Lead Trainer and Assessor

Reports to: Training Manager

Hours: Full-time, 37.5 hours per week

Salary: £39,289.53 - £40,821.83 per annum, FTE (Band G)

Contract: Permanent

Location: Remote based within the UK (with occasional travel across UK)

Benefits: A generous package including 34 days holiday per year including public holidays, pension scheme with 4% employer contribution, Cycle2Work scheme, 365 days a year Employee Assistance Programme, enhanced family leave policies, paid annual wellbeing day, eye care voucher, length of service award.

We are SafeLives, the UK-wide charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for everyone, for good. 

We work with organisations across the UK to transform the response to domestic abuse. We want what you would want for your best friend. We listen to survivors, putting their voices at the heart of our thinking. We look at the whole picture for each individual and family to get the right help at the right time to make families everywhere safe and well. And we challenge perpetrators to change, asking ‘why doesn’t he stop?’ rather than ‘why doesn’t she leave?’ This applies whatever the gender of the victim or perpetrator and whatever the nature of their relationship.

Last year alone, we delivered more than 700 sessions to over 15,000 learners across the UK in policing, health, housing, justice, education and the specialist sector. And we have reached 90,000 adult and 100,000 child survivors through programmes designed and delivered with partners.

In the last 9 years, close to 7,000 perpetrators have been challenged and supported to change through flagship interventions developed by our Drive Partnership and the programme continues to expand year on year. 

Together we can end domestic abuse. Forever. For everyone.

Our training programme significantly improves the ability of domestic abuse professionals and other frontline responders and organisations, including police, children’s social care staff, and corporate HR and community teams, to identify and respond to domestic abuse and closely linked issues. We take a holistic approach, looking at the whole family and the connections between them to keep families safe sooner, and offer a whole range of training products to develop people who support them, including accredited professional training (e.g. Idva, Ypva), accreditation of specialist DA services (Leading Lights), and bespoke services for public, voluntary and commercial organisations.    

Our training programme across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland aims to create:  

• user value: with learners who attend our training feeling more confident and better equipped to fulfil their role   
• social value: with measures showing professionals who attend our training provide more effective interventions for those who experience abuse   
• financial value: responsible for generating around a third of SafeLives’ annual income  

We are looking for a Lead Trainer to oversee a suite of accredited and non-accredited courses covering England and Wales. Current training courses include Level 3 accredited domestic abuse practitioner courses, Level 4 Service Manager’s courses, and non-accredited topics such as responding to domestic abuse, employer training, DASH risk assessment, and MARAC chairing – among others. You will also contribute to the development of new training courses in response to emerging needs from specific commissioners, while actively monitoring sector developments to ensure our offerings remain relevant and impactful 

As one of SafeLives’ Lead Trainers and Assessors you will be part of the SafeLives Training and Development Team, with shared responsibility for developing, delivering and continuing a range of courses from within our suite. More broadly, you will work to ensure that SafeLives’ training programmes are in line with our strategic priorities and are of the highest quality, including course development and delivery with external partners and associate trainers. 

You will combine teamwork with working independently on a day-to-day basis at home, in SafeLives’ Bristol or London office and at training locations. 

This role offers a unique opportunity to influence the performance of professionals within the domestic abuse and related sectors at a national level as well as the response of other frontline or first responders in the public, voluntary or commercial sectors, and thus help address the risks faced by victims of domestic abuse. 

External 

Training commissioners, government departments, and other professionals working with those experiencing domestic and/or sexual abuse. And as also local service providers, wider sector representatives, accrediting bodies including OCN, partner agencies, corporate employers, and academic institutions. 

Internal 

Head of Training and Development, Senior Training Lead, SafeLives’ associate trainers and other internal teams including public affairs, research, evaluation and analysis, practice, innovation, fundraising, communications and marketing. 

1. To lead the development and delivery of training programmes focused on providing an effective response and a range of solutions to victims of domestic abuse and their families, paying particular attention to the needs of people who might otherwise be hidden from services 

2. To write and develop materials where victim voice and lived experience are central to learning outcomes for a variety of audiences 

3. To write and develop materials and documentation to support the successful delivery of in-room, online or hybrid training, ensuring our learners have a brilliant experience of SafeLives training from beginning to end 

4. To facilitate and support the development and delivery of training by SafeLives’ associate trainers, working with them to ensure the quality of the courses that they deliver, to support them and to offer feedback as part of our quality assurance process  

5. To work with the relevant course coordinator(s) and the marketing team to market and promote our courses, so that course places are filled and/or commissioners book courses/programmes, in line with our income targets  

6. To work proactively as part of the Training team to achieve the programme’s goals, including:  

• Assisting the Associate Director of Training and Development and/or Training Managers on SafeLives-wide issues relating to the development of our services 
• Ensuring our training courses are inclusive and in line with our Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion goals  
• Representing SafeLives at external meetings where appropriate 
• Assisting negotiation with partner agencies and commissioners in relation to developing and delivering training courses   
• Contributing to conferences, webinars, podcasts and other scheduled stakeholder events 
• Contributing to internal and external team development events 
• Developing and delivering in-house training 
• Project work as and when required 

7. To write and contribute to reports and progress updates on the implementation of SafeLives activity 

8. To provide an ongoing point of proactive and regular contact with professionals you train directly, and as the SafeLives representative for a variety of training for a full range of stakeholders nationally 

9. To contribute to the development of the Training team’s operating plan, and explore opportunities for the development of new training offers to meet emerging needs 

10. To be responsible for training income and budgets related to the courses you are responsible for, ensuring expenditure on courses is in line with an agreed budget for activities and prepare monthly progress reports 

 11. To review the evaluation reports of courses they are responsible for and contribute to writing SafeLives reports which reflect all learning gathered throughout the year. To inform the Senior Training Lead of issues that are raised. 

 12. To maintain an accurate and secure audit trail of all relevant communication 

 13. To ensure all work is undertaken in accordance with SafeLives’ policies and procedures 

 14. To support the work of SafeLives in whatever way may be reasonably required and uphold the quality of the SafeLives brand 

Specialism  

1.    Experience as a practitioner in either the voluntary or statutory sector working with victims of domestic and/or sexual abuse and their families 

2.    Knowledge of the domestic abuse sector including legal systems, child protection and advocacy options available to victims of domestic abuse

3.    An understanding of public policy as it relates to domestic abuse 

4.    An understanding of public protection arrangements, the provision of policing, health and social care, and of multi-agency/partnership working, in the UK 

5.    Completion of the SafeLives Accredited courses, such as Idva, would be desirable  

Training and presentation 

1.    Outstanding training, communication and interpersonal skills, both written and verbal experience of online training  

2.    Experience of delivering training, including having researched and developed high-quality training/facilitation materials 

3.    Experience of delivering accredited training and assessment including having a recognised training qualification or equivalent experience would be desirable 

4.    Experience of writing and presenting information of a high calibre, formally and informally, to a range of audiences 

5.    Direct experience of making presentations to other agencies about domestic abuse risk management and multi-agency work 

People and other skills 

1.    Very good facilitation skills including an ability to lead a discussion to constructive conclusion and the ability to provide feedback and communicate potential ways forward in a way that provides positive motivation for the audience 

2.    Sound project management skills, including taking responsibility for and reporting on key operational and financial deliverables 

3.    Sound IT skills (e.g. Zoom, Word, PowerPoint, Teams and Excel), including use of technology for communication with a geographically dispersed team 

4.    Experience of working with diverse communities 

5.    Ability and willingness to work independently, travel as required, manage own time and prioritise effectively whilst also working as part of a team 

6.    Sound negotiation skills 

SafeLives is committed to providing equal opportunities for all, irrespective of age, disability, race, sex, religion/belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and working patterns. We are keen to have staff that appropriately represent all the communities we serve as an organisation.

We believe there is no ‘them and us’ in domestic abuse and recognise that applicants may have direct or indirect experience of their own, whether disclosed or not. We are committed to placing lived experience of domestic abuse at the heart of all we do, and colleagues who chose to share their personal expertise can do so openly and with organisational support. If there is any discussion during the recruitment process regarding a candidate's personal experience of domestic abuse, it will be treated confidentially and will not be shared outside of the interview panel/ People and Culture.