Practice Development Lead - Safeguarding

Blackpool Council; Lancashire; On-site; GBP 47,000 - 51,000; Full time

Job summary

Blackpool Council is seeking a Safeguarding Practice Development Lead to support safeguarding work and create the right environment for staff to help people live well. The role focuses on building trusted relationships, centering people’s wishes, and ensuring safety decisions are made respectfully and ethically.

You will work in a small, well-supported team, engaging with diverse communities, and contributing to a culture that respects rights and supports independence.

Qualifications

• Listen and recognise that people are experts in their own lives.
• Respect the dignity and diversity of the people you’re working with.
• Understand and respond to people’s unique needs and aspirations.
• Communicate respectfully with and about people.
• Be curious, be useful, be kind, be brave.

Responsibilities

• Build trusted relationships and have conversations based on what matters to people.
• Understand what is making a person less safe and why.
• Keep people’s wishes, feelings and beliefs central to decisions.
• Support independence and connect people to wider networks of opportunity.
• Respond quickly in a crisis and stay with people until things improve.

Skills

Listen

Respect dignity

Communication

Curiosity

Be brave

Do no harm

Critical reflection

Job description

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37 per week

Salary: NJC Grade H3 SCP 36-40 £47,181 - £51,356 per annum

Closing Date: 3rd November 2026 at 23:59 pm

At Blackpool Council we want the people we serve to live well. This means living ordinary lives in the place they call home, in communities where they look out for one another, doing what matters to them.

If people need some support, we start by understanding what a good life looks like for them, and how we can we work together to achieve it. This includes when people are at risk of abuse or neglect and need some support or advice in order to stay safe and protect themselves.

We are looking for a Safeguarding Practice Development Lead to support our safeguarding work, so that the right environment is created for all of our staff to achieve this.

We are responsible for:

• building trusted relationships
• having conversations with people based on what matters most to them
• understanding what is making a person less safe and why
• making sure people’s wishes, feelings and beliefs are central to decision making
• supporting people to live as independently as possible, for as long as possible connecting people to wider networks of opportunity and support
• increasing people’s hope, self-esteem and creative potential
• responding quickly in a crisis and sticking with people until things are better for them
• being involved in people’s lives in the least intrusive way
• Respecting People's decisions and ensuring any decisions they can't make by themselves are made in their best interests.
• Making plans with people to help them be as safe as they can be and want to be
• keeping in touch with people to check how they are, how things are going and if anything needs to change.

You will be required to:

• Listen and recognise that people are experts in their own lives
• respect the dignity and diversity of the people you’re working with
• understand and respond to people’s unique needs and aspirations
• communicate respectfully with and about people
• be curious
• be useful
• be kind
• Be brave
• uphold human rights and social justice
• question the status quo
• do no harm.
• critically reflect and keep learning.

In return, you will get:

• The opportunity work hard and improve the lives of people who need your support
• To be part of an organisation which is building a culture of respecting people and building on their strengths
• To be part of a small, well supported team who work innovatively to support people flexibly
• To model all of the above across a whole organisation
• A package of rewards and benefits which is competitive with the best.
• To take part in well structured, helpful and reflective supervision
• To do all of this in one of the UK's most iconic towns.

At this point in time we are not able to offer a Visa sponsorship in this role due to operational reasons

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children/vulnerable adults. This post is subject to satisfactory reference history of at least two years, Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check, medical clearance, evidence of any essential qualifications and proof of Right to Work in the UK in accordance with the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and amendments to the exemptions order, which mean that certain offences are ‘protected’ and do not need to be disclosed, guidance on the "filtering" of offences can be found at New filtering rules for DBS certificates (from 28 November 2020 onwards) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

For further information on the health and wellbeing support on offer during your employment, please see here.

Have you got what it takes to ride the Roller Coaster ride of Social Work in Blackpool? for further information on the career path and development opportunities available at Blackpool please see here.