Family Help Principal Practitioner in London

Lead inclusive, compassionate support for children with disabilities by guiding a team dedicated to meaningful change. This role matters because you’ll make sure children with disabilities and their families receive consistent, high-quality support rooted in empathy, expertise and joined-up practice. You’ll shape a team, strengthen partnerships and make a direct, lasting difference.

Working Style

You’ll be based in the Borough for 4 days a week, playing a key role in serving the local community. Whether you’re working on the frontline or behind the scenes, you’ll be part of a dedicated team making a real difference to residents’ lives.

What You’ll Be Doing

As a Principal Practitioner, you’ll lead a small team of Family Help Practitioners, supporting them to deliver evidence-based, person-centred interventions. You’ll provide day-to-day operational oversight, offer regular professional supervision and sign off holistic assessments for children with disabilities or complex health needs. You’ll champion practice development, using your specialist expertise in areas such as early intervention, Portage, inclusion or transitions to influence the service’s approach. Alongside supervising your team, you’ll manage a small number of complex cases yourself, carrying out home visits and assessments where needed.

Collaboration will be at the heart of your work. You’ll build strong partnerships with health, education, social care and voluntary sector colleagues to ensure families receive coordinated, whole-family support. You’ll take a strengths-based approach to resolving complex situations, helping families navigate challenges and ensuring interventions meet their needs. You will also work closely with the Children with Disabilities Manager, sharing duty cover and advising colleagues on next steps when concerns arise. Because this is a Bi-Borough role, you’ll work across both Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, travelling to homes, schools and community settings as needed.

What You’ll Bring

To succeed, you’ll bring significant experience working with children with disabilities and their families and a strong understanding of the challenges they face. You must also have a deep working knowledge of safeguarding processes and procedures, enabling you to guide your team confidently and ensure concerns are escalated or addressed appropriately. You’ll have experience working with families systemically, using a relational approach to build trust and empower positive change. You will need strong communication and interpersonal skills to work effectively with partners and to develop tailored interventions that reflect each child’s unique needs. Supervising, mentoring or line managing staff is essential, and it would be desirable if you had a Level 5 qualification in Childcare, Youth Work, Social Care, Education or a related field. Expertise in key practice areas such as Portage, inclusion or transitions will strengthen your application. You will also bring a flexible, solutions-focused mindset, using your judgement to resolve disagreements and reduce the need for escalation to panel.

Why join us

At RBKC, we’re all in – investing in our people, our communities and our future. You’ll join a high-performing, supportive Children with Disabilities service that prides itself on keeping children and families at the centre of every decision. This role gives you the opportunity to grow your leadership experience while managing a team of Family Help Practitioners and shaping their professional development. You’ll be working within a Local Authority recognised as Outstanding by Ofsted for the last ten years, reflecting a decade of strong practice, collaborative culture and excellent outcomes.

About Us

Kensington and Chelsea is home to diverse communities, thriving businesses and unique local places. Everything we do is focused on supporting our residents, strengthening our approach and creating a fairer borough. As a competent and caring Council, we take pride in our work every day, ensuring our services are delivered with care and competence. We listen to our residents, act with integrity and work together to build a borough that is greener, safer and fairer for all.

This role embodies the 'we’re all in' mindset at its best. Whether you’re coaching a colleague through a complex assessment, working jointly with a partner agency or stepping in to support a family directly, you’ll be fully engaged in making the biggest difference possible. Your commitment helps turn challenges into opportunities for progress, ensuring families feel supported and practitioners feel empowered.

Interviews will be held in person on 2nd December 2025. This role will require an Enhanced DBS Including Children and Adult’s Barred List. Ready to join us? We’re all in – are you? If you share our values and have the skills to contribute, we’d love to hear from you.

Please apply online explaining how you meet the requirements set out in the person specification and job description. We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants. We are committed to promoting equality and respecting diversity and welcome applications from all sections of the community. We are a Disability Confident Employer – committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible. We are committed to fair, transparent, and consistent pay practices. New hires will start at the minimum of the advertised salary range. Employees receive annual salary increases until they reach the top of the pay scale. In addition, employees will receive any agreed cost of living pay rises.