Trust Strategic Lead for Safeguarding

Are you a passionate and experienced safeguarding professional looking to make a significant impact? 

Outwood Grange Academies Trust, a leading and long-established multi-academy trust across the North of England, is offering an exceptional opportunity for a dynamic leader of safeguarding to champion a culture of safeguarding excellence and ensure the wellbeing of all our pupils. This is an exciting opportunity to ensure safeguarding remains our highest priority through providing expert advice and guidance, and supporting our schools to deliver outstanding pastoral practice.

Our Family of Schools is supported by our School Improvement Team, a collective of highly experienced professionals recognised as experts in their respective fields. These leaders bring a wealth of experience from senior leadership, subject specialisms, SEND, attendance and, family and community, each holding a trust-wide responsibility. Under the direction of the Executive Team, this team provides specialist support and additional capacity precisely where its needed across the Trust.

The post would suit an experienced leader with significant safeguarding experience acquired through an education, local authority, childrens services or social care background.

As Strategic Lead for Safeguarding, you will:

• Set the long-term vision for safeguarding through developing a strategy which is underpinned by statutory guidance and the arrangements of Local Safeguarding Childrens Boards (LSCBs), and which informs relevant Trust policy and practice.
• Support the ongoing professional development of all staff, especially Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs), leaders, governors and trustees, in safeguarding and pupil wellbeing through developing and delivering high quality training.
• Promote high standards of safeguarding and pastoral practice through supporting leaders to better understand and respond to local contextual safeguarding priorities, leading to improved cross-phase working.
• Provide specialist child protection guidance and support for complex cases and assessments, liaising with partners and escalating incidents with Local Authorities.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and best practice through acting as a central point for capturing and disseminating effective practices within the Trust and also looking outwards to identify successful approaches elsewhere. The goal is to make sure these insights are put into practice across all schools.
• Implement and embed systems to monitor and evaluate safeguarding management data across the Trust, analysing and reporting to the Executive Team and OGAT Board on emerging safeguarding and child protection concerns and suggested improvement recommendations.
• Lead safeguarding quality assurance, including annual auditing activity and record reviews to identify improvement priorities.

This is an exciting time to join Outwood Grange Academies Trust. We are refreshing and renewing our strategy with a clear ambition: to ensure every one of our schools stands as a beacon of sustainable excellence, delivering the very best for the children we serve. Your leadership will foster collaboration, ensure high quality and promote continuous improvement across the Family of Schools. Its about empowering colleagues to deliver outstanding pastoral practice for their students.

This key role offers a unique opportunity for an experienced leader to make a profound and lasting impact as the Trust Strategic Lead for Safeguarding. The position requires flexibility and a willingness to work across any of the 42 schools within the Trust, under the direction of the Chief Executive of the Outwood Institute of Education. 

Your dedication and vision will ensure that our schools are places where every child, particularly the most vulnerable, feels valued, supported, and empowered to thrive, every single day. Through placing students first, you will raise standards and transform lives. 

To view the Job Description please click here

Please find our Outwood Academies Welcome Booklet here

For an informal discussion, please contact Julie Slater, Chief Executive of the Outwood Institute of Education at ********@outwood.com.

Closing date: 11 July 2025 at midday

Interview date: 16 July 2025

Outwood Grange Academies Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All appointments are subject to an enhanced DBS check.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS - WHAT DO WE OFFER AS AN EMPLOYER?

Outwood Grange Academies Trust supports colleagues by funding an extensive range of accredited training courses and apprenticeship opportunities up to Masters level. We also offer:

Your starting salary with annual increments plus inflation linked increases. The starting salary within the grade advertised will be dependent upon your experience. You will also receive:

• A comprehensive induction and training process
• Automatic enrolment into an increasingly rare and valuable defined Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contribution rates
• Flexible family friendly policies from day one
• Enhanced occupational benefits available (such as maternity, adoption and parental leave) with no qualifying period 
• Holidays: A minimum of 25 days plus bank holidays (this increases with length of service)
• A range of working patterns are available dependant upon the role 

Automatic enrolment into our Employee Assistance Programme which gives you and your family members free access to:

• Specialist information on a wide range of work-life issues
• Emotional support and counselling for a wide range of personal and work issues
• Legal guidance
• Financial guidance and debt counselling
• Child and dependent care support and advice
• Support for managers

We are also a wellbeing employer with a dedicated wellbeing strategy and menopause policy along with menopause champions based in our academies. Other benefits include:

• Free flu vaccinations
• Free onsite parking
• Employee discounts such as competitively priced Synergy Car Leasing
• Access to various discount sites

Outwood Grange Academies Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. All appointments are made in accordance with safer recruitment practices and the statutory guidance in Keeping Children Safe in Education. Online checks will be carried out on all shortlisted candidates, and all appointments are subject to an enhanced DBS check, satisfactory references and checks regarding suitability to work with children.

We reserve the right to close advertisements early. Advertisements will therefore close at 12 noon, either on the advertised closing date, or the day the decision has been taken to close the advertisement early. 

Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) is an education charity and not-for-profit sponsor of primary, junior and secondary academies. We are a dynamic organisation, recognised nationally as one of the highest performing family of schools in the North of England, and we currently sponsor over 40 schools.

Our educational blueprint has been developed through leading and supporting schools over many years.

We have used this successful blueprint to sponsor academies and have a transformational effect on childrens life chances within very quick timescales.

We feel strongly that academies should enhance the education provision of the community they serve, in addition to driving up standards and playing a central role in regeneration. This is because we believe that improving the life chances of young people is essential to developing a strong local and national economy.

We are now comprised of over 40 schools who work together to ensure that all children, irrespective of their starting point, receive an excellent education. We pride ourselves on meeting the needs of children in our care, including the most vulnerable or challenging.

Information :

• Company : Outwood Grange Academies Trust
• Position : Trust Strategic Lead for Safeguarding
• Location : United Kingdom
• Country : GB