Service Manager – Safeguarding and Quality Assurance

The role

Service Manager – Safeguarding and Quality Assurance

  • Salary: £61,864 - £67,592 (pay award pending)
  • Location: Huyton, Merseyside

Lead Excellence in Safeguarding and Quality Assurance

Knowsley Council is seeking an exceptional leader to join our Children’s Social Care leadership team as Service Manager for Safeguarding and Quality Assurance. This pivotal role will provide strategic and operational leadership across safeguarding, quality assurance, performance, and improvement functions, ensuring that children, young people and families receive high-quality, child-centred support that delivers positive outcomes.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead a key service at the heart of our improvement journey. You will drive a culture of excellence, learning and accountability, overseeing quality assurance frameworks, safeguarding arrangements, performance management and practice improvement activity. Working closely with partners across education, health, police and social care, you will play a vital role in strengthening safeguarding practice, promoting continuous improvement, and ensuring children and young people receive the right support, at the right time, from professionals who are ambitious for their futures.

About the Role

At Knowsley, we are committed to ensuring that every child grows up safe, supported and able to achieve their full potential. As Service Manager for Safeguarding and Quality Assurance, you will provide inspirational leadership within a forward-thinking Children’s Social Care service, driving excellence in safeguarding practice, quality assurance, performance and continuous improvement.

Working collaboratively with colleagues, partners and stakeholders across education, health, police and social care, you will lead the development and delivery of robust safeguarding and quality assurance arrangements that promote the safety, wellbeing and positive outcomes of children and young people. You will champion a culture of reflection, learning and accountability, ensuring that practice is child-centred, evidence-informed and focused on achieving the best possible outcomes for children and families.

You will oversee quality assurance frameworks, audit and review activity, performance management, learning and improvement programmes, and safeguarding processes, using insight and analysis to drive service improvement and strengthen practice across Children's Social Care. A key aspect of the role will be ensuring that the voices and experiences of children, young people and families inform service development and decision-making.

This is an exciting opportunity to play a pivotal role in Knowsley’s ongoing improvement journey, influencing practice, performance and outcomes at both a strategic and operational level. Leading highly skilled teams and working in partnership with key agencies, you will help shape a culture where safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and where children receive the right support, at the right time, from professionals who are ambitious for their futures.

This is an opportunity to provide impactful leadership that strengthens safeguarding, drives quality and continuous improvement, and makes a lasting difference to the lives of children, young people and families across Knowsley.

Service manager page image
Assisting young student

About You

We're looking for a passionate, ambitious and resilient leader who can bring vision, expertise and credibility to this pivotal safeguarding leadership role. You'll be someone who can:

  • Provide visible and values-led leadership, creating a culture of excellence, accountability, reflection and continuous improvement across safeguarding and quality assurance functions.
  • Demonstrate a strong track record of improving practice and outcomes for children and young people, ensuring services remain child-centred, effective and responsive.
  • Champion high-quality safeguarding practice, ensuring statutory responsibilities are met and that children remain at the heart of all decision-making.
  • Lead and inspire skilled professionals, fostering a culture where staff feel supported, empowered and motivated to achieve their best.
  • Drive quality assurance and service improvement, using audits, reviews, performance information and learning activity to strengthen practice and improve outcomes.
  • Promote a strong learning culture, ensuring feedback, challenge and continuous professional development are embedded across services.
  • Work effectively in partnership with education, health, police, social care, safeguarding partners and the voluntary sector to strengthen safeguarding arrangements and deliver positive outcomes.
  • Provide constructive support and challenge to managers and practitioners, promoting high standards of professional practice, accountability and performance.
  • Use performance data, quality assurance findings and insight to identify trends, manage risk, inform decision-making and drive continuous improvement.
  • Lead complex safeguarding and quality assurance functions, balancing competing priorities, resources and statutory responsibilities effectively.
  • Communicate with confidence and influence, building positive relationships with children, families, partners, elected members, regulators and senior leaders.
  • Demonstrate sound judgement, resilience and strategic thinking, making informed decisions in complex and challenging situations.
  • Be a passionate advocate for children and young people, with an unwavering commitment to safeguarding, quality and achieving the best possible outcomes for those who need us most.

You will be an experienced leader within children's social care, safeguarding or quality assurance services, with a strong understanding of safeguarding legislation, performance management, quality assurance frameworks and continuous improvement. You will have a proven ability to work across agencies, influence practice and drive positive change through effective leadership, learning and partnership working.

Most importantly, you will share Knowsley's ambition to ensure children and young people are safe, happy, healthy and able to achieve their full potential.

This is a role for leaders who can combine strategic vision with operational excellence, constructive challenge with supportive leadership, and a relentless focus on safeguarding, quality and continuous improvement to make a lasting difference to the lives of children, young people and families.

Why Knowsley?

Knowsley is a resilient and ambitious borough with a strong sense of community and a relentless focus on improving lives. We are proud of our improvement journey and equally clear about the role strong, values-driven leadership plays in sustaining progress.

You will join:

  • A supportive and committed Corporate and Children and Young People leadership team
  • An organisation that values collaboration, learning and innovation
  • A place where senior leaders are trusted, visible and empowered
  • A borough where your leadership will have a direct and lasting impact.

This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of Children’s Social Care in Knowsley and make a genuine difference to the lives of children and families.

A teacher works with a small group of primary school children gathered around a table, helping them with a classroom learning activity.

Interested?

For further information and details on how to apply, please explore the candidate information via the links on this site.

For a confidential discussion about the role, please contact:

Laura Knights

Head of Service - Safeguarding and Quality Assurance

Telephone: 0151 443 4786

Email: Laura.knights@knowsley.gov.uk 

Recruitment Timeline - Key Dates

  • Closing date: 31 August 2026
  • Interviews: 4 and 11 September 2026

Supporting information

Our Offer

Our workplace offer

Knowsley Council offers a competitive salary and generous benefits package within flexible working arrangements.

Find all our employee benefits below. 

Financial

  • Competitive salary, which rises annually to the next increment of our pay scale for most roles
  • Annual Pay Awards which are negotiated nationally and apply to all employees
  • Financial well-being offers and support, including affordable borrowing
  • 24-hour financial advice from our Employee Assistance Programme
  • Car mileage payments
  • Free car parking
  • Access to a salary sacrifice scheme to lease hybrid and electric vehicles
  • A home goods and electricals salary sacrifice scheme
  • Transparent pay structures so you are paid fairly in line with peers and know what you will be paid as you develop your career with the council

Development

  • Engaging comprehensive induction programme
  • Fully embedded apprenticeship and graduate development programmes with tailored support and development
  • Collaborative working with educational establishments to support development initiatives and opportunities
  • Levy funded vocational and degree level qualifications available
  • Full programme of CPD for work-based learning and development opportunities
  • A wide variety of roles, helping you to try different careers and apply your skills in new areas
  • Opportunities for getting involved in innovative projects and initiatives to support continuous improvement
  • Strong culture of employee engagement as well as reward and recognition – supporting you to be the best you can be

Pensions

  • Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.  Unlike many private sector pensions which are defined contribution (DC), LGPS is a defined benefit (DB) scheme. This means:
    • Pension is based on salary and length of service.
    • Provides a guaranteed income for life after retirement.
    • Less risk for the employee compared to DC schemes.

Whereas most DC schemes are based on performance of market investments.

  • LGPS pensions are inflation-protected, increasing annually in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), helping maintain purchasing power over time.
  • The council will typically contribute 9.3% towards your pension, compared to lower contributions in many DC schemes.
  • The scheme includes ill health and death benefits which includes immediate access to your pension if you are retired early due to ill health and a lump sum death benefit of 3 times your salary as a lump sum and survivors pensions for dependents.
  • Members of the pension scheme can also opt for early retirement from 55 (with reductions to pension benefits).
  • You can find out more about our pensions at Merseyside Pension Fund (mpfmembers.org.uk)
  • Ways to top up your pension benefits, including shared cost salary sacrifice, meaning more savings on National Insurance and Income Tax and the option to voluntarily make additional pension contributions.

Wellbeing

  • 36 hour full-time working week
  • Generous annual leave entitlement with an additional two concessionary days over the festive period plus public holidays. Entitlement varies depending on grade, illustrated below, in addition to public holidays.

Entitlements below are based on full-time hours and will be pro rata for part-time employees.

Grade (Days) Basic Leave Continuous Service (Days) After 3 Years Continuous Service (Days) After 5 Years Continuous Service (Days) After 10 Years (Days)
Grade A-E 23 24 28 29
Grade F-G 24 25 28 30
Grade H-L 26 27 29 32
Grade M-Q and PMG 1-2 28 29 31 34
PMG 3-5 and Directors 30 31 33 36
  • Option to buy additional annual leave
  • Flexible working
  • Hybrid working in many roles
  • Active travel support with a cycle-to-work scheme
  • 24-hour health and wellbeing support with access to qualified counsellors and practitioners
  • Occupational health services
  • Workplace adjustments
  • Access to a wide range of wellbeing support material including lifestyle assessments and recommendations, information about different health and wellbeing subjects and healthy eating recipes.
  • Free flu jab
  • Free eye tests for DSE users
  • Access to a range of health programmes, such as weight management and smoking cessation sessions
  • The council has strong Trade Union representation through Unison, GMB and Unite and you will have the option to join.

Discounts

  • A range of lifestyle savings and discounts available to all employees, including high street retailers, dining out, cinema, holidays, days out, health and fitness and beauty
  • Discounted gym memberships
  • Access to reduced-cost travel passes
  • Discounts available through mobile phone providers
  • All local authority employees are eligible for Costco membership

Family and Carers support

  • Maternity Leave
  • Paternity leave
  • Shared parental leave
  • Unpaid emergency leave support
  • Family-friendly policies supporting fostering, fertility treatment, fostering, adoption and caring responsibilities
  • Carers passports to make sure you’re supported to manage caring responsibilities alongside work
  • Menopause policy, passport, and support

Employee Networks

  • The Changies offers a safe, informal space for men to connect and support each other.
  • The Carer’s Forum offers support to employees with caring responsibilities.
  • The Disability Workers’ Group advocates for disabled employees and helps shape inclusive policies.
  • The LGBTQ+ Forum supports LGBTQ+ staff, promotes visibility, and influences inclusive change.
  • The Multi Faith and Belief Workers’ Group raises awareness of diverse beliefs to reduce discrimination and improve service delivery.
  • The Neuro Diversity Network offers  a place for employees who are neuro diverse to come together and support each other.
  • The United in Diversity Network challenges discrimination and promotes cultural diversity and race equality.
  • The Women’s Operational Workers’ Network focuses on sex equality in employment and policy development and runs Menopause Café’s.
  • The Youth Employee Network empowers young staff to share experiences, develop skills, and influence workplace culture.

The employee networks work together on joint projects across the organisation.

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