Safeguarding Officer

Would you like to work as part of a team in a role where you can make a difference to the lives of children and young people? 

An Exciting Opportunity to join Nova Hreod Academy

Role:                   Safeguarding Officer

Location:           Swindon 

Salary:                £22,260 per annum to the value of  FTE  £25,798 per annum 

Contract term:  Permanent  

Start date:         September 2025

Hours:                37.5h per week, term Time only

We are pleased to invite applications for a confident and personable individual to join our Safeguarding team. This is an exciting opportunity to become part of a dedicated group of over 100 staff members committed to providing our students with the best chance of success.

The Safeguarding officer will play a critical role in ensuring the welfare of young people at the academy. Specifically the safeguarding officer will work as part of the wider safeguarding team to ensure that all safeguarding concerns are followed up and acted upon. The ideal candidate will be adept at building trusting relationships with both students and their families, these relationships are critical to supporting our most vulnerable students. The safeguarding officer will lead on Early Help assessments for identified families where we believe there is a need for more specific targeted support. It is important that this process happens in a timely manner to ensure families receive the right support at the earliest opportunity. 

The role requires excellent communication skills, the ability to build trusting relationships and the ability to multitask. If you are proactive, organised, and eager to contribute to a supportive school community, we would love to hear from you.

The member of staff in this role will be required to:  

• To follow up on each safeguarding concern that has been raised by staff 
• Initiate Early Help Assessments in a timely and appropriate manner to ensure support is offered at the earliest opportunity. 
• Write and manage high-quality Early Help Assessments for identified families requiring targeted support.  
• To work closely with the attendance team, SENDCo and Senior Leadership Team ensuring that students don’t fall through a gap 
• To develop and maintain a culture of safety and vigilance in the school 
• To have due regard for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people in accordance with the Child Protections/Safeguarding and Inclusion policies

Main Responsibilities:  

• Liaise with parents/carers in relation to attendance, behaviour, safeguarding, social and emotional issues, internal and external exclusion and other occasions as required 
• Engage with students, parents and carers, (including those who may be reluctant or resistant) to build trust and rapport to support their needs.  
• Monitor the progress of Early Help plans, ensuring actions are followed through and regularly reviewed and act as Lead Professional for Team Around the Family meetings when appropriate. 
• To ensure actions are child-centred, using positive engagement with the family, increased community involvement and collaboration between agencies. 
• To investigate safeguarding concerns and collaborate with colleagues to ensure clear decision making about next steps  
• To use CPOMs to record all actions taken by the safeguarding team  
• To attend multi-agency meetings as necessary.
• To develop an understanding of local thresholds, assessments procedures and safeguarding structuresTo be flexible and agile in responding to emerging need in the school community 
• To maintain accurate and confidential child protection files for relevant students 
• To facilitate external agencies working with students in school 

The ideal candidate will:

• Have a good general level of education to include Maths and English at Grade C/4 or Equivalent.
• Experience working directly with children, young people and families in an educational, social care or community setting
• Experience in engaging hard to reach or resistant families with empathy, persistence and sensitivity  
• Sound knowledge of safeguarding procedures and the Early Help framework 
• An understanding, or willingness to learn, about local authority practices regarding safeguarding. 
• Worked effectively as part of a small team; significant contribution to team working.  
• Experience of undertaking a range of administrative tasks demonstrating strong organisational skills, including efficient and accurate use of IT packages Word, PowerPoint and Excel.  
• Ability to work accurately under pressure in a busy environment and retain a calm demeanour.  
• Commitment to ensuring a culture of vigilance within the school community  
• Attention to detail and high levels of accuracy. 
• Self-motivated, with the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. 
• Understanding of Child Protection and Safeguarding 

If you are looking for the next step in your career, and would like to find out more, please email James Harding-Mbogo (Principal) on email removed. He will arrange a visit or an informal call to talk about the role.

Please note we reserve the right to close the vacancy early in light of a large response.

Due to the high volume of applications received, the School is unable to provide individual feedback on why an application is unsuccessful. If you have not been contacted within 2 weeks of closing date, please consider your application unsuccessful.

Why choose us

At Nova Hreod Academy, we pride ourselves on a team of staff who are supportive, friendly and dedicated to providing the very best teaching and learning for our students. Staff across the academy set a culture of high expectations and continuous improvement for students which, in turn, is reflected in the emphasis we place on continuing professional development (CPD) for our staff.

We have made significant, sustained progress at GCSE and are proud to have been the most improved school in Swindon.

After a visit from Ofsted in November 2022, the academy received a second ‘Good’ judgement in a row.

United Learning

Nova Hreod Academy is part of United Learning, a large, and growing, group of schools aiming to offer a life changing education to children and young people across England. 

Our schools work as a team and achieve more by sharing than any single school could. Our subject specialists, our Group-wide intranet, our own curriculum and our online learning portal all help us share knowledge and resource, helping to simplify work processes and manage workloads for an improved work-life balance. 

As a Group, we can reward our staff better: with good career opportunities, better pay, benefits, and ultimately, the satisfaction of helping children to succeed. We invest in our staff wellbeing. Our academies each have at least eight INSET days per year (with three of those solely dedicated to planning), and an ongoing group-wide wellbeing programme. It's an ethos we call ‘the best in everyone’.