Assistant Service Manager

We are recruiting for the role of Assistant Service Manager in our teams covering the Surrey and Sussex area. We trust and empower colleagues to work in a hybrid way, providing the resources, equipment, and support, so that individually and collectively, we can be the voice of children and young people when the family court makes critical decisions about their futures.

While this role is part of a team based from our office in Brighton, our teams work flexibly and remotely; proximity to the office does not have to be a critical consideration. We are a diverse, inclusive organisation that is a safe space for colleagues with shared aspects of identity and lived experience, which helps ensure we provide a service that reflects the diversity of children and families from all backgrounds. We especially welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds as we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with. We provide extensive wellbeing support for colleagues, as well as excellent benefits.

Role and responsibilities

Being an Assistant Service Manager is rewarding but challenging too. You will manage a team of Family Court Advisers (Children's Social Workers) and have a good understanding of what good looks like in Public and Private law cases. Through your own practice and reflective/case supervision of colleagues, you will consistently reflect and champion the values and core practice of our practice framework, ‘Together with Children and Families’. As an Assistant Service Manager, it is your duty to safeguard and protect the welfare of children, and the support you provide to colleagues to achieve the same standards of safeguarding practice. Providing high-quality reflective case supervision, you will be accountable for your own practice and for the quality and impact of the practice quality standards of the Family Court Advisers you directly manage.

What we’re looking for

As well as being registered with Social Work England, you’ll be organised, resilient, and have some experience of supervising, coaching, or mentoring social workers. You will promote resilience and wellbeing at work, maintaining morale and be confident in managing employees with a wide range of professional experience. You will be a good communicator both orally and in writing, with emotional intelligence, at all levels and especially when interacting with children.

Next steps / Timelines

If and when you are ready to apply, our application process is straightforward and quick to complete. You don’t need to complete your application in a single visit; you can start it and come back and amend your responses or update your CV, just make sure you come back before the closing date to submit.

Closing dates and interviews

• Closing Date: 08 February 2026
• Initial Interview: 09 & 13 February 2026
• Final Interview: 18 & 19 February 2026

Applications and further information

We understand you may benefit from finding out more to help you decide to apply. There is a lot of information available at Cafcass Careers. If there is something else you need to find out more about, you can either contact Kiera Manuel (kiera.manuel@cafcass.gov.uk) from our HR Resourcing team if your query is about the recruitment process or HR, or Sue Simpson (sue.simpson@cafcass.gov.uk) if your questions relate more to the role, providing your contact information and best times to get hold of you. We will try to respond as soon as possible, but if you miss the closing date you can apply and ask questions as part of your application to help us contact you with information to help you decide if you still wish to be considered.

Finally, in anticipation of your application being successful, you might read about the offer and pre-employment checks process. As part of your application you can highlight any concerns or questions about the pre-employment checks; such information will not be shared with individuals involved in the selection process. We look forward to hearing from you.

Pre-employment checks

Please be advised successful applicants will be subject to a range of pre-engagement checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). In accordance with the DBS code of practice and our own policy, if an individual has a declared criminal offence an individual assessment will be completed. Further information on what the assessment covers can be found by viewing the Cafcass DBS policy.