Senior Practitioner - Cambridge City Family Support and Safeguarding Team

Are you an experienced Social Worker ready to take the next step in your career? We’re looking for a Senior Practitioner to join our Cambridge City Family Support and Safeguarding Team.

Practitioners in the Family Support & Safeguarding team value supportive relationships with colleagues and a collaborative approach to helping one another. We manage a varied caseload of Child in Need, Children in Need of Protection, Public Law Outline and care proceedings, focusing on children up to the age of 18. We use a Motivational Interviewing approach, working in partnership with children and their families to achieve sustainable change and improved outcomes for children.

This is an exciting and creative time to join our Family Support and Safeguarding team. The role is hybrid with a mix of home and office working. The office base is Fawcett House in Trumpington, Cambridge.

If this sounds like an environment where you would thrive, we would love to hear from you. For more information, call Nathalie on 01223 475920 or email joinus@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Interviews will be held week commencing 2nd March 2026. Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Our benefits

• We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage.
• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family.
• 6 days of protected time each year to support in maintaining your Continuous Professional Development.
• A relocation package (eligibility applies).
• Scalable retention payments of up to £9,118 over a 3 year period, starting after your first full year of employment.
• A Refer a Friend Scheme where if you refer another Social Worker to us who is subsequently employed by us as a result of that introduction, we’ll pay you an introduction fee of £350.
• Access to our Cambridgeshire Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) to support your development and help you become the best practitioner you can be.

For more information and to see our other benefits, see the benefits brochure attached to this advert.

What will you be doing?

Day-to-day responsibilities of a Senior Practitioner in Family Support and Safeguarding include:

• Providing leadership in highly complex cases involving risk, complexity and safety of children, young people and families.
• Providing written and verbal reports for a variety of settings, including attendance at court, that are concise, informative and based on analysis of complex evidence.
• Leading, guiding and directing Social Workers and Child Practitioners, supporting their performance and development, including supervision.
• Supporting planning, allocation and review of cases.
• Supporting the recruitment and induction of staff.

About you

We’re looking for confident and dynamic individuals who enjoy making a difference in their local community, are curious and notice details, enjoy building relationships and exploring possibilities.

You must:

• Be a qualified Social Worker with Social Work England registration.
• Have the ability to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently.
• This is a Senior Practitioner post; you must be able to demonstrate experience in complex case management, court proceedings, and providing informal support or supervision to others.

For a full list of the role requirements, please check the Job Description & Person Specification.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, including both urban and rural areas. Our four values are central to our culture and drive everything we do. We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and to building a compassionate and inclusive workplace. If you think you could be a good candidate, please apply and speak to the recruiting manager if you have questions.

We maintain an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, an employee network IDEAL, and peer support groups to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment. We collect diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand applicant diversity and trends.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader and provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and after joining us. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria. If you need adjustments, please discuss with the Hiring Manager.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about learning and development opportunities, apprenticeships, wellbeing, staff benefits and our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.