Head of Investigations & Quality (Safeguarding, Health, Safety & Security) – Fixed-Term Maternity Cover (12 Months) 

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. 

Salary Structure: 

Save the Children is committed to paying staff in a fair and equitable way and will benchmark all salary offers in line with the pay of existing staff. To see our full offer please visit this link: Save the Children | Careers

Interview Expenses: 

Candidates should note that unfortunately it is not our policy to reimburse expenses accrued when attending interviews at Save the Children UK unless you are requested to attend an interview in an alternative location to where the role is based.

Pre-employment Checks:

Any Employment with Save the Children UK will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• A satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International Criminal Record Check (If applicable)
• Receipt of satisfactory references - As a committed member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, as part of our onboarding process, Save the Children UK will undertake a minimum of 2 references, and any additional references required to collectively cover the last 5 years of your employment history.
• Proof of eligibility to work in the national location for this role

If you have any questions, we have an FAQ section here.

For anything else you can email us on: careers@savethechildren.org.uk