Army - Cadet Safeguarding Support Worker

The Army Cadets is a national uniformed youth organisation comprising approximately 68,000 cadets and 11,000 adult volunteers across the community-based Army Cadet Force (ACF) and school-based Combined Cadet Force (CCF). Through a wide range of activities and experiences, the organisation helps young people develop confidence, resilience, leadership skills and a sense of responsibility.

The Army Cadet Safeguarding Hub is responsible for managing safeguarding concerns, providing advice and guidance, and ensuring appropriate action is taken to protect children and young people. The Hub also develops safeguarding policy, training and procedures, working closely with the Ministry of Defence and external statutory agencies to ensure safeguarding standards are maintained across the organisation.

As a Cadet Safeguarding Support Worker, you will play an important role in supporting the effective management of safeguarding concerns. Working within a dedicated team, you will help ensure that referrals are received, assessed, recorded and progressed appropriately, while providing support and advice to volunteers, staff and partner agencies.

You will act as an initial point of contact for safeguarding concerns and allegations, gathering information, communicating with referrers and liaising with agencies such as the Police, Local Authority Designated Officers (LADOs) and Children's Social Care. The role requires strong communication skills, sound judgement and the ability to handle sensitive information professionally and confidentially.

A key element of the role is maintaining accurate and comprehensive records. High-quality record keeping is fundamental to effective safeguarding practice, ensuring that decisions are evidence-based, risks are managed appropriately and information can be shared effectively when required. You will be responsible for recording safeguarding activity, maintaining case management systems and ensuring compliance with data protection requirements.

This post is advertised at 37 hours per week and is primarily worked during normal office hours. However, occasional flexibility may be required to support safeguarding activities. Please note that hybrid working is not available for this role due to its nature.

Due to the nature of the role, part time and job share arrangements may be considered, subject to the requirement that full-time hours are fully covered (or business needs are met, atleast a 60/40 split in working hours).

Key responsibilities:

• Work in a child-centred manner, promoting the welfare and safeguarding of children at all times.
• Act as a first point of contact for safeguarding concerns, disclosures and referrals relating to cadets, providing advice and guidance to colleagues as required.
• Provide administrative support to safeguarding casework, including information gathering, data entry, case tracking and maintaining accurate records.
• Manage and maintain confidential safeguarding case records in accordance with safeguarding policies, data protection legislation and information management requirements.
• Prepare safeguarding documentation, correspondence and disclosure certificate case files containing adverse information to support case progression and decision-making.
• Support daily safeguarding triage processes by preparing and presenting summaries of new referrals and contributing to discussions on appropriate next steps.
• Arrange and coordinate safeguarding meetings, including scheduling attendees, preparing papers, and recording actions and minutes.
• Liaise effectively with external agencies, statutory partners and internal stakeholders, ensuring appropriate information sharing and collaborative working.
• Support referrals to relevant vetting and barring organisations, including the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme Scotland and Access Northern Ireland (AccessNI).
• Monitor and support the progression of safeguarding cases, ensuring actions are completed in a timely manner and records remain up to date.
• Participate in regular supervision, professional development activities and continuous learning to maintain safeguarding knowledge, skills and best practice.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Ability and Experience.

At the application stage you will be asked to complete an online Verbal Test and if you pass this, you will be assessed against the following criteria, listed in priority order:

• Personal Statement - 500 words demonstrating your relevant skills and experience in line with the essential criteria
• Behaviours
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating & Influencing

Where a large number of applications are received, an initial sift may be conducted against the Personal Statement only. The remaining evidence submitted at the application stage will be assessed only if you are successful at this initial sift.

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following criteria, listed in priority order:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Experience based question(s) will be asked at interview
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Application sifting will be scheduled to take place within 7 days of the application closing date. Interview dates are to be confirmed and will be held in person. We endeavour to keep to these time frames, but these are subject to change around business needs.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

There may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all DCS candidates that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example, in certain recruitment situations such as a high volume of applications, seasonal demand, or peak periods, the employer may wish to limit the overall number of interviews offered to both DCS and non-DCS applicants.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system.

Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.