Contextual Safeguarding Lead

An exciting opportunity for a Contextual Safeguarding Lead in the Early Help Service has arisen…

Brent is a tremendously vibrant London borough where the iconic arch of Wembley Stadium dominates the skyline. Spanning both inner and outer London, it is a borough of huge contrasts in terms of its economic, environmental, ethnic and social make up. Brent’s diversity is evident to all who visit our borough and our long history of ethnic and cultural diversity has created a place that is truly unique and valued by those who live and work here.

The council is pursuing a far-reaching transformation agenda that better meets the needs of our community so it is an exciting time to join us.

The Post

We are looking for an enthusiastic and passionate practitioner who is committed to providing support to children and young people who are at risk of extra familial harm. This post would be ideal for experienced practice consultants/team managers, with a proven track record of understanding contextual safeguarding from the Brent perspective.

You will be integral in supporting teams in understanding and addressing the complex risks children and young people face away from their family homes. This will include facilitating case consultations and complex strategy discussions, being involved in mapping meetings and location assessments, encouraging the use of the Vulnerability and Violence Risk Assessment (VARA) and attending/facilitating various panels (Exploitation, Violence and Vulnerability Panels (EVVP), the Contextual Safeguarding Champions Group (CSCG), the Contextual Safeguarding Strategic Group (CSSG) , Missing Children’s Meetings and also Cross Departmental Meetings in regard to specific cohorts of young people.

It also includes facilitating training and keeping up to date with the latest policy developments and providing reports to Senior Management. The role also requires the management of five staff members, managing the out of hours service and, should the need arise, facilitate child protection conferences, in particular risk outside the home (ROTH) safety meetings.

The Person

The right candidate will have an understanding and comprehensive knowledge of exploitation in all different areas, including peer on peer, grooming and online activities and work closely with the Service Leads to develop, implement and embed the Targeted Prevention Service offer.

You will have significant post qualifying experience including safeguarding statutory work with children and their families and are able to make strong and sound decisions, challenging practitioners, where necessary, to drive best practice.

We are looking for expressions of interest from Team Managers who are committed to providing the highest quality services for our children and young people while also achieving best value.

If you require further information or would like an informal discussion, please contact:

Sabine Kadhaya – Service Manager - [email protected]

🗓️ Closing date: 3 August 2025 (23:00)

Additional Information

You must provide a supporting statement as part of your application that clearly shows how you meet the criteria on the Person Specification. We will accept a CV in support of your application, however, you should still provide a supporting statement.

Brent Council values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this and therefore encourage applications from all sections of the community. We positively encourage all applicants to self-identify their characteristics in the diversity survey section in the application.

We are committed to safer recruitment and safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Applicants should be aware that posts working with children, young people and vulnerable adults are subject to an Enhanced DBS check as well as other employment clearances.

The information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas and your data protection rights, can be found here.

Brent has a positive approach to flexible working.

As a disability confident employer Brent welcomes applications from people with all disabilities, including “non-visible” disabilities and mental health conditions. We will interview any disabled applicant who meets the essential criteria. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made to any part of the recruitment process due to your disability, please contact us on [email protected]

Job Description