Team Manager – Family Help Team (Kingswood)

As Team Manager, you will lead practice within a Good rated Children’s Social Care service that is ambitious for children, families and the workforce. As a qualified Social Worker, you will support and develop practitioners, strengthen the quality of assessments and planning, and help ensure children’s voices remain central to the work of the team.

You will bring professional expertise, calm leadership and a strong understanding of statutory social work to guide day-to-day practice. Working collaboratively with families, colleagues and partners, you will help your team manage risk, build on strengths and deliver consistent, high-quality support that improves outcomes for children and young people.

Leading practice across Child in Need, Child Protection, Targeted Early Help and the early stages of Children in Care work, you will ensure families receive timely, proportionate and effective support. Working alongside other managers, Lead Child Protection Practitioners and partner agencies, you will help create a consistent, relational and family-led approach that keeps children’s safety and wellbeing at the centre of decision making.

As a Team Manager, you will lead, manage and supervise a team of Social Workers, Advanced Social Workers, Senior Social Workers and Senior Family Support Workers. You will support practitioners to feel confident, clear and professionally challenged in their roles, while ensuring work is allocated safely and managed effectively across the Family Help community team. By providing operational oversight, reflective supervision and timely decision-making support so that children and families receive high-quality, relationship-based statutory services.

• Lead, manage and supervise practitioners across the Family Help team, providing reflective supervision, professional support and clear day-to-day decision making.
• Oversee safe allocation and management of work across Targeted Early Help, Child in Need, Child Protection and early Children in Care activity, ensuring risk is managed and timely, defensible decisions are made.
• Drive high-quality assessments, plans, interventions and reviews, working closely with child protection colleagues and partner agencies while monitoring performance, outcomes and practice improvement.

What we need from you:

• Qualified Social Worker with current Social Work England registration and substantial post-qualifying experience within children’s social care.
• Experience of managing staff, providing supervision and supporting professional development, with the confidence to lead safe, consistent and high-quality statutory practice.
• Strong knowledge of legislation, statutory guidance and practice relating to assessment, risk management, safety planning and threshold decision making.
• Effective communicator, influencer and negotiator, enabling you to build relationships with colleagues, families and partner agencies.
• Model relational, strengths-based and family-led practice, promoting a positive learning culture, supporting staff wellbeing and evidence of ongoing continuous professional development.
• Ability to balance operational oversight with strategic thinking, supporting service planning, practice improvement and local transformation work while keeping children’s safety, welfare and lived experience at the centre of decision making.

These posts are a result of families first resulting in growth of the team based in Kingswood following the expansion of the family help hub. Although this post is advertised as a full-time position, we encourage and welcome applications from experienced managers who may be seeking part time, job share or flexible working arrangements.

Please note that due to the nature of this role, it is a requirement of employment that an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is obtained. You will be expected to travel throughout the authority and surrounding area, so you must have a full, valid driving licence with regular access to a vehicle insured for business use or have an alternative suitable means of travel. There may be a requirement to work from different council locations and to attend homes, schools, partner premises and other community settings. Some work may occasionally fall outside normal business hours.

As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities. We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. Ensuring all our staff are given right skills, knowledge and support to recognise and respond effectively to potential abuse or neglect.

Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here. We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of. We’re providing essential services across our communities to ensure they are safe and well maintained. We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.