Group Safeguarding Lead
PHL Group is seeking an experienced and passionate Group Safeguarding Lead to provide strategic and professional safeguarding leadership across our diverse range of healthcare services.

Location: Remote, with travel to service sites across PHL's regions
Hours: 37.5 hours per week, with flexible working to meet service and multi-agency needs

About the Role
Reporting to the Director of Nursing and Quality, you will be PHL's expert safeguarding lead for children and adults across every service line, providing professional leadership, oversight and coordination of safeguarding arrangements across the Group.

This is a key leadership role, with responsibility for developing and continuously improving PHL's Group Safeguarding Framework, ensuring safeguarding is embedded within clinical practice, operational delivery and organisational governance.

Our services operate across a range of complex and specialist environments, including Urgent and Primary Care, Forensic Health and Justice, Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs), and Specialist Services, including ADHD and autism assessments. You will ensure safeguarding arrangements reflect the distinct risks and vulnerabilities within each service.

You will act as the Group's principal source of safeguarding expertise, providing advice and professional challenge on complex and high-risk cases, leading the PHL Safeguarding Hub and providing assurance to the Executive Team, Board, commissioners and regulators.

Working closely with clinical and operational leaders, local safeguarding practitioners and external partners, you will play a pivotal role in strengthening safeguarding practice, developing workforce capability and ensuring learning translates into meaningful improvements for patients, service users and colleagues.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the development, implementation and continuous improvement of PHL's Group Safeguarding Framework, ensuring effective safeguarding arrangements across all service lines.
• Provide expert safeguarding advice, professional challenge and escalation on complex and high-risk cases, acting as the Group's senior safeguarding lead.
• Lead the PHL Safeguarding Hub, overseeing safeguarding referrals, incident reviews, escalation and allegations against staff and people in positions of trust.
• Provide safeguarding oversight across Urgent and Primary Care, Forensic Health and Justice, SARCs and Specialist Services, ensuring service-specific risks and vulnerabilities are appropriately addressed.
• Lead the Group safeguarding audit and assurance programme, ensuring compliance with relevant legislation, statutory guidance, regulatory requirements and commissioner expectations.
• Coordinate organisational responses to safeguarding reviews, including CSPRs, SARs and DHRs, ensuring recommendations and learning are embedded into practice.
• Provide safeguarding assurance and reports to the Board, Executive Team, clinical governance forums, commissioners and regulators, supporting inspection and assurance activity.
• Develop and maintain effective relationships with local authorities, safeguarding partnerships, police forces, ICBs, NHS England and other partner organisations.
• Lead and develop local safeguarding practitioners, safeguarding champions, training and supervision arrangements across the Group.
• Act as PHL's Prevent Lead, or support a nominated Prevent Lead, ensuring appropriate organisational arrangements and compliance with the Prevent duty.

About you
You will be an experienced safeguarding professional with a strong background in health, social care or multi-agency settings and the confidence and expertise to lead safeguarding across a complex, multi-service organisation.

You will bring

• Current professional registration with the NMC, HCPC or Social Work England, alongside a relevant Master's degree or equivalent postgraduate-level knowledge and senior experience.
• Extensive knowledge of safeguarding legislation, statutory guidance and regulatory requirements relating to children and adults.
• Experience managing complex, high-risk and contentious safeguarding cases, including allegations against staff and people in positions of trust.
• Experience contributing to safeguarding reviews, including CSPRs, SARs and DHRs, and leading associated action plans and organisational learning.
• Experience of safeguarding governance, audit, assurance, quality improvement, line management and professional supervision.
• Highly developed communication, influencing, negotiation and professional challenge skills, with the ability to engage effectively across organisational boundaries.
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills, with the ability to assess complex information and provide clear, defensible professional advice.
• Excellent report-writing skills and the ability to communicate safeguarding risks and assurance to senior leaders, Boards, commissioners and regulators.
• The ability to design and deliver safeguarding training and develop workforce capability.
• Experience within Urgent and Primary Care, custody healthcare, Health and Justice, SARC or neurodevelopmental services would be advantageous, as would experience working across multiple local authority and police areas.

You will demonstrate resilience, emotional intelligence and the ability to remain calm and effective when managing complex, sensitive and distressing safeguarding matters. You will bring a strong commitment to professional accountability, equality and human rights, with the confidence to challenge practice and address safeguarding concerns appropriately.

Benefits include Bike2Work Scheme, DSE eye tests and spectacles, 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme, Family Friendly Policy, Menopause Support, Blue Light Card discount, 10 days paid sick pay, professional development and workplace savings. Apply through our website.

PHL Group is a Defence Employers Recognition Scheme Silver Award holder and Veteran Aware accredited.