Head of Safeguarding

A key element of this role will be finding the correct balance between accountability and support. Core Responsibility The primary purpose of this role is to ensure that safeguarding practices in their widest definition across the Romero Catholic Academy Trust are effective and that all members of the Trust family are confident in safeguarding systems and processes with full awareness of their role and the roles of others in keeping all children and colleagues safe from harm. Culture and Ethos The strategic direction and development of the school stems from the educational mission of the Church. The Head of Safeguarding will ensure that his/her leadership demonstrates commitment to promoting the Trust's distinctive Catholic identity through the search for excellence in all areas of this work. Policy and Procedure

• To drive a diligent culture of safeguarding across all aspects of the Trust's work;
• Be the strategic lead for all aspects of safeguarding for the trust, maintaining an oversight of the development and implementation of safeguarding policies across all academies to ensure they are legally compliant and meet our statutory responsibilities;
• Oversee & ensure the appropriate implementation and compliance with statutory duties in relation to the recording and storage of information regarding safeguarding matters;
• Be a key point of advice for Directors, executive leaders, and senior leaders to ensure a high standard of decision making in relation to safeguarding matters;
• Evaluate national guidance and reports relating to safeguarding, as well as internal trends and consider developments that will improve the culture of safeguarding across the trust, advising executive leaders and senior leaders across the trust as appropriate.
Facilitating Effective Collaboration
• Maintain oversight of all quality assurance procedures in relation to safeguarding, including internal and external audits and peer review processes;
• Forge and maintain highly effective working relationships with executive and senior leaders, inspiring confidence, and trust in your leadership of safeguarding;
• Develop and maintain excellent relationships with the various Local Authority Safeguarding teams, based on the principle that the Trust is a guardian of children and young people from the Diocese of Salford and surrounding local authorities.
Accountability and Reporting
• Undertake due diligence activity to evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding for any new school joining Romero CAT;
• Facilitate trust-wide procedures to gather, analyse and respond to views of students, parents, staff and governors/Directors regarding safeguarding across the Trust;
• Responsible for the preparation and presentation of safeguarding reports to LGBs and the Trust Board as appropriate.
Training
• Undertake any training as required in order to carry out the role of Head of Safeguarding effectively and in line with statutory requirements;
• In partnership with Headteachers and Designated Safeguarding Leads in all schools, ensure an appropriate schedule of staff training is implemented and ensure accurate records are kept of staff training across all schools, to ensure these are compliant with statutory requirements;
• Lead on Trust safeguarding inductions for new staff joining the Central Team, and/or across the schools as required.
• Deliver/co-ordinate safeguarding training for Trust professionals and school leaders, governors, Directors, as required, to ensure compliance with statutory requirements;
Safeguarding
• To commission / deliver training to DSLs, Trustees and Local Governing Bodies and senior staff; ensure academies have an appropriate programme of training in place for staff; and disseminate regular updates;
• To represent the Trust by liaising with external agencies, colleagues and multi-agency teams as required;
• To analyse data across the Trust, collating and identifying trends and provide reports for Trustees, Directors, Strategic Leadership and LGB's;
• To lead networks for DSLs and facilitate supervision across the Trust;
• To follow up Safeguarding Case reviews or H+S investigations actions as required;
• To maintain a high profile in the Trust and be a key point of contact for DSLs.
Mental health
• Promoting good mental health and emotional wellbeing for staff and students alike.
Specialist Provision
• Strategic leadership of safeguarding and assurance of all off-site specialist provisions for Romero students, including oversight of all commissioned places as specialist provisions;
• Development of effective working relationships with all external providers of specialist provisions to ensure students referred from the Trust engage and achieve with an appropriate curriculum offer;
• With school DSLs, undertake due diligence activity for any proposed new provider of specialist provision, ensuring all necessary safeguarding checks are completed to ensure safe placement for students;
• Oversee school level quality assurance of all provisions where places are commissioned for Romero CAT students;
• Report on quality assurance and impact to the Board of Directors as required.
General responsibilities
• Undertake any investigation into staff conduct as required, particularly in relation to breaches of safeguarding;
• In addition, advise and work closely with senior leaders tasked with undertaking investigations in to conduct and behaviour of employees of the Trust;
• Pay due regard to confidentiality and the protection of data that is protected by law;
• Support staffing capacity to provide effective supervision in schools as required, in keeping with our duty to safeguard children;
• Undertake any reasonable activity relating to school standards as requested by the CSEL, Directors of Education and Trust Board.
Other The above list is not exclusive or exhaustive. Romero CAT may require the post holder to undertake duties commensurate with the level of the role. As part of your wider duties and responsibilities, you are required to promote and actively support Romero CAT's responsibilities towards safeguarding.

Romero Catholic Academy Trust expects all staff to work effectively as part of a team or teams. As a minimum, this requires a clear appreciation of the Catholic faith, our special ethos and commitment to serving society, dealing with people politely and tactfully, communicating with colleagues both formally and informally, modelling the Catholic Education Service and Romero CAT's Code of Conduct and reflecting the Diocesan values. You must carry out your duties with due regard to current and future policies, procedures and relevant legislation. These will be drawn to your attention in your induction, ongoing performance reviews and through Romero CAT communications. All staff are required to maintain confidentiality as required.