Service Manager - Liverpool

We are recruiting for the role of Service Manager in our Public and Private Law team(s) in Liverpool covering the Cheshire and Merseyside 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.

Whilst this role is part of a team based from our office in Liverpool, our teams work flexibly and remotely; your proximity to the office doesn’t always 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 promotes the diversity and uniqueness 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, all of which we hope encourages you to join us. Let us tell you a bit more about the role… Being a Service Manager is very rewarding but, as you would expect, challenging too. As well as being registered with Social Work England, you’ll be organised, resilient, empathetic, supportive and able to work independently.

In Work After First Hearing teams, Family Court Advisers – which is what we call our Social Workers – typically have a mixed Public and Private Law caseload. In Public Law, this will include them telling the court about the child’s journey and experiences and explaining their wishes and feelings, while also carrying out independent enquiries, scrutinising the work of the Local Authority and representing the child in court, alongside their appointed solicitor. This is predominantly achieved through effective telephone interviews with applicants and respondents and by accessing information received from other agencies. They then collate this and succinctly and expertly communicate advice in the court through clear, evidence-based reports and representations, which will occasionally mean attending initial Court Hearings to ensure that children remain central to all decision making.

What We’re Looking For:

• Expert knowledge of children’s social work, including safeguarding, statutory and assessment frameworks
• A track record of highly effective practice management or supervisory experience
• Demonstrable experience of being a practice educator with the skills to continuously monitor, manage, develop and improve team and individual performance
• Proven ability to establish strong and effective networks with other agencies
• Experience of leading individuals and teams through change

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/update your CV, just make sure you come back before the closing date to submit.

Closing Date: 20th February 2026

Initial Interview: 4th March 2026

Final Interview: 13th March 2026

We understand that starting a new role is a big decision, and you may require further information before applying. You can find out more about the role in the Job Description and there is a wealth of information about Cafcass on our Cafcass Careers page. If you wish to speak with a member of the team for more specific information you can contact Narinder Kaur at Narinder.Kaur2@cafcass.gov.uk from our HR Resourcing team, or the recruiting manager Emma Copp, Head of Practice at Emma.Copp@cafcass.gov.uk providing your contact information and best times/methods to get hold of you.

Finally, in anticipation of your application being successful, you might want to 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 and we encourage all applicants to do so, safe in the knowledge such information will not be shared with individuals involved in the selection process.

We look forward to hearing from you. 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, should an individual have a declared criminal offence an individual assessment will be completed.

Be Their Voice: We are Cafcass – the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service – and we represent children in family court cases in England. Independently advising the family courts about what is safe for children and in their best interests, we speak up for over 140,000 children every year when the family court makes critical decisions about their futures, ensuring their needs, wishes and feelings are heard.

If our purpose resonates with you, and you share our ambitions for children – exceptional experiences, for every child, everywhere and every time – then if you join us, you will work alongside like-minded people in a diverse, inclusive and supportive organisation. You will be trusted to work flexibly and independently using outstanding technology (e.g. touchscreen laptops, iPhone, all with first-class support, including IT Trainers) with access to substantial resources (e.g. Cafcass Library has over 27,000 resources on social work, child protection and related topics).

You will also have opportunities to develop, whatever team you join, wherever you are in the country and at whatever stage you are at in your career. Whether you join us in one of our social work roles that work directly with children and families or our corporate and business services teams who provide technology, support and expertise, you will have the chance to make a difference for children and families.

Wellbeing: The wellbeing of our colleagues is something we are truly passionate about, as demonstrated by everyone having four dedicated, additional days per year when they are encouraged to spend time focusing on their health and wellbeing. Colleagues can also have a health and wellbeing cash plan, for which Cafcass pays the basic premium (you can upgrade to include family members), which allows them to claim back some costs of routine health expenses, including dental check-ups, eye tests, physiotherapy sessions and more.

Overall, we foster a holistic approach to supporting our colleagues, benefitting physical, mental and financial health. This is led by a dedicated in-house team, the benefits of which include meaning support is targeted and specific to what colleagues need. Our team can also offer support and guidance when it comes to specific health conditions, such as neuro-diverse conditions, cancer and the menopause. Our wellbeing offer is further strengthened by an external Employee Assistance Provider (EAP) which provides a free confidential support service 24 hours a day.

Diversity: We represent children and families from diverse backgrounds and having a diverse workforce helps us to fulfil this responsibility authentically. It also helps us to grow, evolve and innovate, so we particularly welcome applications from individuals from diverse backgrounds as we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with.

We are proud to be a disability confident leader, we invite you to join our team, we are committed to actively attract and recruit individuals with disabilities including “non-visible” disabilities and mental health conditions. Our inclusive and accessible recruitment process means we aim to accommodate reasonable adjustments as needed.

Our Current Networks Include:

• Ability Matters – Colleagues with disabilities and long-term health conditions.
• Carers Network – Colleagues with additional caring responsibilities for someone close to them who has a disability or long-term health condition.
• Faith Network – Colleagues who are part of, or have an interest in, religious or spiritual faith communities.
• Kaleidoscope Network – Colleagues from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.
• Mental Health Network – Colleagues who experience, or have an interest in, Mental Health issues.
• Pride Network – Colleagues who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans – LGBT+.
• Neurodiversity Network – Colleagues who are neurodivergent, or support someone who is.

Together: ‘Together with Children and Families’ (which we just call ‘Together’) is the name of our relationship-based practice framework. It applies to the work of every individual in Cafcass, from Social Workers to Leaders and includes our Corporate and Business Support teams. It is at the heart of what we do and is made up of our values, how these values work in practice, the tools to use to incorporate these values in our work and the impact this will have on the children and families we serve.

This framework encourages us to be proactive and to look for the strengths in ourselves and others. It also enables us to build positive relationships with our colleagues, our partners and most importantly, with the children and families with whom we work.

Benefits: We know if you join us you want to be rewarded in a variety of ways, including time away from work to spend time with those important to you, manage your financial present and future, whilst also being trusted to manage your work/life balance. Therefore, in addition to our unique, holistic approach to supporting your health and wellbeing we also provide:

• 28 days holiday (including three for Christmas) rising to 33 days with five years continuous service, which could include your current employment. You can also sell any you do not need.
• Excellent pension – 18.1% employer contribution to Local Government Pension scheme, potentially building on your current pension.
• Flexible working – Most colleagues work in a hybrid way, having the benefits of working both from the office and home, we also accommodate flexible working requests (e.g. 9-day fortnights).
• Exclusive discounts – Generous discounts with a wide range of companies covering leisure, technology, travel, personal finance, fashion and supermarkets.
• Professional fees – Social work colleagues have their annual Social Work England membership fees reimbursed.
• Car leasing schemes – We offer a personal car leasing scheme which provides vehicles at competitive rates through a third party.

This list is just a selection of main benefits and we have a range of policies and processes that allow us to support our colleagues - and their families – and we look forward to providing you with further information about these in due course.