Local Authority Designated Officer

Walsall Council; Walsall; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

Walsall Council is seeking a confident Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) to lead safeguarding for children and young people across the borough. You will manage allegations against adults working with children, work with police, social care, schools and other partners, and drive safeguarding across multiple agencies.

The role requires extensive frontline safeguarding experience as a qualified social worker.

Qualifications

• Qualified social worker with current registration.
• Extensive safeguarding experience in a multi-agency setting.
• Experience leading and challenging partners to improve safeguarding practice.

Responsibilities

• Act as system leader for safeguarding children and young people across Walsall.
• Manage allegations against adults who work with children in collaboration with police and social care.
• Oversee the Position of Trust process across sectors with statutory guidance.
• Provide expert advice and guidance on safeguarding concerns and trusted relationships.
• Develop and deliver regional and national safeguarding training and ensure consistent practice.

Skills

Safeguarding expertise

Strategic oversight

Interagency collaboration

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Qualified social worker

Tools

Job description

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

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.