We’re looking for a Survivor Participation Officer to join our National Safeguarding Team
About The Department/Role
The National Safeguarding Team (NST) is the Church’s central team that works collaboratively with parishes, dioceses and cathedrals to ensure the Church is a safe place for everyone, and especially for children and vulnerable adults.
NST’s survivor participation team oversees survivor participation at the national level and provides space for victims and survivors to have an active role in making all appropriate safeguarding changes and improvements in the Church. This includes workstreams and activities within the NST and other departments and directorates within the National Church Institutions (NCIs).
What You’ll Be Doing
The Survivor Participation Officer will play a crucial role in supporting the work of the National Safeguarding Team (NST), taking responsibility for enabling and supporting victims and survivors to participate in different workstreams, projects, and activities within the National Safeguarding Team and nationally.
The Survivor Participation Officer will have key responsibility for acting as the Responsible Church Officer (RCO) for survivor participation within the National Safeguarding Team (NST) in line with the National Survivor Participation Framework.
The postholder will serve as the first point of contact for victims and survivors participating and expressing an interest in taking part in safeguarding. They will also lead the development of safe, trauma-informed, and inclusive survivor participation activities and events and facilitate meetings and activities to gather insights and invite participation from a wide range of survivors.
The postholder must have exceptional empathy, compassion and understanding for the personal experience of victims and survivors who have experienced abuse, particularly (but not exclusively) within the context of faith settings, including the Church of England or other denominations or traditions.
The postholder must have demonstrable experience of building relationships of trust and rapport with individuals who have lived experiences of abuse. They must be able to demonstrate that they have consistently used trauma-informed principles and ways of working in their work. They must be a strong team-player with the ability to work alongside colleagues in the National Safeguarding Team and National Church Institutions (NCIs) to develop appropriate and trauma-informed means of participation and engagement.
The postholder will report to and work closely with the Partnerships and Engagement Lead and the Survivor Participation Team.
Key Role Requirements
- This is a hybrid working role with at least 4 days per month, and when required, in the London office
- An Enhanced DBS check will be undertaken for the successful candidate, as part of the pre-employment checks
- You will need to have a relevant professional qualification in social work, counselling, psychology or substantial relevant work experience in similar roles and/or contexts.
About You
The Church of England is for everyone and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we would particularly welcome applicants from UK Minoritised Ethnicities (UKME)/Global Majority Heritage (GMH) and other under-represented groups. As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to recruiting disabled people. We offer interviews to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the role.
Please refer to the Job Description for more information about the role and person specification.
What We Offer
Your Salary
- A salary of £59,248 per annum, plus age-related pension contributions between 8-15% of salary. We will also match any pension contributions you make up to an additional 3% of your salary.
Your Benefits
- 25 days annual leave (increasing to 30 days within 5 years) plus eight bank holidays and three additional days (pro-rated if working part-time).
- We welcome all flexible working arrangement requests. This is looked at in a case-by-case scenario and if this fits within the department’s needs. We try to be as flexible as we can in your work pattern to support you with other commitments, and to give a good work-life balance.
- We offer many services and initiatives under our Family Friendly Programme, some of these include enhanced Maternity Leave initiative, Adoption Leave, Paternity Leave, & Shared Parental Leave. Structured induction programme and access to a range of development opportunities including apprenticeships.
- Automatic enrolment and access to Medicash (one of the UK’s leading health cash plan providers), providing you with many services including reimbursements of routine dental treatment, optical, specialist consultations, and therapy treatments. Unlimited access to virtual GP & Private prescription service and health & Stress related helplines.
- Access to Occupational Health, and an Employee Assistance Programme
- Access to the Department of Education Restaurant and Westminster Abbey with a plus-one guest.
- Apply for eligibility for an Eyecare voucher.
- Opportunity to join the Civil Service Sports & Social Club, and get involved in a range of staff networks, groups and societies.
About National Church Institutions
The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation – a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.
We Include. You Belong.
Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.
Living out our values in all that we do, we:
- Strive for Excellence
- Show Compassion
- Respect others
- Collaborate
- Act with Integrity
We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you.
Please note: You must have the right to work in the UK to be considered for the role.
