Local Authority Designated Manager

How you'll make a difference:

As the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), you'll play a vital role in safeguarding children and young people across South Gloucestershire. Leading the management of safeguarding allegations against individuals in positions of trust, whether in paid or voluntary roles, you will ensure that these are handled with fairness, rigour, and compassion.

This is a role that demands clear thinking, empathy and the ability to challenge constructively. You'll support children, families, professionals and organisations through complex and sensitive processes, helping to protect the most vulnerable while upholding professional standards.

What you will be doing:

This is a statutory role, defined in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023. As the key point of contact for managing allegations against those working with children, your work will shape how organisations across the region respond to safeguarding concerns.

As LADO, you will:

• Provide expert advice and guidance on potential LADO referrals.
• Chair multi-agency Allegation Management meetings and maintain accurate case records, actions, and outcomes.
• Liaise with external regulatory bodies on complex cases, ensuring appropriate referrals are made to professional regulators.
• Offer professional consultation to organisations on complex suitability concerns.
• Deliver training on LADO responsibilities and contribute to wider safeguarding learning.
• Promote awareness of the LADO role across all organisations working with children in South Gloucestershire, including those not affiliated with a governing body.
• Actively participate in local and national LADO networks.

You'll also:

• Promote excellent safeguarding practice through collaboration with senior officers, statutory and voluntary agencies, and public forums.
• Manage the Education Safeguarding Adviser, who supports schools and education providers in safeguarding children.
• Line manage the Business Support Officer who supports the LADO function and contributes to the Strategic Safeguarding team.

This is a role for someone who thrives on complexity, values relationships, and wants to make a lasting difference.

What we need from you:

• We require you to hold a professional qualification in social work (e.g. MA, BA, DipSW) and current registration with Social Work England.
• You must have extensive post-qualification experience in safeguarding and managing social workers or teams.
• It is essential that you have an in-depth knowledge of child protection law, guidance, and practice, especially Working Together 2023 and Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025.
• You will have evidence of continuous professional development and sector expertise.
• We require you to have proven experience of chairing complex multi-agency safeguarding meetings and progressing plans.
• Given the elements of the role, you must be able to think strategically and have strong decision-making skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate across services.
• It is key that you have strong relationship-building skills and the ability to embed effective safeguarding solutions.

What you need to know:

• You will be expected to travel throughout the authority and surrounding area, so you must have a full, valid driving licence and access to a vehicle, or an alternative means of travel.
• Business Insurance must be added to your current car insurance policy.
• Due to the nature of this role, an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is required.
• This is primarily a designated office-based role, but flexible and hybrid working can be considered where service delivery allows.

The successful applicant will commence in post from 30th March 2025, allowing for a transitional handover period with our incumbent LADO.

Interviews are planned to take place at our Badminton Road Office, on Friday 5th December 2025.

How a career at South Gloucestershire Council is different:

• We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted, and developed based on their merits and abilities.
• We invest in the careers of our people and are recognised for the quality, breadth, and depth of our training and development offer. This helps our people make the greatest long-term difference in their work.
• What's special here is the strength of the team ethos. We are a relatively small local authority, so managers know staff well. They can plan services to ensure manageable caseloads and effective supervision, so staff feel supported to make the right decisions for children and young people.
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults—ensuring all our staff have the right skills, knowledge, and support to recognise and respond effectively to potential abuse or neglect.

Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.

• We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of.
• We're working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life
• We're investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential.

We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.

We're making a difference, be part of it

To view the full job description, please click this link: Local Authority Designated Officer Job Description