Lead Child Protection Practitioner (MACPT)

Lambeth-Council; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 54,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

Lambeth Council’s Children’s Services seeks a Lead Child Protection Practitioner to lead complex safeguarding decisions within the MACPS, working with police, health, education and partners. You will drive risk-based intervention and champion child-centred practice.

You will provide expert leadership across Section 47 enquiries, strategy meetings and multi-agency safeguarding, ensuring timely, proportionate action and robust professional challenge.

Qualifications

• A recognised social work qualification and current Social Work England registration.
• Significant recent experience in front-line statutory child protection practice.
• Detailed knowledge of child protection legislation, statutory guidance, the London Child Protection Procedures and relevant multi-agency safeguarding processes.
• Experience of chairing or leading complex child protection meetings, including strategy discussions, child protection conferences or risk outside the home meetings.
• Strong risk analysis, professional curiosity and the ability to hold complexity, uncertainty and multiple hypotheses.
• The ability to work collaboratively with families and partners while providing clear professional challenge when needed.
• Be committed to inclusive and culturally competent practice, ensuring anti-discriminatory engagement with children and families.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate Section 47 child protection enquiries across Children’s Services.
• Chair strategy meetings, child protection conferences and other complex multi-agency safeguarding discussions.
• Provide expert consultation, guidance and professional challenge to social workers, managers and partner agencies.
• Support timely, evidence-informed and defensible decision-making where children may be suffering, or are likely to suffer, significant harm.
• Contribute to protection and safety planning that is clear, purposeful and focused on improving outcomes for children and young people.
• Promote high standards of recording, analysis, information-sharing and quality assurance across the child protection pathway.
• Model relational, strengths-based, trauma-informed and culturally competent practice with children, families and professionals.

Skills

Social work qualification

SW England registration

Front-line safeguarding

Child protection legislation

Multi-agency safeguarding

Chairing meetings

Risk analysis

Collaboration

Anti-discrimination practice

Education

Social Work qualification

Job description

Lead Child Protection Practitioner

PO5: £54,360 pa rising in annual increment to £57,495 pa incl. LW

Fixed Term or Secondment Opportunity for 12 month

Full Time, Hybrid Working

Join Lambeth Children’s Services

Be part of an ambitious Children’s Social Care service improving outcomes for children and families.

The London Borough of Lambeth is embarking on an exciting period of change as we deliver a series of ambitious Children’s Reforms Programmes – including Families First, Best Start Family Hubs, Best Start in Life and SEND Reforms. We strive to help every child thrive and through the reforms we are reshaping our future support for children, young people and families across the borough.

As part of the Families First Programme, we are building a practice system where relationships are key, where we work alongside children and families encouraging family led decision making and offering multi-disciplinary help when its needed. We are building on our strengths to further improve our approach to child protection, remodelling our system to create a dedicated Multi-Agency Child Protection Service (MACPS), to have the lead role in keeping children and adolescents safe.
Are you an experienced child protection social worker with the expertise, confidence and professional curiosity to lead complex safeguarding decision-making? Lambeth Council is seeking Lead Child Protection Practitioners to join our Multi-Agency Child Protection Team and play a central role in strengthening statutory child protection practice across Children’s Services.

This is a specialist role for a qualified and registered social worker who can provide expert leadership across Section 47 child protection enquiries, strategy discussions, child protection conferences and multi-agency safeguarding activity. Working alongside partners from police, health, education and wider children’s services, you will help ensure that children and young people are protected from significant harm and that families receive clear, timely and proportionate intervention.
The role is directly aligned to the Lead Child Protection Practitioner Standards, which set out the knowledge and skills required to effectively lead child protection processes.

You will be expected to demonstrate strong capability in identifying and responding to actual or likely significant harm; engaging children and families during Section 47 enquiries; formulating risk and likelihood of significant harm; and planning and intervening to prevent or stop harm.

As Lead Child Protection Practitioner, you will provide consultation, challenge and guidance to social workers and partner agencies, promoting high-quality analysis, defensible decision-making and child-centred planning. You will bring together information from across the professional network, support robust assessment of risk inside and outside the home, and ensure safeguarding responses are relational, trauma-informed, anti-racist, inclusive and proportionate.

About the role

You will work within a co-located Multi-Agency Child Protection Team, exercising the local authority’s statutory child protection duties in line with the Children Act 1989, the Children Act 2004, Working Together to Safeguard Children, the London Child Protection Procedures and Lambeth’s local safeguarding arrangements.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Leading and coordinating Section 47 child protection enquiries across Children’s Services.
• Chairing strategy meetings, child protection conferences and other complex multi-agency safeguarding discussions.
• Providing expert consultation, guidance and professional challenge to social workers, managers and partner agencies.
• Supporting timely, evidence-informed and defensible decision-making where children may be suffering, or are likely to suffer, significant harm.
• Contributing to protection and safety planning that is clear, purposeful and focused on improving outcomes for children and young people.
• Promoting high standards of recording, analysis, information-sharing and quality assurance across the child protection pathway.
• Modelling relational, strengths-based, trauma-informed and culturally competent practice with children, families and professionals.

About You

We are looking for a confident and experienced practitioner who can bring professional authority, sound judgement and a strong commitment to child-centred safeguarding.

You will have significant operational experience in statutory child protection and a strong understanding of intra-familial and extra-familial harm, including adolescent exploitation and risk outside the home.

You will be able to demonstrate:

• A recognised social work qualification and current Social Work England registration.
• Significant recent experience in front-line statutory child protection practice.
• Detailed knowledge of child protection legislation, statutory guidance, the London Child Protection Procedures and relevant multi-agency safeguarding processes.
• Experience of chairing or leading complex child protection meetings, including strategy discussions, child protection conferences or risk outside the home meetings.
• Strong risk analysis, professional curiosity and the ability to hold complexity, uncertainty and multiple hypotheses.
• The ability to work collaboratively with families and partners while providing clear professional challenge when needed.
• Be committed to inclusive and culturally competent practice, ensuring anti-discriminatory engagement with children and families.

Close Date: 4th October at midnight

Short listing will be 5th / 6th October

Interviews will be 25th /26th October

Lead Child Protection Practitioner JD PS

This post requires an enhanced DBS check, satisfactory health and work record, and the ability to travel for business purposes where required. We operate a hybrid working model with office base and work from home and this role requires the majority of time within the borough working closely with children, families, social workers, managers and multi-agency safeguarding partners.

If you are ready to bring expert child protection leadership to a role where your professional judgement, challenge and partnership working will make a direct difference, we would welcome your application.

Further reading: Lead Child Protection Practitioner Standards