Job Introduction
Are you passionate about making a real difference to the lives of children and young people?
We're looking for an experienced safeguarding professional based from London 4More and Ashford (Hybrid), on a 12 month fixed term contract to lead and shape our approach to youth safeguarding across the Southeastern network. In this influential role, you'll provide specialist expertise, drive continuous improvement and ensure safeguarding risks are identified, assessed and managed effectively. Working closely with operational teams and external partners, you'll help create an environment where the safety, wellbeing and protection of children and young people remain at the heart of everything we do.
Can you move people? Apply now.
What you’ll do
- Act as Southeastern's professional lead for Child Safeguarding, Youth Vulnerability and Prevention & Early Intervention across the rail network, ensuring that safeguarding arrangements effectively protect children and young people who use, access or come into contact with the railway.
- Maintain and promote effective child safeguarding standards, pathways, professional guidance and escalation arrangements, ensuring they are embedded within operational railway environments and frontline decision-making.
- Provide specialist safeguarding advice, professional consultation and support to managers and frontline colleagues in relation to child vulnerability, exploitation, missing children, trespass, contextual safeguarding and other risks affecting children and young people on or around the railway.
- Interpret safeguarding information, operational intelligence, incident reports and analytical products to identify emerging youth-related risks, repeat vulnerability, trends, hotspots and priority areas for intervention across the Southeastern network.
- Lead the development, coordination and evaluation of targeted, evidence-led youth prevention and early intervention activity, working with operational teams and external partners to reduce harm and improve outcomes for children and young people.
- Contribute professional safeguarding risk assessments and recommendations through established governance, partnership and tasking arrangements, ensuring railway-specific risks and operational impacts are appropriately considered.
- Lead child safeguarding assurance activity, reviewing safeguarding practice, referrals, operational responses, decision-making and outcomes, identifying areas of non-compliance and driving improvements against agreed safeguarding standards.
The experience you’ll need
To be considered for this role we recommend you demonstrate the below in your application;
- You Dare to Lead – You have experience of coaching and developing others within a professional or operational environment.
- A credible safeguarding professional – you have demonstrable expertise in child safeguarding, vulnerability and youth-related risk.
- Strong professional judgement – you can assess risk, determine appropriate safeguarding responses and provide authoritative advice.
- You see opportunities – you use data to spot emerging trends to make improvements and identify child safeguarding concerns and youth-related risk.
- A Strong stakeholder – you can influence and build effective relationships across operational and multi-agency environments.
- A great communicator – Strong presentation skills and confident public speaker. Can influence different audiences with the ability to translate complex safeguarding issues.
As proud members of the Armed Forces Covenant and Disability Confident Scheme, we will offer you an interview if you apply under these schemes and meet the minimum criteria for the role. Find out more here.
Other things to know
- This vacancy may close early if we receive a large number of applications. So, make sure you get yours in early.
- All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory references, a right to work verification, a basic criminal record check, and a pre-employment medical assessment. Work visa sponsorship isn’t available for this role.
- If you applied but weren’t successful in getting a similar role at Southeastern, please wait six months before applying again.
Find out more about our recruitment process and get tips to help you apply.
What you’ll get in return
Along with your salary, the rewards you’ll get include:
- a final salary pension
- 25 days annual leave allowance (plus bank holidays)
- free rail travel across our networks.
Meaning you can feel secure in your career as well as fulfilled by your work. Click here to see our full range of amazing benefits.
A bit about Southeastern
We’re one of Britain's busiest train operators, serving London, Kent and parts of East Sussex. We run over 1,700 trains a day, carrying more than 500,000 passengers and serving 180 stations.
However, working on our railway is more than getting passengers from A to B. It’s about all the little moments that make a difference to their journey.
It’s also about making our railway a great place to work and building a team that represents the communities we serve. We’re committed to creating an inclusive, supportive environment, and we’re proud that this continues to be recognised through employer accreditations and our ongoing endorsement as a WORK180 Employer for Women.
Our ways of working are what we expect of everyone at Southeastern. They are powerful. Tiny moments, every day, from every one of us, add up to massive, positive change. Improving how it feels to work here and how it feels to travel with us.
At the heart of everything we do, our Safeguarding Team works to keep our customers, colleagues, and the public safe by improving safeguarding measures and knowledge making sure everyone gets home safe, every day.
SE Trains Limited
