Head of Safeguarding - Nationwide

Join Partou UK – Helping little minds grow big.

Partou UK is one of the country’s largest and fastest-growing childcare providers, committed to creating nurturing environments where children feel safe, valued and inspired to learn every day. As part of a global group with over 1,000 nurseries worldwide, we’re passionate about education, quality, professional development and continuous improvement.

The Role
As Head of Safeguarding, you will lead the safeguarding strategy, culture, and governance across our growing nursery group. You will ensure safeguarding practice is consistent, child-centred, legally compliant and embedded as everyone’s responsibility across all settings.

Reporting to the Childcare & Operations Director (the organisation’s Ofsted Nominated Individual), you will provide expert oversight of safeguarding systems and high-risk safeguarding matters, ensuring strong frameworks, clear decision-making thresholds and reliable processes are in place. You will line manage a team of Regional DSLs who support nursery leaders directly and maintain day-to-day operational safeguarding oversight.

This is a senior leadership role suited to an experienced safeguarding professional who can combine sound professional judgement with calm leadership, strong partnership working and a practical approach to building capability and confidence at every level of the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

Safeguarding Strategy, Culture and Governance

• Lead and embed a safeguarding culture that prioritises children’s safety, dignity, and wellbeing across every setting.
• Review, develop and maintain clear safeguarding frameworks, thresholds, escalation routes and decision-making tools that enable confident, consistent practice.
• Ensure safeguarding governance is robust, including oversight of trends, learning and compliance requirements.
• Provide assurance to the Childcare & Operations Director (Nominated Individual) on safeguarding effectiveness, emerging risks and areas requiring intervention.

Oversight of Safeguarding Practice

• Maintain appropriate oversight of safeguarding concerns across the group through systems, reporting, and Regional DSL input.
• Personally lead, advise on, or quality assure safeguarding activity in complex, high-risk or business-critical cases, ensuring consistent thresholds and professional decision-making.
• Support a proactive approach to safeguarding that encourages early reporting, timely escalation, and reflective learning.
• Ensure effective liaison and collaboration between Regional DSLs, nursery leadership and Operations, to avoid gaps, duplication, or delay.

Regulatory Compliance and External Engagement

• Ensure statutory safeguarding responsibilities are discharged consistently and effectively across the group, including timely and accurate notifications to Ofsted and relevant agencies, with accountability held by the Nominated Individual.
• Build and maintain strong professional relationships with Local Authorities, safeguarding partners and other agencies as required.
• Where required, support the Childcare & Operations Director directly in periods of heightened regulatory scrutiny, post-incident recovery and compliance planning.

Training, Capability and Continuous Learning

• Own the safeguarding learning and development strategy for the group, ensuring training is high-quality, role-appropriate, and consistently delivered.
• Lead group-wide learning from incidents, near misses, complaints, audits, and inspection feedback - ensuring improvements are embedded and sustained.
• Ensure safeguarding practice is strengthened through supervision quality, reflective practice and support structures for nursery leaders and teams.

Leadership of Regional Designated Safeguarding Leads

• Lead and support a team of experienced Regional DSLs, ensuring their professional practice remains consistent, confident, and aligned with organisational safeguarding frameworks.
• Ensure Regional DSLs have the tools, time, and structure to deliver consistent oversight, high-quality documentation review and effective support to Nursery Managers.
• Maintain a high-performing safeguarding function that is trusted, visible and respected across the estate.

What we’re looking for

You will be a credible safeguarding leader with experience operating at scale in regulated environments. You are calm, values-led, and confident working with complexity, able to balance support and challenge, while keeping children at the centre of every decision.

You will bring:

• Extensive safeguarding leadership experience within a regulated children’s environment (early years, education, or care).
• Strong knowledge of UK safeguarding legislation and statutory guidance relevant to early years settings.
• Proven ability to create clear safeguarding frameworks, thresholds, and governance at group level.
• Experience leading teams, developing capability, and embedding consistent practice across multiple sites.
• Confidence engaging with Local Authorities, safeguarding partners and regulators when required.
• Strong judgement, professionalism, resilience, and the ability to remain calm under pressure.

Why Join Us?
This is a pivotal role within a growing organisation, offering the opportunity to build a safeguarding function with clear purpose, strong systems and a culture rooted in care and accountability - making a meaningful difference to children, families, and teams. Our benefits include –

• Salary between £75,000 and £80,000 per annum
• Car allowance of £6000 per annum
• 60% childcare discount
• Enhanced maternity/paternity leave
• Pension scheme
• Your birthday off – to celebrate you
• Access to EPIC, our colleague information, reward, and recognition platform
• Access to MEDICASH, our Private Medical Insurance Scheme
• Access to our employee assistance programme (EAP)

This role is subject to an enhanced DBS check  

We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community

Partou is proud be a part of the National Partnership in Early Learning and Childcare (NPELC) - a group of 10 of the largest childcare providers across England. Together, we operate over 1,300 childcare settings, employ more than 38,000 people, and take care of over 160,000 children.

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