responses to contextual safeguarding as well as the return interview service responding to children who go missing.
Within this role, you will be expected to:
* Provide operational leadership for SPA, the Head of Service will have a major contribution to make to the delivery of the services within the wider SPA service area.
* Strengthen, develop and improve partnerships with partners and community leads includes delivering presentations, training and development opportunities to the wider partnerships and commissioning councils.
* Manage the Contextual Safeguarding lead in continuing to improve responses across the partnerships.
* Pre-Mace Chair, deputising and supporting the chairs of strategic MACE panels.
* Oversee performance management, staffing and HR processes.
To be successful in this role you will be an outstanding senior leader with proven experience and competence in managing and leading our SPA, the front door into children’s services. You will be highly motivated and competent in developing and maintaining partnerships, working within a MASH environment. You will have a working knowledge about contextual safeguarding and children who go missing and a strong desire to further develop our policies and responses to exploitation of children from a partnership perspective.
Key requirements for this role include:
* Extensive experience of leadership and management within children’s social care.
* Current and working knowledge of contextual safeguarding.
* Strong experience of chairing/monitoring complex multi-agency and multi-professional meetings.
* Knowledge of relevant statute, theory and legal frameworks that informs practice delivery.
* Confident and experienced in building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and co-producing solutions to challenges.
* Proven ability to effectively use data, intelligence and evidence to create meaningful insights.
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