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Closing Date: 19 July 2026
Ref 7367
Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for an experienced safeguarding professional with a strong safeguarding casework and investigations background to join us as our Head of Investigations & Quality, where you will lead complex safeguarding casework, drive quality assurance, and strengthen safer practices across the UK and internationally.
This is a 12-month fixed-term maternity cover contract, starting in September 2026. Due to the nature of the role, candidates must be available to commence employment in September 2026.
About Us
Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.
About the Role
As Head of Investigations & Quality (Safeguarding, Health, Safety & Security), you will lead Save the Children UK's safeguarding casework and investigations function, ensuring safeguarding concerns are managed to the highest standards and in line with organisational policies, regulatory requirements and sector best practice.
Bringing significant experience of safeguarding investigations and complex case management, you will oversee sensitive and high-risk safeguarding cases, provide quality assurance across safeguarding, health, safety and security incident management, and drive continuous improvement through learning, insight and organisational accountability. Working closely with senior leaders and safeguarding colleagues, you will help strengthen our safeguarding culture and ensure survivor-centred, trauma-informed approaches are embedded throughout our work.
In this role, you will:
- Lead and oversee safeguarding investigations and case management activity, ensuring complex and sensitive cases are handled using survivor-centred, trauma-informed and risk-aware approaches.
- Provide quality assurance and oversight of safeguarding, health, safety and security incident management, ensuring consistency, compliance and high standards of practice across the organisation.
- Strengthen case management systems, processes and reporting mechanisms, embedding learning from cases and near-misses into organisational policies, training and safeguarding practice.
- Provide expert guidance, support and quality assurance to Safeguarding Business Partners and stakeholders, helping build capability and confidence in case management and investigations.
- Analyse safeguarding, health, safety and security data, identify trends and risks, and prepare high-quality reporting and insights for senior leadership, the Board and governance committees.
- Develop and deliver training, contribute to safeguarding improvement projects, and occasionally deputise for the Director of Safer Programming & Advocacy on safeguarding matters.
About You
This role is an excellent opportunity for an experienced safeguarding investigations professional who is passionate about protecting children and communities, driving high-quality practice, and ensuring organisations respond effectively when concerns arise.
To be successful, it is important that you have:
- Significant experience leading safeguarding casework and investigations, including managing complex, high-risk and sensitive safeguarding concerns within a large or complex organisation.
- Advanced safeguarding investigation and case management expertise, with a strong understanding of survivor-centred and trauma-informed approaches.
- Deep knowledge of safeguarding and child protection legislation, policy and best practice, ideally across both UK and international or INGO settings.
- Strong analytical skills and sound professional judgement, with the ability to balance risk, survivor needs and organisational accountability in challenging situations.
- Experience strengthening case management systems, quality assurance processes, audits and organisational learning frameworks.
- Excellent communication, influencing and relationship-building skills, with experience
- training, mentoring and supporting colleagues to improve safeguarding practice.
What we offer you
We promote flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, and wellbeing both at work and beyond, and offer a wide range of benefits designed to reward your hard work and inspire you to help improve the lives of children every day.
Some of the benefits you can expect include:
- Generous Annual Leave – Starting at 27 days per year (pro rata for part-time employees) increasing with service up to 32 days, plus public holidays and our annual 'Save the Children Day'.
- Family Leave – Up to 39 weeks of maternity/adoption pay (including up to 21 weeks full pay) and paternity/adoption leave of 10 weeks full pay (plus statutory entitlement).
- Special Leave – Up to 10 days paid leave per year (pro rata) for urgent or exceptional personal circumstances, without using annual leave.
- Volunteer Leave – Up to 3 days paid leave per year to support volunteering and give back.
- Pension & Life Assurance – Helping you plan for the future with up to 7% employer pension contributions.
- Employee Discounts – Access thousands of deals across groceries, retail, tech, travel, fitness, and more.
- Health & Wellbeing Support – Including access to a 24/7 Virtual GP and Employee Assistance Programme and Counselling, eye care support, and seasonal flu vaccinations.
Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.
Location & Ways of Working:
The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but at times you will be required to come to your contracted office (usually between 2–4 days per month, depending on the needs of your role, team, or service). For many roles, this is likely to be the minimum required to deliver impact.
The Safer Programming & Advocacy Team currently meets once per month at our office in Farringdon, but this will be discussed and agreed with your manager / team and we encourage candidates to discuss our ways of working in more detail at interview stage.
Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense.
Flexible Working - We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.
Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:
Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce, and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where structural inequality is actively addressed, and all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can thrive.
We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and are especially interested in hearing from people with diverse and intersecting identities such as lived experience of poverty, people of faith, people of colour, people with disabilities, with experience of migration and/or refugee status, care-experienced people, the LGBTQIA+ community and individuals with experience living in diverse families.
We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. We know that different voices working together will enable us to do our work better, improving the lives of children around the world.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Legal Casework
- Work closely with the Public Law Supervisor, Director of Legal Casework and Asylum Aid Executive Director to develop a public law caseload and drive change through strategic litigation;
- Provide legal advice and representation to clients on asylum and human rights claims, and on judicial review challenges pertaining to asylum and immigration matters and the treatment of asylum seekers and other migrants;
- Identify common problems and issues from the wider team’s caseload which are suitable for strategic challenges;
- Contribute to internal strategy discussions
- Attend external meetings on behalf of AA and contribute to strategy discussions within the wider sector
- Where appropriate, apply for LAA Case Funding through the CCMS, obtain appropriate costs and scope extensions, and submit claims for payment;
- Ensure that legal aid and other income is maximised, and targets are achieved;
- Maintain client files and records in line with file management procedures;
- Provide technical supervision and training in judicial review procedure to other staff where necessary.
APPLICATION PROCESS
The first stage is to complete on our online application form on our website by 9am on Monday 27th July 2026
The website form will ask you to:
- Upload a short covering letter. Please tell us why the position appeals to you, and how your
relevant skills and experience, including any voluntary experience and lived experience, matches the listed responsibilities and person specification. Please also state in your covering letter when you would be available to start the role.
- Upload your current CV
- Complete an online Equal Opportunities monitoring form – completion of this form will help us ensure that our recruitment procedures operate in such a way as to provide genuine equality of opportunity. The questions are entirely optional, and this information will not be available to members of the selection panel.
SELECTION PROCESS
We will invite candidates to an initial 15-minute online screening meeting week on 3rd, 4th or 5th August followed by shortlisted candidates attending in-person interview at our office in Old Street on 10, 11th or 12th August. We will also ask you to complete a short exercise on the day.
At Asylum Aid we want to be transparent about what kind of qualities we are looking for and build trust from the very beginning of your journey with us. The first step is your interview, and we mean ‘your’ interview so we will provide you with your interview questions ahead of the interview. This will allow you time to prepare, and ensure you have your best examples in mind. We will also ask you some questions which you will not have prepared.
We offer a guaranteed interview for refugees, stateless people and others with lived experience of forced migration, provided that they meet at least 50% of the essential criteria, where practical.
EXPERTS BY EXPERIENCE SUPPORT
We are also proud to be a member of the Experts by Experience Employment Network which aims to increase representation of people with lived experience in the charitable sector.
If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask for an independent and confidential support for your job application from the Experts by Experience Employment Network and access other information and resources. You can also request 121 interview mentoring ahead of your interview from them.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.