Initial Contact Point Worker - Emergency Duty Team

Can you be the first voice someone hears when they need it? Do you want to play a pivotal role within a child’s journey with social care? Make a lasting impact. Make it count. We have two full time (37 hours) and one part time (24 hours) roles available to make a real, lasting difference to the lives of children and families. We’re looking for someone calm, curious and committed to getting it right for children.

As an ICP Worker within our Emergency Duty Team, you’ll be the first point of contact for members of the public and professionals who have concerns about a child. From that very first conversation, you’ll play a crucial role in helping to keep children safe.

In this role, you’ll take calls and quickly build a clear picture of what is happening, using a relational, strengths-based approach. You’ll explore whether a child is safe, identify any immediate risks or protective factors, and make sure the right questions are asked so nothing is missed. Calls can be emotional, complex and sometimes challenging. You’ll provide calm, structured support to callers who may be distressed, anxious or even hostile, while maintaining professional boundaries. At times, you’ll need to give clear and practical advice, including when emergency services may be required, ensuring that immediate safety is always a priority.

You’ll gather and record detailed, accurate information in real time, using our internal Liquidlogic system, and carry out further checks with partner agencies to build a full understanding of each situation. You’ll also ensure children’s voices are heard, actively seeking their views, wishes and feelings wherever possible. Working closely with partners, you’ll understand their roles and responsibilities and won’t hesitate to provide professional challenge where needed to ensure the best outcomes for children and families.

This is a critical out-of-hours safeguarding role, requiring you to respond to urgent situations outside of normal working hours, including evenings, nights, weekends, and bank holidays. Across your working week, you will operate a varied shift pattern which typically includes a combination of daytime duties within the Integrated Front Door (IFD) and out-of-hours work during evenings and weekends, delivered through a structured three-week rolling rota.

This role is suited to someone who is calm under pressure, confident in difficult conversations, and genuinely passionate about safeguarding. You’ll need a keen eye for detail, a natural curiosity, and a strong sense of responsibility, knowing that your role is the very start of a child’s journey. You’ll need to be confident in assessing risk, applying threshold guidance, and making informed decisions about what needs to happen next, including when concerns must be escalated to a Social Worker. You’ll be joining a supportive team that puts children at the heart of everything it does—where your contribution will matter from the very first call.

All applicants are advised to carefully read the information provided in the Role Profile and Person Specification. If you require an informal discussion about the role, please contact laura.snell@nelincs.gov.uk.

Key Dates: Interview date: W/C 22nd June 2026. We reserve the right to close our adverts early if we have received a significant volume of suitable applications.

In order to fully comply with Safer Recruitment guidelines, if you are successful with your application, you must meet the following criteria and be able to provide:

• At least one reference must be from your current or most recent employment, placement or work experience (if you are an agency worker at NELC, please provide your agency as a reference).
• You must provide a professional/company email address (we cannot accept personal email addresses).
• References must cover the last 3 years, any reasons for gaps should be detailed in your enhanced reference form.
• References will only be requested if you are offered and have accepted a position.
• This role requires a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check at a level appropriate to the post. The successful candidate must be registered with the DBS Update Service and must register within 30 calendar days from the date of issue on the certificate.

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 the RewardNEL platform, which includes a variety of salary sacrifice schemes such as Cycle2Work, Holiday Extra and Tusker (Car Lease), discounts at local coffee shops and bars, inhouse wellbeing support, free and discounted local car parking and instant access to savings with major retailers, entertainment and hotels.

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. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect the same commitment from all staff and volunteers.

Accessibility - MHR is working toward making employee and manager self-service accessible with a large number of screens already conforming to WCAG 2.0 guidelines.