Educational Adviser, Safeguarding Specialist

Location: This is a hybrid post; you should live within a commutable distance to any of our Open University office as attendance to an office will be required once a week.

Closing Date: 22December 2022, 12:00 noon

Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education.

The role

Student Support Services are currently seeking an Education Adviser - Safeguarding specialists, to work collaboratively within the Central Safeguarding Referrals Team, providing the highest level of support and guidance to students and prospective students who have disclosed a safeguarding concern.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced safeguarding practitioner to join our growing safeguarding team, to provide support in complex safeguarding cases, whilst ensuring that a high-quality service is delivered effectively to those in distressing circumstance and in line with our core values.

The post holder will support the day to day running of the central safeguarding team and provide support for referral team members. The post holder will also be required to contribute to the ongoing training and development of staff and stakeholders across the university.

Skills and Experience

• A good standard of general education equivalent to GCSE level and experience of degree level study.
• Evidence of training and continuing professional development in Guidance.

• Experience of providing Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) to a range of diverse groups of learners, preferably students in adult, further or higher education.
• Experience of handling safeguarding referrals and providing high level support to individuals in difficult circumstances is desirable as is awareness of the range of safeguarding issues faced by distance learning students and the impact these can have on their studies.

• Experience of exercising judgement in dealing with complex issues that might require either a proactive or reactive course of action with a proven ability to resolve problems with expediency, intelligence and sensitivity.

The successful applicant for this post will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS/Access NI/ PGV check.

A full summary of duties and person specification can be found in the Job Description below.

If you would like to discuss the application or recruitment process before making an application, please contact Donna Elstob at Resourcing Hub on 01908 655544 or email donna.elstob@open.ac.uk quoting the reference 20573.

What you get in return

We have a strong commitment to providing training and development in and beyond your current role. This includes thorough induction into the organisation and regular reviews of your training and development needs.

We also offer a great range of benefits that support our employees and their families for the long term. Staff Benefits include an attractive pension proposition and 33 days holiday per annum pro rata, plus Bank Holidays and Christmas closure days. 

How to apply

For further information on how to apply please visit the posting on the OU jobs page:

Educational Adviser, Safeguarding Specialist | Employment (open.ac.uk)

Interview date: 19 January 2023

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