Child Protection Officer
- Career Category: Child Protection, Rural development, Social Work, Law, Educate/Train/Teaching
- Schedule:Full-time
- Salary: Based on Experience
ACCOUNTABLE TO : General Manager-Shared Services
LINE MANAGEMENT: N/A
LOCATION: Battambang Province with occasional travel to Project offices and schools within Cambodia
OPEN TO: Cambodian applicants
EMPLOYMENT TYPE: Full Time, Unspecified Duration Contract
START DATE: As soon as possible
The role
The Child Protection Officer leads SBB Cambodia’s safeguarding agenda by developing, integrating, and maintaining policies, systems, and practices that protect children and other vulnerable people from harm. Working across organisational and programmatic levels, the role ensures that safeguarding and Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH) protection and response are embedded into program design, delivery, monitoring and evaluation, and that measures are in place to ensure all staff, partners and volunteers “do no harm” to people who engage in our activities.
The role provides technical guidance, conducts safeguarding risk assessments, supports safe recruitment, and delivers training and awareness-raising to build a strong safeguarding culture. As the focal point for concerns, the Child Protection Officer coordinates confidential, survivor‑centred responses, maintains secure records, liaises with external agencies as required, and establishes monitoring mechanisms to ensure compliance and continuous improvement.
While the key Responsibilities and Tasks assigned to this role are listed below, the Child Protection Officer may also be required to address cross-cutting and emerging issues that may impact the effective operation of the organisation and its projects.
- R1: Manage the SBBC responses to child protection and safeguarding incidents, ensuring it is survivor-centred, confidential, and compliant with SBBC policies and procedures and international standards
- Be accessible for staff, volunteers and stakeholders to report "causes for concern"
- Manage confidential, survivor-centred responses to incidents, maintaining meticulous case notes in accordance with data protection protocols
- Manage the escalation of serious incidents to the SBBC executive and governing bodies, and to relevant regulatory authorities in Cambodia, Australia, the UK, or Ireland, as required.
- Develop and maintain a comprehensive Referral Directory of external support services (NGOs, government, medical) to ensure rapid response for vulnerable individuals
- Oversee the end-to-end management of the Child Protection and Safeguarding Register, ensuring all records are secure and up to date
- Ensuring procedures for identifying and reporting causes for concern for children and vulnerable people are up to date and followed by SBBC staff and volunteers
- R2: Cultivate a robust safeguarding culture across SBBC through training and technical guidance for staff and volunteers
- Safeguard all SBBC agreements with staff, volunteers and contractors, ensuring adherence to SBBC’s policies on safeguarding and child protection
- Be responsible for integrating Safe Recruitment practices and SEAH protection measures into HR and organisational systems
- Design and facilitate high-impact Annual Safeguarding Training and induction modules to staff and volunteers
- Be accessible for staff, volunteers and stakeholders to seek guidance in utilising reporting mechanisms
- Identify and manage partnerships with external technical agencies to provide specialised protection training for SBBC personnel.
- R3: Advocacy for improved policies and practices on child protection and safeguarding of vulnerable people
- Represent SBBC in dialogues with District and Provincial Offices of Education (DOE/POE) to advocate for child rights and protection standards
- Proactively advocate for improved awareness and implementation of child protection and safeguarding procedures through workshops, meetings and community events
- Maintain key relationships with community groups/organisations (eg CWCC) to ensure any concerns are raised and discussed in confidence between SBBC and the communities where we work, to ensure a seamless referral network
- Map out and oversee the effectiveness of the local and national government structures and procedures for handling causes for concern for children and vulnerable people
- Translate complex national protection policies into accessible formats (e.g., visual guides and local-language summaries) for schools and community members
- Work with school-based Child Protection Focal Points to increase their confidence in handling safeguarding or child protection concerns and to implement simple processes to follow
- R4: Integration of children and vulnerable people safeguarding in program design, delivery, monitoring and evaluation
- Support the program team to ensure that SBB’s cross-cutting themes of child protection and safeguarding are integrated into program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation documentations
- Provide technical oversight to all educational activities to ensure "Do No Harm" principles are among the cross-cutting priorities
- Design and lead project activities to raise awareness of SEAH and child protection among SBBC beneficiaries
- Conduct the Semi-annual Safeguarding Practices Assessment, analysing results to drive continuous improvement in organisational safety
- Conduct Quarterly Safeguarding Risk Assessments at the project level, and support District Project Managers to mitigate identified risks
- R5: Lead the child protection and safeguarding functions within SBBC
- Act as the technical focal point and actively contribute to discussions in meetings of the Ethical Decision-Making Committee, senior leadership team, and project management team, providing expert advice on complex safeguarding risks
- Be an active “Owner” of the Child Protection and Safeguarding risk area
- Work with other SBB entities to build supportive relationships and safeguard SBBC’s credibility
- Support the Senior Leadership Team in updating relevant policies, procedures, and evidence of practices.
- Khmer - Fluent
- English - Fluent
- Significant experience or formal qualifications in laws, management, education or equivalent experience or training
- Experience working with NGOs, esp. educational organisations
- General IT skills including Google Drive and related applications
- Fluent Khmer language proficiency
- Fluent in written and spoken English
- Experience of working with communities and local authorities
- Experience of delivering training either to colleagues or groups outside your organisation
- Knowledge of local government structures, particularly child welfare and education
- Ability to think analytically and problem solve (being able to detect underlying issues that may not be obvious)
- Experienced working on child projection with organisations that promote child rights and child protection
- Knowledge of Cambodian laws and regulation relating to children and vulnerable people
- Experience of working with people with disabilities
- Experience of representing children’s rights to a variety of audiences including to people/groups in a position of authority
- Experience of working on case management
- Empathetic and approachable by children and other vulnerable people
- Courageous in conflict handling and advocacy for children’s rights
- Strong work ethic and commitment to working in the development sector
- Independent, pro-active, resilient, self-motivated and able to work on own initiative whilst also being a team player
- Willingness to take on new tasks and responsibilities and seek assistance when required
- Honest and reliable and able to work with integrity
- Able to communicate and collaborate with colleagues and partners at all levels and from a variety of ethnic, social and religious backgrounds
- Highly organised and excellent time manager
