Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) - Ref: CH05626

Walsall Community Network; Walsall; Hybrid; GBP 56,000 - 59,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Wellbeing support

Clinical supervision

9‑day fortnight

Training and development

Job summary

Walsall Council’s Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) role is a high‑impact safeguarding position within Walsall Children’s Services. You will provide expert advice, professional challenge, and strategic oversight across agencies to protect children and ensure proportionate responses to concerns about adults working with children.

The post requires extensive experience with safeguarding, a qualified social worker, and the ability to work across complex networks.

Qualifications

• Extensive safeguarding experience with children and families.
• Qualified social worker with HCPC registration (where applicable).
• DBS clearance required for role.

Responsibilities

• Act as system leader for safeguarding children and young people across Walsall.
• Manage allegations against adults who work with children and collaborate with police and children's social care.
• Oversee the Position of Trust process for adults in all sectors with concerns about harming a child.
• Provide expert advice to those in positions of trust in line with safeguarding procedures.
• Coordinate work with HR and partner agencies across directorates and external organisations.
• Develop and deliver regional and national training to ensure consistent practice for LADO services.

Skills

Safeguarding expertise

Interagency collaboration

Leadership

Policy guidance

Education

Social Work qualification

Job description

Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) - Ref: CH05626
G12: £55,662 - £59,490 pro rata to hours worked.

Part time post working 18.5 hours per week.

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.
• 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.

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.

Closing date for applications: Sunday 4th October

Interviews will be held during the week commencing 12th October

Walsall Council’s Children’s Services are the only Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ local authority in the Black Country. During a visit in May 2025, Inspectors described Walsall Council as a place where children were at the heart of. The council’s journey of continuous improvement started in 2017 and has since transformed into a service with a clear vision, clear priorities and a clear plan, all informed by the views of our staff and children. Staff are at the core of delivering great outcomes for children and young people in Walsall, which is underpinned by our Walsall Right 4 Children vision. The latest Ofsted inspection demonstrated that staff in children’s services are proud to work for Walsall Council and feel supported to do great work.

Walsall Council takes seriously the responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all the children, young people and vulnerable adults entrusted to our care and it is our expectation that all staff will share this commitment. We will ensure continuous development and improvement of robust recruitment processes and procedures that promote a culture of safeguarding amongst our workforce. Completion of an enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check is a requirement for working with children, young people and vulnerable adults.

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.