Location: UK — Remote
Contract: Volunteer
Hours: Estimated 7 hours per week / 28 hours per month
Reports to: Chief Operating Officer
About the Independent Federation for Safeguarding
The Independent Federation for Safeguarding is committed to strengthening safeguarding practice, professional standards, collaboration, and accountability across the sector. We bring together organisations and professionals who share a commitment to protecting children, adults at risk and communities from harm.
The Director of Education & Training will be the Federation's senior lead for education, training, and professional learning, responsible for developing and delivering a learning strategy that directly supports our organisational objectives and safeguarding mission.
You will provide strategic advice to the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Executive, Executive Team, and Board, ensuring that education and training are treated as core professional functions rather than a collection of standalone courses.
The Director will lead the development of a coherent, quality-assured learning architecture, enabling members and partners to access high-quality professional development, progress through learning pathways and strengthen safeguarding practice across sectors.
· Develop and implement a multi-year education, training and professional-learning strategy aligned with the Federation's strategic objectives.
· Provide expert advice to the CEO, COO, Executive Team and Board on education, training, qualifications, and professional development.
· Establish clear governance, priorities, and decision-making arrangements for the Federation's learning portfolio.
· Ensure education and training activity delivers measurable professional, organisational and member value.
· Build a culture of evidence-informed learning, reflective practice, and continuous professional development.
· Ensure the learning portfolio can scale as the Federation develops.
· Lead the design and continuous improvement of safeguarding education, training, and professional-learning programmes.
· Develop coherent learning pathways from introductory development through advanced professional practice and leadership.
· Explore and develop appropriate qualifications, apprenticeships, higher-level and postgraduate opportunities with credible partners.
· Ensure learning outcomes, content, assessment, and certification arrangements are robust, current, and proportionate.
· Ensure curricula respond to changes in legislation, statutory guidance, professional standards, research, and emerging safeguarding practice.
· Establish a proportionate quality-assurance framework for all IfS education and training.
· Set standards for trainers, facilitators, assessors, learning materials, assessment, and evaluation.
· Work closely with the Director of Safeguarding & Professional Standards to ensure learning reflects approved IfS standards, competency frameworks, and codes of practice.
· Monitor learner feedback, quality, impact, complaints, and improvement actions.
· Provide assurance to the COO, Executive Team and Board regarding the quality and integrity of the learning portfolio.
· Oversee online, blended, face-to-face and partner-delivered learning.
· Build and coordinate an appropriate faculty of volunteer, associate and commissioned trainers and subject-matter experts.
· Champion accessible, inclusive, and user-centred learning design.
· Develop effective arrangements for learner support, evaluation, certification, and continuing engagement.
· Ensure safeguarding considerations are embedded within learning environments, events, and delivery arrangements.
· Develop relationships with universities, awarding organisations, training providers, employers, professional bodies, and sector partners.
· Identify opportunities for co-designed, co-branded, endorsed, or accredited provision where this advances the Federation's objectives.
· Support the Federation's longer-term professional-institute ambitions by building a credible education and professional-development architecture.
· Represent IfS externally on safeguarding education, training, and workforce-development matters.
· Work with Membership, Marketing, Fundraising and Finance colleagues to translate sector need into high-value learning offers.
· Develop sustainable pricing, commissioning, and partnership propositions.
· Use data and evaluation to assess reach, completion, satisfaction, learning transfer, and impact.
· Identify opportunities for commissioned, grant-funded, and international learning programmes.
· Ensure intellectual property, licensing and partner arrangements appropriately protect IfS.
· Lead, develop and inspire the Federation's education and training capability.
· Establish clear standards, processes, and professional-development opportunities for those contributing to delivery.
· Work collaboratively across the organisation and build strong relationships with members and external stakeholders.
· Promote inclusion, accessibility, professional integrity and safeguarding throughout education and training.
We are looking for a strategic and pragmatic leader who combines professional credibility with excellent judgement, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
You will be comfortable operating with senior leaders and the Board while remaining sufficiently hands-on to build high-quality systems and services in a developing, volunteer-led organisation.
You will be motivated by the opportunity to strengthen safeguarding for public benefit and will understand that trust, inclusion, professional integrity, and ethical responsibility are fundamental.
You will have:
· Significant senior experience in education, training, professional learning, workforce development, or qualifications.
· A proven track record of developing and delivering education or professional-learning strategies.
· Strong knowledge of curriculum design, adult learning, assessment, and quality assurance.
· Experience developing learning programmes, qualifications, or professional-development pathways.
· Experience working with senior executives and/or Boards.
· Experience managing partnerships, programmes and multiple stakeholders.
· The ability to translate complex safeguarding, policy or professional issues into clear learning and development solutions.
· Experience using evaluation and data to improve quality and impact.
· Excellent communication, facilitation, influencing, and relationship-building skills.
· A strong commitment to safeguarding, inclusion, ethical practice, and public benefit.
Experience of one or more of the following would be particularly valuable:
· Safeguarding, social care, education, health, justice, charity, or other public-service environments.
· Membership organisations, federations, or professional bodies.
· Accredited qualifications, apprenticeships, awarding organisations, or higher education.
· Digital and blended learning platforms.
· International professional learning or cross-jurisdictional safeguarding.
· Commercial training, commissioning, or grant-funded programmes.
· Professional standards, competency frameworks or continuing professional development schemes.
· Strategic — able to see beyond individual courses and understand how education and training can advance the Federation's wider mission.
· Values-led — committed to safeguarding, ethical practice, inclusion, and public benefit.
· Collaborative — able to build trust across professional disciplines and organisational boundaries.
· Pragmatic — capable of balancing ambition with quality, affordability, and operational reality.
· Quality-focused — committed to evidence, evaluation, and continuous improvement.
· Entrepreneurial — able to identify sustainable learning opportunities without compromising professional integrity.
· Decisive — able to make sound decisions in complex and developing circumstances.
· An excellent communicator — able to engage Boards, colleagues, members, learners, and external partners.
We offer:
· The opportunity to shape and deliver the Federation's education and training strategy.
· A visible leadership role working closely with the COO, CEO, Executive Team, and Board.
· The opportunity to influence safeguarding practice through high-quality professional learning and qualifications.
· A collaborative and purpose-driven working environment.
· Flexible working arrangements.
· Professional development and training.
The Independent Federation for Safeguarding is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk.
All staff, volunteers and associates are expected to share this commitment. Appointment to this role will be subject to appropriate safer-recruitment procedures and pre-employment checks, which will include references and relevant criminal-record checks where applicable to the responsibilities of the post.
We are committed to creating an inclusive organisation in which everyone is treated with dignity, fairness, and respect.
To apply, email your CV and a supporting statement to info@ifs-safeguarding.com by 23:59 on 4th Oct.