Adolescent Safeguarding Service Manager

Adolescent Safeguarding Service Manager Secondment / Interim Opportunity
Location: West Midlands
Rate: £400-£450 per day
Contract length: Initial 3 month contract to start ASAP
Hybrid working

CVs are being reviewed immediately and interviews will take place on a rolling basis.

The Adolescent Safeguarding Service sits within a wider Children’s Services directorate that has implemented Family Safeguarding Practice as its core operating model. This strengths‑based, whole‑family approach brings together multi‑disciplinary professionals from children’s and adult services to work intensively with families, reducing the number of children becoming subject to child protection planning or entering care.

Family Safeguarding Practice moves away from compliance‑driven practice towards meaningful, relational change, using Motivational Interviewing and therapeutic, person‑centred approaches to support families to achieve sustainable change.

The service is now seeking an experienced Service Manager to drive performance, quality and practice development within Adolescent Safeguarding, embedding Family Safeguarding principles into work with adolescents and their families and supporting the next phase of service improvement.

Your Role as Adolescent Safeguarding Service Manager
• Provide strategic and operational leadership across the Adolescent Safeguarding Service
• Drive performance and practice improvement, ensuring strong management oversight of care planning
• Embed Family Safeguarding principles and strengths‑based practice within adolescent safeguarding work
• Ensure the voice of the child and family group decision making are central to all planning and intervention
• Oversee and assure responses to adolescent exploitation, including MACE and related panels
• Provide professional support and guidance to Team Managers and Service Managers within the service
• Maintain oversight of legal pathways and decision‑making for children open to the service
• Lead and support creative, innovative and child‑centred planning to keep adolescents safe
• Support the service with Ofsted preparedness, inspection readiness and improvement planning
• Contribute to strategic development and longer‑term service improvement activity

Your Previous Experience as a Service Manager
• Significant experience in children’s social care at Service Manager or equivalent senior leadership level
• Strong understanding of adolescent safeguarding, exploitation, contextual safeguarding and risk outside the home
• Proven experience leading service improvement, performance management and culture change
• Demonstrated ability to develop and manage multi‑agency partnerships
• Experience embedding strengths‑based or Family Safeguarding models into practice
• Confidence in managing budgets, resources and staffing creatively to improve outcomes
• Strong leadership style with experience supporting and developing managers
• Local authority experience is essential

If you’re interested in discussing this opportunity in more detail, or know someone who this may be of interest to, please contact Sarah Macrae on 0117 3137110 or apply today.

(We offer a senior referral scheme upon successful placement of your recommendation, so please do get in contact.)

Our clients are passionate about creating and developing a diverse workforce. Recruitment decisions are based on experience and skills, and any reasonable adjustments required during the application or hiring process will be fully supported.

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