About the job

Job summary

The Army’s Cadets is a uniformed youth organisation from across the UK, consisting of 68,000 young people supported by 11,000 adults who volunteer their time and energy to the community-based Army Cadet Force (ACF), and the school-based Army Section of the Combined Cadet Force (CCF). The Army Cadet Force provides a positive, ambitious, and exciting experience, setting people up for lifelong success.

The Army Cadet Safeguarding Hub which sits within Regional Command at Montgomery House, Aldershot, develop and communicate safeguarding policies, procedures and training required by the organisation. Within the same team, Safeguarding Case Workers, under the management of Senior Case Worker Managers and with the help of Support Workers, facilitate the efficient and effective management of safeguarding allegations and concerns across the Army Cadets.

This post will be within the Army Cadet Safeguarding Hub and provides a chance to grow a career in the safeguarding arena, gaining experience in effective decision making and child protection.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week. 

Hybrid and flexible working can be considered for this post. Successful candidates are encouraged to discuss options with the recruiting line manager before starting the role.

Job description

The Safeguarding of Cadets has been rightly established as number one priority by the Deputy Commander Cadets and members of the Army Cadet Safeguarding Hub are central to ensuring Cadets are appropriately safeguarded.

The team of Safeguarding Caseworkers, led by Senior Caseworker Managers and a Head of Safeguarding, respond to and lead on all safeguarding allegations and concerns raised within or to the Army Cadets. This requires Safeguarding Case Workers to be suitably qualified and expert practitioners in Safeguarding work, able to conduct child safeguarding investigations and confident in multi-agency collaboration whilst ensuring a child centred approach.

Case Workers work collaboratively with customers including children, families, volunteers, and employees in the Army Cadets, and those representing other agencies including Social Services and Police.

Case Workers provide safeguarding advice and support to others, and will handle a caseload of safeguarding cases, completing enquiries and make child centred decisions. When appropriate they will make referrals to the Disclosure and Barring Service or equivalents.

The role will involve leading cases across a wide geographical area, with potential case allocation anywhere the UK.

Whilst the role is predominantly conducted in normal working hours Monday to Friday, some flexibility is vital to facilitate engagement with young people and volunteers outside of their school and work commitments.

Person specification

• Work in a child centred way by promoting the wellbeing and safeguarding of children above other factors.
• Act as a point of contact out of office hours for safeguarding disclosures, concerns and referrals, providing experienced advice and guidance and sharing information with other agencies as vital.
• Attend multi-agency and internal meetings virtually and/ or in-person.
• Build and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues and other partners
• Undertake enquiries and resolve suitability of individuals to remain in the Army Cadets.
• Lead safeguarding cases in line with national legislation, guidance and Army Cadet Regulations and Safeguarding standing orders.
• Utilise sound professional judgement to make decisions on safeguarding cases
• Complete all vital documentation, ensuring full and accurate records are maintained.
• Submit appropriate referrals to the Disclosure and Barring Service, Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scotland, or Access Northern Ireland
• Participate substantially in regular professional supervision
• Seek and engage with opportunities for continuous professional development
• Understand and advise on the relevant data protection legislation and regulations, especially the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation, in relation to safeguarding casework.

The ideal candidate will have experience of front-line child protection intervention and/ or risk assessment of perpetrators of abuse. They will also ideally have but are not limited to a Diploma, Degree in a relevant subject area, or experience as a Social Worker, Nurse, Police Officer, Youth Offending Officer or Probation Officer. If you don't think you fit any of this, if you have previous experience in a safeguarding children's role, or have sound knowledge of legal frameworks, we encourage you to apply.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,290, Ministry of Defence contributes £9,528 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include: job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.

Candidates will be required to provide a statement of suitability.

Please note that it is essential that your personal statement is aligned to provide evidence that you have the knowledge and recent practical experience. 

At Sift, you will be assessed against:

• Delivering at pace 
• Leadership
• Working together (Lead Behaviour)
• Communicating and influencing (Lead Behaviour)

At interview, you will be assessed against the above along with the following:

• Making effective decisions 
• Experience 

Applications will be sifted on all Behaviours, but in the event of a significant number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on the Lead Behaviours, in this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.

Interviews will take place at (Montgomery House, Aldershot, GU11 2JN). 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews. B and B posts will be given 7 days’ notice. We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

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.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and 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 Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk 

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). 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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.