Deputy Service Director - Practice Standards and Principal Social Worker

Do you want to shape the future of social work practice within one of the fastest-improving services in the country? Will you be the leader who inspires excellence, drives improvement and helps our workforce and our children truly thrive? Be the difference, make the change to North East Lincolnshire Council Children's Services, which is at a pivotal point in our journey—and there has never been a more exciting time to join us. We are transforming lives every day. Recognised as Good by Ofsted and one of the fastest-improving children's services in the country, we are proud of the progress we've made—and even more ambitious about where we're going.

What truly sets us apart is our strong sense of community. Children, young people and families are at the heart of everything we do, and we recognise that our workforce is our greatest strength. By joining us, you'll become part of a driven and supportive leadership team with a relentless focus on improvement—passionate about delivering meaningful, lasting change for the communities we serve.

The Deputy Service Director - Practice, Standards and Principal Social Worker will provide strong, effective, creative and positive leadership, and will hold the Principal Social Worker statutory responsibilities on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council. The role will also have responsibility for statutory independent review for our children, and the Local Authority Designated Officer functions. The role is crucial to creating and sustaining the conditions for our workforce, and for our children, to flourish and thrive. It is at the heart of our transformation agenda, has responsibilities for family group decision making, and will contribute to the improvement plan, Council Plan and partnership outcomes.

The days are fast paced, varied and rewarding. You will have oversight, development and assurance of best practice across the partnership, with a range of stakeholders, and you will lead on social work recruitment, and the training and development of a skilled, effective permanent children's workforce.

We are looking for a proven system leader across the children and families system, who wants to join an ambitious, forward thinking service, who are continuing on our journey for Our Children Our Future, and so our children, young people and families can flourish and thrive.

North East Lincolnshire Council Children's Services has a learning culture, we are relational in our approach, and we have developed a family first, family feel culture where we value our workforce as our greatest asset, and as change makers in improving outcomes for our children.

Key Dates

• Application deadline: 1 June 2026.
• We aim to interview candidates w/c 15 June 2026.

If you would like an informal discussion, please contact: Julie Poole- Assistant Director Children's Assurance Evaluation and Partnerships.

We reserve the right to close our adverts early if we have received a significant volume of suitable applications. We love AI and think it plays a great role in the world of work. However, for your application, we want to hear from YOU! As such, we will be testing applications to determine the use of AI, and applications that have heavily utilised the function will be scrutinised for suitability.

As part of your RewardNEL package, you will have a generous leave entitlement (including bank holidays) and enrolment into a local government pension. You will also have access to our exclusive RewardNEL platform. This includes a variety of salary sacrifice schemes including Cycle2Work, Holiday Extra and Tusker (Car Lease), discounts at local coffee shops and bars, direct access to our inhouse wellbeing support, free and discounted local car parking as well as instant access to new savings at major retailers, entertainment and hotels. NELC staff can also benefit from flexible working and excellent training and development opportunities and a Fostering friendly scheme.

If you need any help applying for this position, please contact Wendy Trask on (text or call). Wendy can support with digital access as well as offering advice and guidance about completing the different sections of the application form.

Your earnings go further in North East Lincolnshire, house prices are four times less than in London. Learn more about what our place has to offer at Life in North East Lincolnshire NELC (nelincs.gov.uk).

Check out our Council Plan and read about all of the exciting new developments we have in the pipeline. We regularly review data to ensure our recruitment processes are fair, transparent and promote equal opportunities for all. We also have an in-house Equalities Champions Group that works to promote and embed inclusivity in the workplace, helping us identify areas where we can take positive action, and make the organisation a safe space for colleagues to feel connected.