Local Authority Designated Officer

Join Walsall Children's Services at an exciting time in our journey as an Outstanding local authority. We are looking for a confident, values-led and highly skilled Local Authority Designated Officer to help protect children, strengthen safeguarding practice and support safe organisations across the borough. This is a high-impact role at the heart of multi-agency safeguarding. You will provide expert advice, professional challenge and strategic oversight where concerns are raised about adults working with children, ensuring responses are timely, proportionate, fair and firmly focused on keeping children safe. In Walsall, you will be part of an ambitious, supportive and improvement-focused service where relationships, learning and high standards matter. If you are passionate about safeguarding, confident in working across complex professional networks and ready to make a visible difference for children and young people, we would love to hear from you. You will:

• Act as a system leader for safeguarding children and young people across Walsall
• Be responsible for managing allegations against adults who work with children. This involves working with police, children's social care. employers and other involved professionals.
• Manage the Position of Trust process in respect of adults in all sectors where there are concerns that they have caused harm or intend to cause harm to a child in accordance with statutory requirements
• Offer advice and guidance to those who are concerned about individuals in a position of trust in line with local safeguarding procedures.
• Manage a diverse range of sensitive relationships within the Corporation across Directorates (Children's Services, Clean & Green; Leisure Services) and with external agencies including (but not limited to) schools and education providers, early years providers, health providers, police, charities, independent, private, faith and voluntary groups at a local, regional and national stage
• Work as appropriate with HR services within the Council (Children's Services, Clean & Green; Leisure Services) and across all partnership agencies including (but not limited to) schools, and education providers, early years providers, health providers, police, charities, independent, private, faith and voluntary groups at a local, regional and national stage
• Develop and deliver training regionally and nationally to ensure consistent practice in relation to the LADO service
To apply for this role, you should have a extensive experience working directly with children and families in a safeguarding setting as a qualified social worker. Our Offer: To provide the right conditions for you, we are committed to manageable workloads, high support from managers, essential paperwork only, enabling technologies. Within Walsall we offer a comprehensive training and development programme which contributed to our OUTSTANDING Ofsted grading in May 2025. There is a comprehensive training offer for workers in Walsall. There is an impressive offer to workers in gaining a social work qualification and for newly qualified social workers developing their knowledge of frontline practice. The general training offer is wide ranging and gives workers the opportunity to learn incrementally about their role. Wellbeing is at the heart of our work. We offer specialised clinical supervision, a 9-day fortnight to support work/life balance, flexible working and specialist employee assistance and therapeutic support when it is needed. We know we need to make social work a career people want to stay in.

Note: Applicants appointed to posts that require an enhanced DBS clearance must declare any periods of time that they have lived, studied or worked abroad and be prepared to provide an Overseas Criminal Records Certificate (OCRC) or a Statement of Good Conduct (SOGC) relating to anytime they were overseas.

At Walsall Council, we appreciate that AI can be a useful tool for ideas or guidance. However, we encourage you to make sure your application reflects your own voice and experiences. Over-reliance on AI can make responses feel less personal, and we really want to understand what makes you unique. Your experiences, skills, and perspective are what set you apart, so please ensure your application as a whole - particularly your 'Supporting Information' - reflects your own voice.