Our aim is for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

We are currently looking for a dynamic leader who has empathy, compassion and respect as part of their personal ethos.

The church is on a continuing improvement journey with regards to historical safeguarding failures. This is a national role so you will need to have good strategic skills and the ability to work closely with an evolving senior leadership team.

This role is critical in ensuring we have the right processes, procedures and training in place to support our improvement journey. The desired applicant will have the ability to win hearts and mind and have the skills to navigate and influence a complex system with multiple bodies undertaking work for the Church.

It is imperative that the person has experience working with victims and survivors of abuse within a wider safeguarding system.

If you have a background in safeguarding senior leadership and would like a new challenge in a supportive environment we would love to hear from you.

Please contact nstdirector@churchofengland.org to have an informal conversation with Alexander Kubeyinje National Safeguarding Director of Church of England.

This post works with NST colleagues, dioceses, cathedrals and other Church bodies. Specifically it supports those Church bodies through:

• The development of, and support to implement, safeguarding policy, practice requirements and advice (known as Safeguarding Code).
• The development of, and support to implement, quality assurance arrangements.
• The development of, and support to implement, safeguarding learning pathways and modules, as well as the direct delivery of some pathways.
• The delivery, as SRO, of specific safeguarding projects, including those related to the delivery of IICSA recommendations.

The postholder will need to be capable of acting as a senior leader within the Safeguarding Team, supporting the National Director and senior team to promote active engagement in the Church's safeguarding work. The postholder needs to be a sound team player and competent communicator.

The main responsibilities are:

• Acting as strategic lead for the development and implementation support of national safeguarding policy, known as Safeguarding Codes. Safeguarding Codes comprise formal requirements and good practice advice in respect of different aspects of safeguarding. This includes acting as strategic lead to ensure new safeguarding code passes through the required stages of Church governance, including General Synod.
• Ensuring the development and support for implementation of a national safeguarding learning and development framework.
• Overseeing the development of professional development opportunities for diocesan and cathedral safeguarding advisors and trainers.
• Overseeing the direct delivery of some safeguarding learning pathways, including the Senior Leadership Safeguarding Pathway.
• Ensuring the delivery of quality assurance and evaluative research to determine the quality and impact of safeguarding arrangements and practice.
• Acting as the Senior Responsible Officer for specific projects to improve safeguarding in the Church, including some related to the implementation of IICSA recommendations.
• Acting as strategic lead within the NST for the introduction of the change from Diocesan Safeguarding Advisors to Diocesan Safeguarding Officers and related work streams.
• Ensuring that victims and survivors are actively engaged in the work of the development team, following NST policy and practice.
• Establishing and managing constructive relationships with key stakeholders across the Church, including senior leaders, ensuring positive communication and appropriate consultation.
• Supporting the Directors responsibility for accounting to Synod, the Archbishops Council, the House of Bishops, the National Safeguarding Steering Group, the National Safeguarding Panel, project boards and similar groups by the preparation of timely, appropriate papers and reports. Attending meetings as required.
• Managing the planning and monitoring of the team’s budget, developing good relationships with the Finance Business Partner and ensuring good stewardship of funds.
• Providing line management and supervision to staff within the development team.
• Contributing to the NST Senior Leadership team, acting as an ambassador for culture change. Playing an active and committed role in embedding good safeguarding practice and strengthening the consistency and quality of the Church’s response.
• As a member of the NST Senior Leadership Team, working with the Director to update and deliver the NST strategic business plan.
• As a member of the NST Senior Leadership Team, contributing to the leadership of the staff team and promoting co-operative, constructive working.
• Carrying out any other duties as required.

The ideal candidate should have:

Essential

Skills/Aptitudes:

• Able to demonstrate the delivery of improved outcomes for children and / or vulnerable adults as a result of their leadership.
• Proven ability to provide collaborative leadership on policy and practice development, safeguarding learning and quality assurance.
• Able to lead organisational and practice change, including cultural change.
• Strong verbal communication skills and ability to produce clear written documents, including material tailored to different audiences. Be a persuasive and competent presenter at meetings, trainings and conferences.
• Ability to manage complex safeguarding projects and handle information, including keeping records and handling sensitive data.
• Able to successfully manage a range of stakeholder relationships, including those with victims and survivors.

Knowledge/Experience:

• Extensive experience of safeguarding of children and/or vulnerable adults at a local and regional level including policy development and implementation ·
• Experience of successfully delivering organisational change – including cultural change - in complex organisations.
• Experience of delivering significant projects as a senior responsible officer (SRO) with demonstrable impact on the organisation
• Experience of successfully introducing policy and practice.
• Experience of working within a senior leadership team to deliver a complex strategic portfolio
• An understanding of evidence-based approaches to learning.
• Experience of communications and external stakeholder management at a local and/or national level in a context of public scrutiny
• Practitioner/manager experience in safeguarding working with children, young people or adults who are vulnerable, and ability to demonstrate transferable knowledge across the client groups.
• Experience of developing and implementing safeguarding quality assurance processes. ··
• Experience of leading a team effectively to get synergy and holistic and non-siloed ways of working across the whole function.
• Understanding of the broader safeguarding field including its social and political context

Personal Attributes:

• Confidence and ability to work with senior people at a national level, including senior Church leaders, politicians and other stakeholders
• A proven ability to develop and sustain relationships at all levels both inside and outside the Church
• Able to maintain the highest standards of confidentiality and work sensitively with those affected by safeguarding issues.
• Courage to speak truth to power and a strong moral compass.
• Personal resilience to be able to work effectively in a highly pressurised environment under a lot of scrutiny.
• In sympathy with the aims of the Church of England

Education:

• Relevant professional qualification with current registration where applicable. E.g. social work, health, teaching, law enforcement, criminal justice.

Circumstances:

• Hybrid working is possible, alongside regular attendance at the office (Church House, Westminster). The post holder must be willing to be away from home overnight occasionally, including some weekends.

Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Requirements:

• Basic DBS check

Desirable

Knowledge/Experience:

• Understanding of Church of England safeguarding policies
• Understanding of Church of England national structures

In the National Church Institutions (NCIs), we support the mission and ministries of the Church of England. We work with parishes, dioceses, schools, chaplaincies and other ministries, and with national and international partners including mission agencies, and other denominations and faith groups.-.

Find out more about working for the National Church Institutions by visiting Careers | The Church of England

NCI values

• We strive for excellence
• We collaborate
• We act with integrity
• We show compassion
• We respect others

We welcome everyone and we accept and value people for who they are and what they contribute, treating others in the way we would wish to be treated ourselves. We actively listen to and include others, encouraging and enabling everyone’s voice to be heard in discussions and decisions. When we disagree, we aim to disagree well with respect and kindness.

We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you. If there is anything we can do to support you in your application please get in touch via email to hr.recruitment@churchofengland.org.

• As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively look to attract, recruit and retain those of you who are disabled.
• We are a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and welcome applications from those of you who have served in our Armed Forces and their families.