Overview
Safeguarding sits at the heart of everything we do at Avanti Schools Trust. We are seeking a Trust Safeguarding Lead who can provide clear, confident leadership across our family of schools, ensuring that every child is protected and supported to thrive. This is a senior role with significant influence, working closely with Trustees, the CEO, and school leaders to shape and strengthen safeguarding practice. You will lead a coherent Trust-wide approach, combining strong systems with a deeply embedded culture of vigilance and care. If you are driven to make a meaningful difference at scale, this role offers the opportunity to do just that. This role is 4 days per week, all year round. This is an exciting opportunity to join a fast-growing Multi Academy Trust with schools based in London, the midlands and the South West of England. All Avanti schools provide pupils with an outstanding education rooted in the inclusive and distinctive Avanti Schools ethos of educational excellence, character development, and spiritual insight.
What will you do?
* Provide strategic leadership for safeguarding across the Trust, ensuring robust, compliant, and consistently high-quality practice in every school.
* Lead the development, implementation, and review of Trust-wide safeguarding strategy, policies, and systems, aligned with statutory guidance and organisational priorities.
* Partner with school leaders and Designated Safeguarding Leads to offer expert guidance, professional challenge, and support, strengthening decision‑making and safeguarding culture.
* Oversee safeguarding quality assurance through audits, data analysis, and reporting, identifying risks and driving continuous improvement across the Trust.
* Build safeguarding capability through training, coaching, and partnership with external agencies, ensuring effective multi‑agency working and strong outcomes for vulnerable pupils.
What are we looking for?
* Significant experience of leading safeguarding and child protection in an education setting, including experience as a Designated Safeguarding Lead and operating at senior leadership level.
* Strong knowledge and understanding of safeguarding legislation and statutory guidance.
* Experience of supporting and advising on complex safeguarding cases, including multi‑agency working and escalation processes.
* Experience of designing and delivering safeguarding training or professional development.
* Commitment to the safeguarding and welfare of all students.
What the school offers its staff
* Great opportunities for professional development.
* O2 discounts, Specsavers corporate eye test vouchers.
* Eligible for NUS Card and CSSC membership.
* Well‑being programs (retreats, yoga, wellness apps).
* Cycle‑to‑work scheme.
Pre-employment checks
Avanti Schools Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All successful candidates are required to have an Enhanced DBS check unless internally appointed and still within the cycle of DBS re‑checks. Any appointment subsequently made will be subject to the receipt of satisfactory references and other pre-employment checks.
Diversity and Inclusion
We want to make sure we are attracting the widest possible range of people and ensure that they are accepted, understood and treated equally when they work here. This means we will work hard to understand that each employee is unique and ensuring that individuals or groups are not treated differently or less favourably on the basis of specific characteristics. Such characteristics include (but are not limited to) age, disability, gender including transgender, race, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, and how the school supports pregnant women and new parents.
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