Safeguarding and Protection Consultancy

Job Description & Person Specification

Safeguarding and Protection Consultancy

Contract: Temporary

Location: Remote

Reports to: Head of Programmes/Deputy CEO

Closing Date: 28th August 2022

About READ Foundation

READ Foundation is a UK based registered charity working to create school places for children living in poverty in the developing world.

We create opportunities for orphan and needy children to go to school to gain an education and build a better life for themselves. We currently focus on constructing new schools, providing quality sponsorship for orphans and are now expanding our educational portfolio to reflect the large humanitarian and development needs ongoing throughout the world.

We created our first school in 1994 with a single classroom of 25 children, while as of this academic year we are now running almost 400 schools, in which over 100,000 children study, almost 10% of whom are orphaned by father or both parents. However, with a global shortage of classrooms in the millions, there is still much to do to achieve universal education.

READ Foundation is committed to ensuring an enhanced and holistic strategy that will specifically focus on ensuring our safeguarding measures keep not only children, but also young adults and all those we serve safe within our work and support the wide range of stakeholders across the policy and programmes departments to continue to uphold with highest standards of our safeguarding duty and duty of care. This means nothing must contribute in any way to harming or placing children and persons we serve at risk of harm. Designing and delivering safe programmes is a major aspect of our commitment to ‘do no harm.’

READ Foundation will hereby be referred to as ‘RF’ and the partner organisation READ Foundation Pakistan will be herby referred to as RF PK.

Purpose of Job

RF reviews all its policies, procedures and processes on a regular basis with an aim to consistently ensure that safeguarding principles are fully embedded in all our programmes. RF aims to engage a consultant to support in strengthening existing safeguarding capacity and procedures in programme management. This will be followed by tailored updates accompanied with tools and guidelines followed by efficient uptake and training of staff. Additionally, ensuring all programme and policy staff have the capacity to design and deliver on their initiatives to the highest standards of safeguarding and minimum standards in child protection.

It is critical that the consultant/s are fully aware of the importance in managing an audit process in a confidential and contextually sensitive manner. Mindfulness is to be ensured whilst understanding the cultural nuances and adapting all approaches when speaking and engaging different stakeholders with the organisation and those we serve and support of different ages and abilities.

Main Responsibilities

The consultant/s will work closely with RF and its main implementing partner RF PK. Although policy review and development will be done with RF UK whilst ensuring roll out to existing and future country office, RF Pakistan will require the bulk of the practical exercise to be carried out. This is mainly due to the scale of programme implementation in RF Pakistan.

This will require physical presence in Pakistan to ensure that all staff associated with programmes and policy initiatives have the necessary understanding and tools to readily identify and analyse potential risks for beneficiaries.

This consultancy will ensure that the staff at RF UK are equipped to develop risk assessments with country offices and partners that contribute to safer programme design, implementation, monitoring and policy initiatives.

This will include but not be limited to:

• audits
• policy and manual development with essential tools
• process flows and procedures
• key interviews/investigations
• change management
• capacity development

In addition to uptake and training, safeguarding lead capacity and safeguarding team structure (locally and internationally) is to be completed at RF.

In summary, the systematised methodology and tools will ensure driving of safeguarding throughout RF post a safeguarding audit look at policies, practice and procedures run throughout the organisational operations. This audit will review how these approaches are accountable towards stakeholders, what protective and response mechanisms are in place and how the organisation streamline and have the appropriate capacity and systems in place for safeguarding

The consultant is expected to deliver on the following activities:

Stage 1: Organisational Review/Assessment

1.1 Develop a base line study for RF’ safeguarding, with specific focus on child safeguarding

1.2 Review and assess compliance of RF’s existing internal and national/international policies, strategies and procedures against best practices in the area of safeguarding and rights protection.

1.3 Conduct Focus group discussions and interviews with key staff at RF UK and RF PK to gain more understanding of the current status.

1.4 Development of draft situational analysis with recommendations

1.5 Develop an assessment plan and a checklist for RF and RF PK to assess compliance to safeguarding.

1.6 Produce a status update report reflecting the minimum standards on RF and RF PK safeguarding status.

Stage 2: Policy Development/Training

2.1 Conduct safeguarding, more specifically child safeguarding and rights protection workshop with senior management at RF and RF PK (learning, capacity building and action planning).

2.2 Develop a safeguarding and rights protection policy with a practical manual. This would include detailed processes (process flows) and procedures.

2.3 Develop essential supporting tools which will be reviewed and approved by Senior Management Team at RF.

2.4 Provide Training sessions for key RF and RF PK staff members on safeguarding policy and procedures.

Stage 3: Measurement of Impact of Child Safeguarding for Organisation

3.1 Conduct one annual meeting with RF and RF PK’s safeguarding focal points and staff to assess implementation of policies, identify impact and lessons learned.

3.2 Provide advanced on job training, coaching and supervision to RF and RF Pakistan safeguarding focal points, and planning of policy implementation and internal monitoring to ensure compliance to policy and procedure with essential checklists.

3.3 Finalise policy and compliance strategy along with manual

3.4 Create report of findings, suggest modifications to policies and procedures and recommendations for continued growth.

Work arrangement

The consultant will report to the Head of Programmes and the Deputy CEO in the first instance who will be responsible for coordination and oversight of the consultant’s activities. The consultant will use his/her own work tools, office space, and manage own time and manner of delivering outputs.

Contract Duration and Schedule of Activities

• The contract duration is 25 days.
• The Consultant and senior management at RF will agree on the specific deliverables and timetable.

Experience & Qualifications

• The person engaged will be expected to have worked with protection, child protection and gender in both development and emergency settings.
• The person should also have worked in programme management capacity in development and emergency settings and have some field experience.
• Experience in facilitating training of personnel/staff
• Degree in social sciences, social work, human rights and preferably with a focus on protection/child protection/child rights
• Experience of policy review and process development for organisational safeguarding in Pakistan is highly desirable.