Team Leader Brighter Futures

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, LE3 8RAS

Salary: £43,860 - £47,829 per annum (pro-rata for part-time)

Working Hours: 37 Hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 15 February 2026

Interview Date(s): 24 February 2026

About the Role

Team Leader – Brighter Futures Project (Recurrent Removals)

For the last 12 months, we have been piloting a model of support for parents, designed to break the cycle of recurrent child removals by supporting parents following care proceedings. This project has provided intensive, relationship-based support to parents who have experienced the removal of a child, helping them stabilise their lives, and make sustainable change to prevent future removals.

Recurrent removals create cycles of trauma and instability for families and place significant strain on our social care system. National research shows that one in four women who has had a child removed is likely to return to court within 10 years, with the highest risk in the first two years. In Leicestershire, 27% of mothers experiencing child removal have previously lost a child, with newborns most affected. This pattern drives high placement and legal costs, increases demand on services, and perpetuates poor outcomes for families.

Since its launch, Brighter Futures has supported 54 parents, with strong engagement and positive feedback. Whilst the pilot remains ongoing until the end of March 2026, early indicators are showing improved parental wellbeing, reduced crisis service use, and increased uptake of contraception, helping parents pause and plan for future pregnancies. The pilot has also led to improved parental engagement with other professionals including health, housing, and substance misuse services, and is contributing to reunification. Parent voice and professional feedback is positive and confirms the value of this dedicated support.

Brighter Futures is becoming a permanent service from April 2026, expanding the capacity and remit of the team to link in pre-birth support, which is identified as a second critical intervention point. This will strengthen service resilience, reduce wait times, and enable tailored support for high-risk parents, including fathers and care-experienced young people. Costs are expected to be offset by significant cost avoidance associated with care placements.

Brighter Futures supports departmental aims to keep families together, deliver timely interventions, and embed trauma-informed practice. It aligns with national drivers for systemic change and prevention, contributing to improved outcomes for children and families while reducing long-term demand on services.

We are looking for a Team Leader to manage the project team as the work grows and develops as a permanent service offer.

Who we are looking for

You will be an energetic and enthusiastic manager with extensive experience working with children and families and with our partner agencies where you are able to share your enthusiasm and passion for practice with those you manage. Your leadership will reflect your vision of a service that delivers in a trauma informed way. Your understanding of the experience for this very unique group of parents, who have experienced loss and trauma will shape the service offer, how and where it is provided and enable the voice of parents to shape it.

You will be able to evidence your skills and knowledge of creative, innovative and relationship-based practice and demonstrate your ability to lead and manage a skilled team of proactive practitioners. You will have knowledge and experience of Performance management and the importance of this in the teams you manage. You will have a thorough understanding of Anti Discriminatory practice and the impact of discrimination on those you manage and the families we serve.

Ideally, you will already be confident in the application of the Signs of Safety methodology but certainly in the value of relationship-based family work. We want people with energy who have a ‘can-do’ attitude; we want people who will help us to build a real culture of reflection and learning and who can support our workforce to be the best that they can be. We want team players!

An enhanced with barred list DBS check is required for this post.

About You

To apply for this post, you must be able to evidence in your application how you meet the following criteria:

• Level 4 qualification in a relevant subject, e.g. NVQ4 childcare, youth justice, social work qualification, teaching qualification, child nursing qualification, Or significant and demonstrable and relevant knowledge and experience evidenced against the headings below including significant experience of working within children and family services in a multi-agency environment.
• Evidence of continuing professional development including management/supervisory skills/leadership.
• Demonstrable experience of managing a team which includes recruitment, supervision, training, performance and development reviews, attendance management and disciplinary processes. This will also include experience of providing management oversight of work undertaken by staff to maintain high quality case recording in a timely manner while ensuring all paperwork relating to families are maintained, taking responsibility for managing thresholds and dialogue with key partners.
• Experience of leading on the management of referrals, ensuring they are prioritised and appropriately allocated according to need, and that parents are offered the right service at the right time, with measurable outcomes.
• A successful track record of creating and maintaining effective working relationships with key partners to support co-ordinated delivery of services for parents at risk of poor outcomes.
• The ability to engage in opportunities for services to collaborate and support the development of creative and innovative ways of working and engaging with children, young people and families.
• Experience of working within an integrated framework to support vulnerable children, young people and families to improve their social, physical and emotional well-being. Developing, providing and evaluating safe, high-quality provision that responds to the age, gender, ability and cultural needs parents, and is in line with early intervention and prevention agendas, services and council priorities.
• Demonstrable experience of supporting staff to work with families and partner agencies to develop plans that work, A passion for, and experience of ensuring that the voices of children, young people and their families are heard and are used help to shape service delivery.

About Us

At Leicestershire County Council we are committed to doing our very best for vulnerable children and families; working to make a positive impact on their lives so they can achieve their potential and flourish.

If you are interested in joining a strong and ambitious service within an Ofsted graded Outstanding Children’s Services, then this could be the new role you have been waiting for!

We are on a journey to be an inclusive Service where a culture to celebrate Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is embedded and Discrimination challenged at every level together as a Service. We warmly welcome those from all cultures, ethnicities and beliefs - this diversity is vital to our journey and is fundamental to our values and enriches the service we offer our Children and Families.

We want all our staff to be inspired to go the extra mile. We are doing our best to create the sort of culture where practice excellence can flourish. We want to learn from what works, as much, if not more, than from when things go badly – we are ambitious to create a true ‘learning organisation.

Every year we run two annual conferences for all staff to motivate and encourage them to be the best they can be. Our ‘bottom line’ is that every month each team sets aside time together as a team for sharing practice, developing work and collaborative. Each quarter, all Family Help Managers come together for learning, planning and peer support. We encourage reflective supervision and group supervision skills. Twice a year our senior leaders take a week out spending time with workers observing practice and talking to young people and parents and carers about their experience of services.

We have a dedicated offer supporting practice excellence, quality assurance and learning and development, these workers work alongside practitioners to build practitioner confidence. In 2024, our Family Help model was launched which brought together work across Children’s Social Care and Early Help to provide a more robust, timely preventative offer for children in need (section 17 CA). Families are receiving intensive help and support using a Trauma informed approach and we have seen the positive impact of this approach.

We have embedded the Signs of Safety approach, and all our teams are trained in this methodology.

If Leicestershire sounds like an interesting place to work – we would welcome your application.

Our salaries are competitive (£42,498 to £46,344) but we know from our own staff that there are other reasons to come to Leicestershire. We hope you agree. We look forward to hearing from you.

This is a permanent Team Leader which will sit within Targeted Family Help. There is ongoing commitment for the continuation of the Brighter Futures work. However, should the funding come to an end the post holder would retain a permanent Team Leader post but would be required to move to a vacant Team Leader post elsewhere within Children and Family Services.

A Few More Benefits of working In Leicestershire….Childcare vouchers, Well regarded employee counselling services, Free car parking, Cycle to work scheme, Lease car scheme, Option to purchase of additional leave, Discounts at high-street stores and supermarket shopping, Special offers on leisure activities and gym memberships.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process. Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability. We are a Disability Confident Employer.

Interested in Flexible Working? We are open to discussions about flexible working, which may include part time working, job sharing, term-time working, flexible start and finish times, and hybrid working, depending on the requirements of the role and the service. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact: Katie Herbert, Service Manager or Rebecca Woollock, Service Manager Telephone: 0116 305 9246 or 0116 305 5222.

How to Apply

At Leicestershire County Council we’re looking for top talent from all walks of life. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, and whatever your background - we care about what you bring to our organisation, not just what’s on your CV. That’s why we’ve designed a recruitment process that’s fair, accessible, and focused on potential. And with benefits that support people at every age and stage of life, we make sure you can thrive - both personally and professionally.

If you share our passion to make a difference for the people of Leicestershire, we’d love to hear from you. Click the apply button to submit your application, ensuring that you upload a supporting statement that explains how you meet the criteria listed in the ‘About You’ section above. Without this information, we won’t be able to assess your suitability for the role, and your application will be rejected. For tips on how to write your statement, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephone or raising a ticket via our online portal.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.