Service Manager - Local Area Designated Officer

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We are seeking to appoint an outstanding Service Manager for the Sheffield Local Authority Designated Officer Service (LADO), based in the Children and Families Quality Assurance and Involvement service. The successful candidate will have responsibility to ensure the LADO service is providing good safeguarding advice and support to employers in relation to the management of allegations against adults who work with children.

Candidates for the role of Service Manager with responsibility for the LADO must possess strategic and operational leadership skills and management experience to support team members to deliver and drive service quality forward, so that together we make a real difference to the lives of children and young people in Sheffield.

Working together 2023 states any new appointments to the LADO role, other than current or former designated officers moving between local authorities, should be qualified social workers. We welcome qualified candidates who have experience of working in the LADO role and management experience.

You will be required to manage a team who are committed to achieving good outcomes for children and providing a good service to partner agencies and employers of children\’s services across Sheffield to help safeguard children. We provide a robust induction that enables new staff to become familiar with our social care systems, policies and procedures. Staff development, wellbeing and work life balance is also a key focus for the management team, who provide a supportive, nurturing and learning environment.

The successful candidate will be managing a team of Local Authority Designated officers and work across the QAIS management team to support reviewing officers and Child Protection Co-ordinators. The LADO team expanded in June 2023 and has already helped to strengthen safeguarding practice across statutory, voluntary and community services in Sheffield. Sheffield providers of children\’s services are supported through training, information sharing, advice to address low level concerns and the management and oversight of allegations against people who work with our Sheffield children to ensure children are safe. We welcome applications from minoritised communities because they are underrepresented in senior management roles.

Sheffield Children\’s Services was rated \’good\’ by Ofsted in November 2023. The work of the LADO was commented upon, and inspectors found the LADO team as an effective one that safeguarded children and young people.

About the job

You will be creative and motivated to continue to support our excellent services and have both management experience and specialist knowledge in this area of work and you must be a qualified and registered Social Worker. You will be required to manage a service where advice, guidance and support is given to employers in statutory, private, voluntary and community organisations where an allegation has been made against a person who works in a position of trust with children and oversee and direct employer investigations to ensure thoroughness, timeliness and fairness. You will lead the team to meet the standards and guidance promoted by the National LADO network and act as LADO for high profile, complex allegations, and/or allegations against senior managers. You will be part of the Children\’s Services leadership team in Sheffield including the Out of Hours on call service rota and support high quality service delivery to children and families in Sheffield. You will provide monthly reports to Director\’s clinic, quarterly and annual reports that give an overview of the performance of the LADO service, which highlight areas of strength and development to senior management and partner agencies and will be a key person in the Ofsted inspection process.

What are we looking for?:

• A Qualified experienced Social Worker who is registered with Social Work England and who has a management qualification.

• Candidates need to have significant recent experience in children\’s safeguarding, front-line statutory and multi-agency working.
• Someone who is child focused and keeps the child central in all work undertaken.
• Good communication skills as well as the ability to collaborate with partner agencies and foster good working relationships.
• Substantive knowledge of relevant childcare legislation and Working Together to Safeguard Children as well as Keeping Children Safe in Education.
• Be able to share learning and collaborate with practitioners and multi-agency partners to help achieve safe outcomes for children and the children\’s workforce.
• Be able to analyse data, provide analytical reports that are child focused and of a high standard.
• Be focused upon your own continuous professional development.
• Experienced in dealing with complex situations that span across social work practice, employment and HR processes and the role played by regulatory bodies relating to the children\’s workforce.

We can offer you:

• Thorough induction supported by the Senior Leadership Team and colleagues within the team.
• Continuous investment in your learning and development.
• Regular Supervision.
• 26 days annual leave plus bank holidays.
• Competitive salary with access to local government pension scheme.
• Flexible and agile working arrangements.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Relocation Scheme.
• Staff network groups.

Further information : Amanda.Boughton-Brown@sheffield.gov.uk

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.

Under the Disability Confident Scheme, disabled applicants, who meet the essential criteria of this job, are guaranteed an interview.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare and safety of children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff to share this commitment. All successful candidates will be required to complete an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Check.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on our Sheff news page.

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