Therapeutic Safeguard Lead

25 days annual leave, rising to 30 days (1 per full year of service) , plus public holidays, Company pension matched up to 10%. Flexible working. This role is far more than safeguarding. It is an opportunity to make a life-changing difference for young people by helping them feel safe, understood, confident, and ready to thrive. As our Safeguarding Support Therapist, you will play a pivotal role in shaping an innovative, holistic approach that supports learners aged 16-25 with SEND and SEMH needs. Combining safeguarding leadership, therapeutic practice, and creative learning, you will build trusted relationships, deliver meaningful interventions, and help learners develop the tools, resilience, and self-belief they need to succeed both in education and in life. This is a brand-new position with genuine scope to grow and evolve, offering the chance to influence practice, inspire positive change, and create lasting impact for young people, families, and communities. If you are passionate about empowering others and believe every learner deserves the opportunity to flourish, we'd love to hear from you. This is a fixed term role until March 2028 It is expected that the biggest proportion of the time (min. 3 days pw) will be spent in their support therapy role, engaging with learners differently to a standard tutor - developing and implementing new techniques to help them thrive. As a Safeguarding Support Therapist [or Therapeutic Practice Safeguarding Lead], a typical day might include:

• Acting as the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), ensuring the implementation of safeguarding policy and statutory compliance at all times, actively managing concerns, referrals, and records, liaising with external agencies as required to put the right support in place.
• Lead safeguarding training and internal practice improvements for the team, with active involvement in group-wide development of safeguarding best practice.
• Contribute to behaviour support planning to ensure we put the right practice, tools and training in across the team and interventions in place that work.
• Work with families, carers, and external professionals to develop holistic support plans and interventions to provide emotional, social, and wellbeing support.
• Deliver high-need pastoral and therapeutic sessions using tools such as creative therapy - providing a safe and confidential means of self-expression, self-reflection, understanding, exploration of emotion, and of real confidence building.
• Coordinate our pastoral support activities to ensure we are joined up, clearly documenting our action in line with EHCP and funder reporting.
• Lead the reporting and analysis of our support activities to ensure we can evidence development and progression for the learner, and identify trends for developing support.
• Develop our approach to wellbeing support and intervention, identifying opportunities to develop this group-wide that delivers real-time impact for learners and communities.
• Support the delivery of the pastoral and inclusion team, bringing innovation, new ideas and new practice to enhance our provision.
• Plan and deliver our added-value vocational learning curriculum which is focused on being an outlet for learners to creatively engage, ensuring its priority is on engagement, personal development and support tools for learners to build independence and thrive.
• Develop goal-orientated sessions that ensure safety, connect learners with support techniques and tools to reduce distress, developing self-regulation techniques to manage long-term.
• Deliver additional subjects as required.
  
  Experience of working with SEND/SEMH learners.
• Relevant teaching qualification for Post 16 learners
• Safeguarding expertise in an educational setting and readiness to act as DSL.
• Completion of L3 safeguarding qualification or willingness to do so
• Experience of delivering continuous professional development including updates to a varying audience
• Ability to design and deliver high-quality, bespoke pastoral interventions using a therapeutic and learner-centred approach that supports learner wellbeing and engagement.
• Ability to deliver high quality vocational learning.
• Strong communication and organisational skills.
• Background in behaviour support and therapeutic crisis intervention, enabling effective de-escalation and positive behaviour management.
• Ability to demonstrate a trauma informed approach.
The added extras:
• Previous DSL experience.
• Vocational teaching experience in multiple areas.
• Experience applying behaviour support techniques, underpinned by training in approaches such as Team Teach or Therapeutic Crisis Intervention, to manage and de-escalate challenging situations.
• Recognised formal qualification in MA therapeutic crisis intervention, or equivalent practice such as Psychology, Diploma in Creative Therapeutic Practice, Art Psychotherapy or willingness to undertake.
• Registration and membership of the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council).
  
  Generous holiday entitlement - 25 days annual plus bank holidays
• Pension contributions up to 10%
• The opportunity to undertake professional training, funded by us
• One days paid leave a year for volunteering work (in addition to your Annual leave entitlement)
• Staff benefits with Paycare - A health and benefits scheme giving you support and contributions towards various health benefits
• Benefits with Acis Perkz - a discount scheme giving you savings off hundreds of schemes including discounts on your coffee, weekly shop, days out and much more
• Employee recognition scheme, where we celebrate and award our Stars within Acis, including gift vouchers
• Long service awards for our loyal employees
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme to give you confidential advice and support, when you need it
• Professional membership subscription to support your continuous professional development
• Death in service benefit as part of our pension scheme