Team Manager in Hamsterley

Do you believe every child deserves to grow up surrounded by love, family, and a sense of belonging? Are you ready to lead a team that makes this vision a reality? If so, we want to hear from you! We are on an exciting journey to expand our Connected Carers Service, doubling in size over the next 12 months, from two teams to four. This growth means more children staying within their family networks, more stability, and more opportunities for lifelong connections. As a Team Manager, you'll play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our service, inspiring your team to deliver exceptional support to kinship and connected carers. This is your chance to drive innovation, champion family-based care, and make a lasting difference for children across County Durham.

Responsibilities

• Lead a skilled team of social workers, supporting Connected Carers from initial viability through to long-term fostering and post-panel support.
• Provide reflective, high-quality supervision and promote a culture of learning, accountability, and trauma-informed practice.
• Oversee the quality of assessments, reports, and reviews, ensuring compliance with fostering regulations and standards.
• Monitor and manage team performance, meeting statutory timescales and delivering excellent outcomes for children.

You’ll be supported by:

• A Social Work Consultant - driving evidence-based practice, innovation, and improved outcomes.
• An Enhanced Practitioner - guiding Newly Qualified Social Workers, managing caseloads, and overseeing their ASYE journey.

You will be joining us at a fantastic time. Inspectors have judged our Children’s Services as outstanding.

How we support you?

We are passionate about social work in County Durham. We are committed to providing a culture where good practice can flourish. We will ensure you are highly supported. You will benefit from high quality professional supervision, a great induction, and access to our strong learning and development offer. When you are ready to take your next step our aspiring managers programme "rising stars" is there for you.

Qualifications

• A Degree in Social Work (or equivalent) and Social Work England registration.
• Proven experience in fostering, safeguarding, or permanence planning.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and analytical skills.
• Strong knowledge of fostering regulations and national minimum standards.
• A commitment to trauma-informed, strengths-based practice.

Please refer to the attached person specification for full criteria. If successful, you will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure.

Rewards & Benefits

We offer a competitive rewards package that includes attractive salaries, a generous annual leave entitlement of 27 days (rising to 32 after five years’ continuous local government service), membership of the excellent contributory career average Local Government Pension Scheme, and a range of flexible working arrangements including hybrid working (home and office) where applicable. Explore the full range of rewards and benefits on our website. Rewards and benefits are subject to individual terms and conditions. If you are looking to relocate to join us, removal, lodging and separation expenses of up to £8,000 may be available to you if you live outside of County Durham and in excess of 30 miles in a straight line from your new base, along with a number of other criteria for eligibility.