Head of Safeguarding Children's and Adult Services

Community Integrated Care

The opportunity and what makes Community Integrated Care a great place to work

Are you an accomplished safeguarding leader who can provide professional authority, influence senior decision-making and create a culture where protecting people is everyone’s responsibility?

At Community Integrated Care, we are looking for a Head of Safeguarding, Children and Adult Services to lead our safeguarding strategy and practice across England and Scotland. Reporting into the Director of Quality & Impact, this is an influential national position in which you will provide organisational assurance, advise senior leaders and ensure safeguarding is embedded across our governance, culture, operations, workforce development and approach to continuous improvement.

This senior opportunity offers:

A salary of £61,800 to £66,950 plus £5,000 car allowance
A four-day working week, with 37.5 contracted hours
Hybrid working, with attendance at our Widnes head office at least once a month
The opportunity to shape safeguarding strategy, governance and practice across England and Scotland
A prominent advisory role supporting Executive leaders, senior managers and operational teams
The opportunity to strengthen organisational learning, professional practice and workforce capability
Infrequent national travel to visit services and work alongside colleagues and partners

You will serve as the organisation's independent specialist source of safeguarding advice and escalation, supporting our colleagues to make legally sound, evidence-based and person-centred decisions. You will also provide the Board and Executive Team with clear assurance about safeguarding risks, performance, compliance and organisational learning.

Who you’ll be supporting & more about the role:

The people we support may include children, young people and adults at risk. Your leadership will help protect people from abuse, neglect, exploitation, improper treatment and avoidable harm, while ensuring that dignity, human rights, choice, voice and wellbeing remain central to every safeguarding decision.

As Head of Safeguarding, Children and Adult Services, you will act as our designated safeguarding lead and provide visible, authoritative leadership across the organisation. You will shape our UK-wide safeguarding strategy, operating model, policies, standards and practice guidance, ensuring these reflect both national expectations and the specific legal and safeguarding frameworks operating in England and Scotland.

Your key priorities will include:

Leading the development and continuous improvement of our safeguarding strategy, governance framework and operating model
Providing expert advice, consultation and constructive challenge to Executive leaders, trustees, senior managers and operational teams
Overseeing complex safeguarding concerns, allegations, serious incidents, referrals and investigations
Ensuring cases are appropriately assessed, recorded, escalated, monitored and concluded
Coordinating effective relationships with local authorities, police, regulators, designated officers and safeguarding partnerships
Leading organisational safeguarding audits, thematic reviews and quality assurance activity
Turning learning from incidents, complaints, inspections and investigations into practical and measurable improvements
Maintaining effective arrangements for regulatory notifications and DBS, PVG and other relevant referrals
Supporting safer recruitment, suitability checks and the effective management of allegations involving colleagues, volunteers, contractors or agency workers
Leading our safeguarding learning framework so colleagues, managers, senior leaders and trustees understand their responsibilities
Developing accessible policies, guidance, briefings and professional learning resources
Promoting open reporting and a culture in which colleagues feel confident to speak up
Ensuring the voices, rights and experiences of children and adults remain central to safeguarding practice
Identifying emerging risks and recommending improvements to systems, training, culture and practice

You will work collaboratively with our Executive Team, operational leaders, managers and colleagues across quality, people, health, learning and corporate services. Externally, you will build credible partnerships with statutory agencies, regulators, police and safeguarding bodies, representing Community Integrated Care at relevant senior forums.

Success in this role will mean safeguarding risks are clearly understood and acted upon, practice is person-centred and legally compliant, and learning leads to tangible improvements. It will also mean more consistent safeguarding standards across England and Scotland and stronger protection of people’s safety, dignity, rights and wellbeing.

About you:

You will be an experienced, values-led safeguarding professional with the credibility and confidence to advise at the most senior levels. You will combine sound professional judgement with the ability to remain calm and objective when managing complex, sensitive or high-risk situations.

Essential experience and knowledge

You will bring:

A relevant professional qualification in social work, nursing, allied health, psychology, social care, education, safeguarding or a related discipline
Current professional registration where required, or equivalent safeguarding expertise and credibility
Advanced safeguarding learning and continued professional development beyond mandatory training
Substantial senior-level experience in safeguarding, protection, quality, clinical governance or social care practice
Experience of shaping organisational safeguarding strategies, frameworks, standards or operating models
Strong knowledge of adult safeguarding, Adult Support and Protection and child protection
An understanding of safeguarding responsibilities and frameworks across England and Scotland
Experience of advising on complex, sensitive or high-risk safeguarding matters
Strong knowledge of relevant legal and ethical areas, including mental capacity, Adults with Incapacity, consent, information sharing, human rights and least restrictive practice
Experience of using audits, reviews, incidents, complaints, inspections and data to strengthen assurance and drive measurable improvement
Experience of working with regulators, local authorities, police, protection committees and safeguarding partnerships
The ability to translate legislation, guidance and organisational learning into clear policies, practical resources and effective learning
Knowledge of key safeguarding risks, including neglect, exploitation, domestic abuse, coercive control, financial harm, organisational abuse, self-neglect, modern slavery, online harm and contextual safeguarding

You will be able to interpret complex information, identify patterns and emerging risks, and make balanced, defensible decisions where legal, ethical, operational and human rights considerations may intersect.

You will also need the confidence to provide respectful professional challenge, influence Executive and Board-level stakeholders and explain complex safeguarding issues clearly to different audiences. Strong partnership-building, report-writing, coaching and prioritisation skills will be important, alongside the ability to convert assurance findings into practical improvements.

Most importantly, you will share our commitment to dignity, inclusion, safety and human rights. You will be courageous when concerns need to be escalated, reflective in your practice and committed to creating a learning culture that focuses on meaningful improvement rather than blame.

If you are ready to use your safeguarding expertise to protect people, influence organisational practice and strengthen safeguarding across a national charity, click Apply to submit your application.

Please note, if you are interested in this role, we welcome your application as soon as possible! Depending on the volume of applications received, the vacancy may be closed before the expected advertising end date.

Interested and want to know a bit more?

To find out more about our charity check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zYkoj7x8s

We’re really proud to be a Hive HR Employee Voice Certified organisation, a recognition that confirms our commitment to creating a culture where our colleagues are not only encouraged to share their thoughts, but where this feedback is actively sought and acted upon to drive positive change at every level.

In our 2025 Colleague Engagement Survey, 59% (nearly 3,800) of our people shared their feedback and insights, giving us an incredible Employee Net Promoter Score of +34.

The Employee Net Promoter Score is a measure of how willing our colleagues are to recommend us as a good place to work to their loved ones – and a score of +34 is considered a Very Good score when compared to global benchmarks set by hundreds of other organisations.