Kenny Edgar
Birmingham,West Midlands
Summary
An experienced and qualified social work practitioner with extensive expertise in working with offenders, including young and adult offenders with mental health issues, as well as adults in community mental health teams. Qualified as an Approved Social Worker from 2006 to 2018 and served as a Best Interest Assessor from 2009 to 2018. Significant statutory social work experience with children, young people, and families, both as a practitioner and team manager, including chairing child protection conferences. Skilled in chairing safeguarding adults protection planning meetings and managing the allegations process for those working with vulnerable groups. Known for excellent communication skills and a curious, enquiring approach to supporting change during challenging times using statutory processes across the lifespan.
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
8
8
years of post-secondary education
Work history
Lecturer in Social Work
University of Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton , West Midlands
03.2026 - Current
- Delivered teaching to students on the BA Hons in Social Work, the MA in Social Work, the apprenticeship BA Hons and those undertaking the AMHP and BIA continuing professional development courses.
- Supporting students as their Personal Tutor through their academic course at University.
- Supporting students as a Personal Tutor whilst they are undertaking their placements as part of their programme.
- Working with colleagues around curriculum re-design of specific social work modules around Adult Social Work, Children's Social Care, Law, Ethics and Practice
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
Solihull , West Midlands
06.2025 - 03.2026
- Responsible for providing advice and guidance to all employers, voluntary services and any organisation who employ staff in a Position of Trust that work with children and young people to support them to manage allegations against their staff member.
- To chair and manage any Position of Trust Meetings and Review Position of Trust Meetings ensuring that any subsequent actions from either the Police, Children's Social Care and the Employer are completed to manage allegations against them until their conclusion.
- To develop close working relationships with colleagues from the Police and Children's Social Care to manage the allegations process and provide support and guidance where required.
- To compile accurate records and data in relation to the Management of Allegations process, and provide a good quality assurance framework to ensure allegations are addressed as quickly and fairly as possible.
- To complete an annual report around all data and recording information for approval by the local safeguarding children partnership.
- To attend strategy meetings and other forums to address the safeguarding needs for children and young people where this involves a staff member employed and working in a Position of Trust.
- To provide training around the Management of Allegations against staff members on behalf of the local safeguarding children partnership.
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)
City of Wolverhampton Council
Wolverhampton, West Midlands
02.2021 - 06.2025
- Responsible for providing advice and guidance to all employers, voluntary services and any organisation who employ staff in a Position of Trust that work with children and young people to support them to manage allegations against their staff member.
- To chair and manage any Position of Trust Meetings and Review Position of Trust Meetings ensuring that any subsequent actions from either the Police, Children's Social Care and the Employer are completed to manage allegations against them until their conclusion.
- To develop close working relationships with colleagues from the Police and Children's Social Care to manage the allegations process and provide support and guidance where required.
- To compile accurate records and data in relation to the Management of Allegations process, and provide a good quality assurance framework to ensure allegations are addressed as quickly and fairly as possible.
- To complete an annual report around all data and recording information for approval by the local safeguarding children partnership.
- To attend strategy meetings and other forums to address the safeguarding needs for children and young people where this involves a staff member employed and working in a Position of Trust.
- To provide training around the Management of Allegations against staff members on behalf of the local safeguarding children partnership.
- To lead and action the management of allegations for staff in a Position of Trust who work with adults with care and support needs.
- To attend all MAPPA Level 2 Panels for Violent and Registered Sex Offenders and represent Children's Social Care within these forums.
- Line Management responsibility for the Child Employment Officer.
- The co-ordination and completion of the Ofsted School Complaints on behalf of the City of Wolverhampton Council
Child Protection Conference Chair & LADO
Worcestershire Children First
Worcestershire , West Midlands
07.2019 - 01.2021
- To chair any Initial and Review Child Protection Conferences for any child and young people who were made subject to child protection planning on behalf of the local authority.
- To monitor the child protection planning process for all those subject to the child protection planning process and complete regular audits and monitoring reports on the progress of those plans.
- To chair any dispute resolution meetings where drift and delay was identified as part of the child protection planning process, or there were further safeguarding risks that were not being managed. To provide data reports around this to the senior leadership team to ensure this was actioned and addressed.
- Responsible for providing advice and guidance to all employers, voluntary services and any organisation who employ staff in a Position of Trust that work with children and young people to support them to manage allegations against their staff member.
- To chair and manage any Position of Trust Meetings and Review Position of Trust Meetings ensuring that any subsequent actions from either the Police, Children's Social Care and the Employer are completed to manage allegations against them until their conclusion.
- To develop close working relationships with colleagues from the Police and Children's Social Care to manage the allegations process and provide support and guidance where required.
- To compile accurate records and data in relation to the Management of Allegations process, and provide a good quality assurance framework to ensure allegations are addressed as quickly and fairly as possible.
- To complete an annual report around all data and recording information for approval by the local safeguarding children partnership.
- To attend strategy meetings and other forums to address the safeguarding needs for children and young people where this involves a staff member employed and working in a Position of Trust.
- To provide training around the Management of Allegations against staff members on behalf of the local safeguarding children partnership.
Duty and Assessment Team Manager
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
Dudley , West Midlands
08.2018 - 06.2019
- Provided line management guidance and support to a team of 8 qualified social social workers, 2 ASYE social workers and a Family Support Worker in the team.
- To allocate any assessments that were required to address any safeguarding concerns for children and young people under Section 17 and Section 47 of the Children Act 1989; to support staff with the completion of these assessments and to provide management oversight and authorisation to each of the assessments.
- To act as a duty manager one week every five weeks and chair all strategy meetings that were referred to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub and to decide how those referrals would be actioned.
- Provide monthly supervision and support to all staff within the Team in relation to the cases that they held responsibility for.
- Attend Initial Child Protection Conferences as required and attend the Family Courts as directed with my team of staff.
- Complete regular case audits to explore quality of social work practice and provide written audits as and when required.
- Attend fortnightly data quality and improvement meetings with the Head of Service to ensure staff were completing their assessments in a timely manner and adhering to the quality assurance framework within the department and wider council.
- Attended the MARAC (multi-agency risk assessment conferences) every fortnight to represent children's social care at these multi-agency meetings; to provide relevant information and ensure relevant actions were completed.
- To complete statutory social care complaints as and when required and be an investigating officer for any internal investigations that were required.
Safeguarding Adults Team Manager
Newcastle City Council
Newcastle upon Tyne , Tyne and Wear
07.2016 - 08.2018
- To provide advice and guidance to adult social care staff and teams in relation to complex safeguarding adults issues and concerns with regards to organisational abuse and staff in a position of trust who supported adults with care and support needs.
- To chair initial strategy meetings and protection plan review meetings for adults with care and support needs where there were serious safeguarding concerns that could not be managed by the adult social care teams, that involved multiple victims, multiple perpetrators and organisational abuse.
- To represent adult social care at a monthly forum with children social care to provide the 20 most complex, with high level needs and who were missing and exploited young people who were in care and within the transitional years, so that they could be assessed by adult social care and transition across the services.
- To attend the Level 2 MAPPA Panels for both Violent Offenders and Registered Sex Offenders and represent adult social care within this forum.
- To provide training on behalf of the adult safeguarding board t multi-agency groups around all areas of adult safeguarding and how organisations can meet their responsibilities.
Guidance Tutor
University of Northumbria
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear
09.2007 - 09.2016
- I provided a guidance tutor role to support students undertaking their AMHP course and training with University of Northumbria.
- I would work with six students per year and visit them on two occasions at their placement; devise a practice learning agreement and a mid way review. I would mark one assignment as per academic standards for their portfolio.
- I would attend the moderation panel to mark and second mark portfolios
- I did this alongside my full-time positions
Team Manager
Newcastle City Council
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear
01.2014 - 08.2016
- To manage the Emergency Duty Team for Newcastle City Council covering adult social care, children social care, requests for mental health acts assessments, older peoples services and learning disability services where there was an emergency outside of office hours and weekends.
- This included devising and managing the rota of staff and supporting social work staff through their shifts and completing the on call social work service overnight, every night of the week.
- To manage the staff supervision and development programme for the team and recruit and appoint permanent and sessional staff where required.
- To manage the team budget within social care.
- Attend regular management meetings within both children social care, adult social care and the mental health service to consider development across all service areas for the team and to adhere to the Council's quality assurance service and framework.
- To complete statutory social care complaints as and when required and be an investigating officer for any internal investigations that were required.
Senior Practitioner/Senior Social Worker
Newcastle City Council
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear
01.2011 - 01.2014
- To undertake urgent child protection enquiries, visits and assessments for children and young people that had taken place outside of working hours.
- To respond to and complete urgent mental health act assessments that were required outside of working hours.
- To provide support and guidance to individuals, families, carers and professionals who had concerns for others occurring outside of working hours.
- To complete on call shifts from midnight until 8am for all emergency situations and to represent social care across all departments and disciplines.
- Providing a practice educator role to Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) students each year and to support them with the completion of their AMHP course.
Senior Social Worker & AMHP
Newcastle City Council
Newcastle upon Tyne , Tyne & Wear
03.2007 - 01.2011
- Working as a care co-ordinator in a community mental health team for working age adults with severe and enduring mental health problems
- Completing multi-disciplinary for assessments into the community mental health team and providing advice, guidance and next steps for the person following assessment.
- Undertaking AMHP duty one full week every three weeks on a city wide AMHP rota.
- Qualified as a Best Interest Assessor (BIA) in 2008 and undertook various assessments as required on a city wide rota one week every six weeks on the BIA rota.
- Each year supervised a social work student from either the BA or the MA social work course on placement and supervised an AMHP student each year on their placement.
Forensic Social Worker
Newcastle City Council
Newcastle City Council , Tyne & Wear
03.2004 - 03.2007
- Employed as a forensic social worker in an adult medium secure unit and worked on the inpatient mental illness ward for assessment and the medium secure personality disorder service/ward for those transferred for assessment from prison.
- My role would be to support the inpatients with their assessments and provide up to date social circumstances reports for each inpatient and plan visits to their family members and asses if it was safe for those family members, carers and their children to visit the medium secure unit.
- I would support the inpatient psychologist to do systemic family therapy sessions with inpatients, their family members and carers and also supported the psychologist in completing group work around sexually harmful behaviour programmes.
- Half of my week i worked as a social worker in the Young People's secure unit and supported the clinical team in support to the young people detained there under the mental health act for reports for Court. I would liaise with their placing social workers and ensure their needs were met under the Children Act.
Probation Officer
National Probation Service - Northumbria
Sunderland , Tyne & Wear
09.2000 - 03.2004
- Worked in a local Probation Office and compiled a number of pre-sentence reports for various Magistrates and Crown Courts every three weeks.
- I supervised offenders subject to licence supervision by the Probation Service and this was a mixed caseload of offenders in custody and upon release.
- Compiled parole reports and life sentence reports for various parole boards via the Ministry of Justice.
- Would prepare recall papers to the Ministry of Justice to recall offenders back to custody.
- I also undertook a group work role on the Domestic Abuse court directed programme called DIVERT and the sex offender treatment programme called SOTP on blocks of six courses on rotational programmes for those sentenced by the Courts and/or as part of their licence supervision from prison.
Education
Certificate of Higher Education - Post Qualifying Award with children and young people parts 1-6
Univeristy of Northumbria
Newcastle Upon Tyne 10.2012 - 06.2013
Certificate of Higher Education - Law & Practice as a Best Interest Assessor
Univeristy of Northumbria
Newcastle upon Tyne 10.2008 - 01.2009
Certificate of Higher Education - Practice Teaching Award - PQ Award part 6
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne 09.2006 - 06.2007
Certificate of Higher Education - Approved Social Work Award
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne 09.2005 - 06.2006
Certificate of Higher Education - Post Qualifying Award in Mental Health Parts 1
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne 06.2004 - 03.2005
Post Graduate Diploma - PG DipSW in Social Work
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester 09.1998 - 06.2000
Bachelor of Arts - Sociology 2:1
University of Sunderland
Sunderland 09.1993 - 06.1996
Skills
I am an experienced, qualified and enthusiastic social work practitioner with experience working with offenders; young offenders and adult offenders with mental health problems and with adults in a community mental health team I qualified as an Approved Social Worker in 2006 and completed this role up until 2018 and was a Best Interest Assessor from 2009 to 2018
I have significant statutory social work experience with children, young people and their families as both a practitioner and team manger; as well as chairing initial and review child protection conferences with professionals, children and their families
I have significant experience in chairing safeguarding adults protection planning meetings I have also worked as a Local Authority Designated Officer and managed the allegations process for those who work in a position of trust with both children and adults with care and support needs, managing this process with employers and partner organisations; delivering training to multi agency groups and managing meetings with difficult subject areas and high expressed emotions and feelings
I do feel that i possess excellent communication skills and i am a curious and enquiring professional that does like to support others to change, at times of great difficulty using the statutory processes in social work across the life span with both children and adults
Timeline
Lecturer in Social Work
University of Wolverhampton
03.2026 - Current
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
06.2025 - 03.2026
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)
City of Wolverhampton Council
02.2021 - 06.2025
Child Protection Conference Chair & LADO
Worcestershire Children First
07.2019 - 01.2021
Duty and Assessment Team Manager
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
08.2018 - 06.2019
Safeguarding Adults Team Manager
Newcastle City Council
07.2016 - 08.2018
Team Manager
Newcastle City Council
01.2014 - 08.2016
Certificate of Higher Education - Post Qualifying Award with children and young people parts 1-6
Univeristy of Northumbria
10.2012 - 06.2013
Senior Practitioner/Senior Social Worker
Newcastle City Council
01.2011 - 01.2014
Certificate of Higher Education - Law & Practice as a Best Interest Assessor
Univeristy of Northumbria
10.2008 - 01.2009
Guidance Tutor
University of Northumbria
09.2007 - 09.2016
Senior Social Worker & AMHP
Newcastle City Council
03.2007 - 01.2011
Certificate of Higher Education - Practice Teaching Award - PQ Award part 6
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
09.2006 - 06.2007
Certificate of Higher Education - Approved Social Work Award
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
09.2005 - 06.2006
Certificate of Higher Education - Post Qualifying Award in Mental Health Parts 1
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
06.2004 - 03.2005
Forensic Social Worker
Newcastle City Council
03.2004 - 03.2007
Probation Officer
National Probation Service - Northumbria
09.2000 - 03.2004
Post Graduate Diploma - PG DipSW in Social Work
Manchester Metropolitan University
09.1998 - 06.2000
Bachelor of Arts - Sociology 2:1
University of Sunderland
09.1993 - 06.1996