Blackpool Domestic Abuse Independent Chair Role Vacancy
Blackpool Domestic Abuse Board Independent Chair Vacancy
Closing date: Wednesday 2nd September 2026
Blackpool’s partnership is seeking an Independent Chair for our Domestic Abuse Board. The role is responsible for ensuring our partnership provides assurance they are delivering the Board’s strategic vision and priorities. The role is critical in analyzing the effectiveness of the multi-agency arrangements to safeguard child and adult victims from experiencing domestic abuse, as well as supporting and holding perpetrators to account, via a “3 Me’s” and trauma infirmed approach.
Our strategic partnership leaders are committed to understanding the lived experiences of child and adult victims, as well as perpetrators. The Domestic Abuse Board seeks to ensure our partnership is meeting victims and perpetrators needs at the earliest stage to prevent further experiences of domestic abuse. Building on Blackpool’s partnership governance arrangements, the Domestic Abuse Board Independent Chair will undertake robust, solution focused and restorative challenge approach, to improve the quality of partnership practice, ensuring we are supporting Blackpool’s children and adult victims to experience great future outcomes, whilst also ensuring perpetrators are offered evidence-based support to change.
The role will act as a public representative of the Domestic Abuse Board, reporting to the MASA, BSAFE and BSAB partnership governance Boards. The role will advocate the importance that safeguarding victims of all ages from experiencing domestic abuse is everybody’s business, challenging all forms of discrimination and promoting diversity. The role will ensure voices and experiences of child and adult victims, their families and carers, as well as perpetrators and their families, are listened to and acted upon by the partnership leadership governance as well as the partnership frontline practitioners.
As an independent ‘critical friend’, the role offers analytical reflection and promotes continuous improvement, ensuring our partnership embeds a learning culture, enabling frontline staff and volunteers to implement learning from multi-agency quality audits, local and national Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) learning, as well as national Statutory Guidance developments. We are seeking an Independent Chair who shares our co-produced Blackpool Families Rock culture and values and can play an active role in scrutinising if this restorative and trauma informed culture is being implemented by strategic leaders, throughout their leadership teams and frontline practitioner workforce.
The role will analyse the impact of the Board’s Quality Assurance and Learning Improvement Framework (QALIF), contributing their scrutiny insight of the Domestic Abuse Board’s efficacy, with evidence-based findings and recommendations informing written and verbal reports being provided to three other partnership boards: MASA, BSAB and BSAFE.
The role requires a resilient individual, who has strong credibility in terms of their commitment to supporting victims, and drive forward the domestic abuse agenda, using their inspirational and innovative partnership leadership qualities. The role requires significant experience of working at a strategic partnership board level, which evidences the credibility to hold a range of strategic leadership stakeholders to account.
You will be accountable to the 3 Strategic Partnership Boards; MASA, BSAB and BSAFE, Blackpool’s Chief Executive and Elected Members, and will have the support of Blackpool’s Partnership Business Unit to undertake this role.
We welcome applications from individuals with significant leadership experience from a range of partnership disciplines as well as commissioned services who support victims, who can demonstrate our shared values and offer our Blackpool partnership high restorative solution focused challenge and support. This role would suit an individual with senior management experience within a public service or commissioned victim service, who have a good understanding of domestic abuse related legislation, national policy and partnership agency responsibilities.
To maintain the integrity of this appointment, applicants must not have any affiliation with any of the agencies represented in Blackpool’s Partnership and must be able to demonstrate that they can undertake this role independently.
Role Profile
To Apply: Please submit your CV and a covering letter of application (of no more than three A4 sides) outlining your suitability, knowledge, skills and experience relevant to the role profile with details of 2 professional referees to BSAFE@Blackpool.gov.uk
Candidates will be shortlisted for interview with Blackpool’s Chief Executive, Elected Members and strategic partner leaders. As part of our co-production commitment, the interview process will also include young people and adults who have experienced domestic abuse.
If you have any further queries, please contact Kara Haskayne, Head of Service – Safeguarding Children & Strategic Partnership Boards, via email Kara.Haskayne@Blackpool.gov.uk copying in email address BSAFE@Blackpool.gov.uk