Child protection jobs?

[Keke94LND]

Hey all.. wondering what kind of jobs are there in child protection, other than being a police officer?

I always wanted to work in child protection when I was younger, thinking I'd join the police and work in CP unit, now as an adult I really don't think I want to be a police officer, so what other jobs are there in child protection?

I also don't have any experience.. All my work experience is in admin

Thanks :)

Social work, lawyer

Social worker, youth worker, early help worker. Admin jobs in children's services.

Children's Centre worker, various charities that support children and families eg Family Action, domestic abuse charities,

Jobs based in education such as pastoral support or designated safeguarding lead (in some schools this is a standalone role, in others it's taken on by senco or headteacher for instance)

Jobs in the justice system including Courts and Prisons.

Children's Centre family support worker or Outreach Worker.

I work as a School Nurse (qualified paediatric nurse with a specialist post grad) and my job is very heavily focused on safeguarding - there are lots of options if you don’t want to retrain! Family support workers and targeted youth workers often work alongside families with CP plans, though in my area you tend to have teams split into those who work with children on CP plans and those who work with families who just need extra support for a short period of time. I have massive respect for Family Workers and Targeted Youth Workers - they do an amazing job.

I also work closely with pastoral teams in schools - the heads usually sit in on meetings but they will usually have a pastoral team that work with children with all sorts of backgrounds. I love pastoral staff generally!

There is something to be said for a mixed caseload - it can be emotionally very challenging when your entire focus is CP all of the time.

It’s also worth thinking about what you want your focus to be as it might be worth speaking to those in the area that you’re interested in - for a lot of people they start jobs like this and slowly work up up to the CP cases. It can be difficult to get engagement from families who are subject to CP - not always, but sometimes - due to a mistrust of professionals, but these are the families that need help and intervention so it can take time and experience to gain confidence from these families.