Principal Officer (Child Protection Conference Chair)

Location: Stirchley, Birmingham (45 Fordhouse Lane, B30 3BN) – City-wide travel required for venues
Pay Rate: £209.27 per day (PAYE)
Contract Type: Temporary, 15 weeks (Full-Time, 36.5 hours per week)
Target Start Date: 27 July 2026
Reason for Hire: Long-Term Sickness Cover
Work Pattern: In-person attendance required at conferencing venues and during duty weeks. Flexibility for remote working during dedicated admin time.

About the Role

Are you a highly experienced, qualified Social Work professional looking to elevate your practice within an inclusive, stable, and deeply supportive team environment?

On behalf of Birmingham Children’s Trust, Bridge Staffing Agency is seeking a dedicated Principal Officer to step into a crucial role as a Child Protection Chair within the Quality Assurance Directorate.

In this role, you will hold responsibility for chairing multi-agency Child Protection Conferences for some of the city's most vulnerable children and young people. Underpinned by the Strengthening Families approach, you will ensure that parents, children, and multi-agency partners are actively engaged, keeping the child's voice and lived experience at the very heart of all safety planning. Your decision-making will directly reflect a relationship-based, trauma-informed practice model.

Key Responsibilities

Conference Chairing: Lead and facilitate in-person, multi-agency Child Protection Conferences, driving collaborative safety planning and high-quality outcomes.
Practice Leadership: Play a leading role in ensuring the Trust achieves consistently high standards of safeguarding practice, performance, and co-production.
Professional Challenge: Build constructive relationships with families and professionals alike, providing respectful, robust challenge to practitioners across the network where necessary.
Collaboration & Duty: Participate in team duty weeks and work collaboratively across a close-knit workforce, utilizing specialist social care services and robust multi-agency partnerships.
Quality Assurance: Maintain an accountable, reflective approach to practice, contributing directly to the team's continuous professional development and learning culture.

What We Are Looking For

Requirements (Essential):

Qualifications & Registration: Professional qualification in Social Work with active registration with Social Work England.
Child Protection Expertise: Extensive post-qualifying social work experience with a thorough, sound grasp of child protection frameworks and processes.
Chairing Experience: Proven prior experience explicitly chairing Child Protection Conferences.
Workload Management: Exceptional organizational skills with the ability to manage your own workload autonomously and meet tight statutory deadlines.
Team Dynamics: A collaborative, supportive team player who thrives in a learning culture open to reflection and feedback.
Flexibility: Willingness to travel between various conferencing venues and offices across Birmingham as part of a city-wide service.

Desirable:

Previous management or supervisory experience within children's services.