SAFE Worker

Job description

Job responsibilities

As a SAFE worker you will be part of the Missing and Exploitation Team (M&ET). Our M&ET is part of an integrated service which means we are closely aligned with the Adolescent Team and Youth Justice Teams. As a result of these close links, you will be working alongside social workers, youth justice officers, police, psychologists, education officers, substance misuse workers and health workers.

In Cambridgeshire we strive to ensure that children are at the heart of everything we do and to provide practitioners with the tools and resources they need to do their best practice.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

For more information or to chat about this opportunity please contact Rachel Speechley, Missing and Exploitation Team Manager on 01223 507235.

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

As a SAFE Worker you will be line managed by the SAFE Team Leader within the Missing and Exploitation Team.

The role requires you to establish and maintain trusted, long-term relationships with children experiencing exploitation by providing regular and consistent support over several months. The aim is to offer positive alternatives to help young people redirect their lives and enhance their safety. This may involve supporting their engagement in education, training, or other constructive activities that align with their interests and skills. SAFE workers provide guidance on effective strategies for working with exploited children, including developing safety plans for young people, their families, schools, or other organisations. Additionally, SAFE workers collaborate closely with partner agencies, attending meetings and sharing relevant information as needed. A key aspect of the role is to support education providers and communities in building resilience, identifying risks, and implementing measures to prevent exploitation.

The SAFE worker acts as an advocate for young people, ensuring their voices are heard and remain central to decision-making. SAFE workers work alongside children, empowering them to express their needs, concerns, and aspirations while ensuring that their perspectives shape the support and interventions they receive.

SAFE workers will support young people using a trauma informed model of intervention that helps young people to understand their previous and current experiences and gradually make steps and positive plans for the future. This team will work with young people and their families to help them recognise the risk they are at, and develop safety plans to avoid them becoming involved in exploitation and serious youth violence in the future.

You will have 3 A Levels/NVQ Level 3 and GCSE level C in Maths and English or equivalent.

You will also be someone who has in depth knowledge of child protection and safeguarding processes and services, an awareness of issues relating to communities from different racial and cultural backgrounds and equal opportunities and up to date working knowledge of relevant legislation relating to young people.

You will also be someone who has the ability to adapt to change on a daily basis, and/or longer term as services develop and change, to communicate effectively at all levels, through different mediums as required and work closely within a team as well as being able to work independently.

You will have experience of working with young people with challenging behaviour, working in a statutory or voluntary agency, Social Care, Youth Work with Adolescents or Youth Offending.

You will also be someone who can demonstrate experience of case work, supervision, risk management and inter-agency working and who is able to work in a way that promotes the safety and well-being of children.

Please use the supporting statement on your application to outline how your skills and experience match the Essential Criteria outlined in the Job Description/Person Specification attached to this advert.

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities.If you dont meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please dont be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers

Person Specification

General Requirements

Essential

• Please refer to job description above

Desirable

• Please refer to job description above

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

Cambridgeshire County Council

Address

Huntingdon

PE13 2JD

Employer's website

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)