Family Solutions Practice Supervisor in Harlow

Fixed term contract / Secondment opportunity, 12 month contract Full Time, 37 hours per week £48,205 to £57,988 Per Annum Location: Harlow Working Style: Community-based worker Closing Date: 14th June 2026

This is an opportunity for an experienced social work practitioner to gain supervisory experience. The postholder has responsibility for processing work through duty, making threshold decisions, providing helpful directions at allocation stage and working with qualified and alternatively qualified staff, all of whom have a specialist lead area to produce casework to a high standard. There is an expectation of regular supervision and local training sessions too. This is maternity cover for a year from mid June.

The Opportunity Children and Families is recognised as a service in which social work can develop and prosper, with a culture of collaboration, integrity, and compassion; promoting the development and wellbeing of children, young people, and their families; protecting them from neglect and abuse. Working together with partners delivering a range of early help, family support and effective social work interventions which build resilience, remove barriers, and enable children and young people to look forward to a brighter future.

This role focuses on ensuring best practice is delivered through the provision of professional supervision and observed practice. The role provides specialist advice and professional consultation for Social Work qualified staff as well as other members of the Family Solutions team. The role requires a formal Social Worker qualification. A commitment to quality assurance and good knowledge of relevant legislation, including Data Protection Legislation, is essential to this role.

• Responsible for the provision of effective professional supervision for Family Workers and other staff within the multi-disciplinary staff team, incorporating research/evidence based approach to ensure high quality and consistent application of practice.
• Responsible for undertaking quality assurance work to ensure the provision of high quality support to young people and their families.
• Responsible for working with staff and partners to ensure effective risk management in line with the thresholds of the Effective Support and Guidance document to ensure that the Family Solutions team understands and follows the SET child protection procedures.
• Responsible for maintaining a current active interest and knowledge in legislation and policy changes, research findings, and practice developments from a wide field in order to act as a source of expert advice and consultation for staff with the team.
• Take responsibility for throughput of duty work, screening and allocation, providing clear and helpful briefing to workers receiving cases.
• Undertake observational visits and quality assure work when completed, to a high standard and within service timeframes.
• Undertake regular supervision both reflective and case based.
• Responsible for promoting the active engagement of young people and their families to ensure their involvement in the decision making around intervention plans.
• Work collaboratively with the Team Manager to improve the level of consistent practice within the team in order to achieve high performance standards delivered through good quality services provided to children and families.
• Responsible for representing Family Solutions at relevant county and local meetings to ensure effective multi-agency working.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

• A recognised social work qualification i.e. Diploma, degree or Masters in social work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent, with current registration with Social Work England as a registered social worker.
• Evidence of continuing professional development, aligned to any relevant Professional Competency/Capability frameworks or Knowledge & Skills Statements and significant experience of social work, demonstrating a comprehensive and up to date understanding of all relevant legislation, regulation and guidance.
• Good operational understanding of effective risk management including risk of harm to children and risk of harm to others.
• Commitment to quality assurance, including case audit and to seeking and acting on the feedback from children and families to promote continuous improvement.
• Ability to develop the practice of staff to promote improved outcomes for children and families.
• Ability to deliver high quality training and development sessions to a multi-agency staff group with a view to improving integrated working practices.
• Demonstrable commitment to involvement of children and families in decision making and to shape quality assurance of the service.
• Committed to developing community resources including working with volunteers where relevant.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs. The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential. As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained.

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.