Senior Practitioner - Family Support and Safeguarding Team in Cambridge

We have an exciting vacancy in the Family Support and Safeguarding Team for a Senior Practitioner. For more information please see the details below.

Job responsibilities

• Lead leadership in high complex cases which involve risk, complexity and safety of children, young people and families.
• Provide written and verbal reports for a variety of settings – including for attendance at court – that are concise, informative and based on analysis of complex evidence.
• Lead, guide and direct Social Workers and Child Practitioners, supporting their performance and development, including supervision.
• Support in planning, allocation and review of cases.
• Support with 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 spot things that others might not see, enjoy building relationships and like to explore possibilities.

You must:

• Be a qualified Social Worker with a 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 requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do. We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities.

If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network IDEAL and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered.

We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs.

Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled.

Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

Benefits

• 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 will pay you an introduction fee of £350.
• Access to our Cambridgeshire Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) which will support your development, enabling you to become the best practitioner you can be.

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

Interviews

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.

Additional information

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. We value diversity and inclusion and are committed to equal opportunities for all applicants.