Child Protection Adviser

As a Child Protection Adviser, you will be responsible for chairing Initial and Review Child Protection Conferences, ensuring they are timely, inclusive and firmly focused on building safety and achieving change. Using a strengths-based, relationship-focused approach aligned with Strengthening Families, you'll support professionals and families to understand risk, address harm and agree effective, child-centred plans. You'll act as a critical friend to social work teams and partner agencies, offering expert advice, professional challenge and guidance on thresholds, planning and statutory requirements. Quality assurance is a key aspect of the role - you'll monitor and review Child Protection Plans, contribute to the audit framework, and share learning and best practice to continually improve standards across the service. The role is highly collaborative. You'll work closely with multi-agency partners, contribute to dispute resolution where required, take part in a weekly duty rota, and support learning and development by contributing to training and performance reporting. Above all, you'll ensure that the voice of the child is central to every discussion and decision.

You are an experienced, confident and reflective social work professional with substantial post-qualification experience in statutory children's services, ideally at an advanced practitioner or management level. You bring a strong working knowledge of child protection legislation, statutory guidance and safeguarding procedures, and you are comfortable using your professional authority to challenge constructively when needed. You are an excellent communicator - able to chair complex meetings, engage families and professionals, and produce clear, well-evidenced reports. You understand risk, can develop robust child-focused protection plans, and are skilled at working collaboratively with partners to promote safety and positive change. You will hold a recognised social work qualification, be registered with Social Work England, and be committed to ongoing professional development. You'll also need the ability to travel across the county, with access to a vehicle.

Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020 and 2023).
For further information on filtering please refer to Nacro guidance and the guidance published by the Ministry of Justice (see, in particular, the section titled 'Exceptions Order').Our values We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are - Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy. By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:
• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events
At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that's why we're working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation. From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it's important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments. We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.We recognise and reward you Hard work and success deserves recognition. That's why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants and shops, a generous employer pension contribution in line with the Local Government Pension Scheme, discounts on gym memberships and more - https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council