Advanced Children's Social Worker

Our Social Workers make a huge difference to the lives of people across our county, and we remain passionate about investing in retaining our own and developing practice. This is an exciting opportunity which offers just that. If you are looking for more responsibility, a supportive role with your colleagues whilst continuing to support and safeguard some of our most vulnerable/high risk children and young people, then this could be just for you.

We also have a career progression framework in place to support you which includes:

• Practice Educator Programme
• Aspiring Social Work Practice Lead Programme
• Aspiring Team Manager Programme

We are ambitious in our learning and development programme with strong links within the West Midlands and our teaching partnership. You will be based in the beautiful and scenic Staffordshire Moorlands, and in one of two Assessment and Staying Together Teams based in the Moorlands. We are a small but supportive and welcoming team who share excellent relationships with our district colleagues in Early Help, SEND, Education, Children with Disabilities and we are co-located with our Children in Care and Care Leavers Team. We very much embed a restorative model and are committed to ensuring that every child is supported through a whole district approach.

Main Responsibilities

You will be working with families across the continuum of need from Child In Need through to the conclusion of Care Proceedings and Adoption planning. You will be responsible for:

• Completing your statutory duties in coordinating the child's plan, reviewing and ensuring that our children are seen and heard.
• Undertaking section 47 investigations.
• Undertaking placement of children into Local Authority care, when it is agreed they can no longer remain at home.
• Completing both Private law reports and Public law proceedings.
• Referring into our centralised services for specialist support/services.
• Supporting our ASYE's and student Social Workers.

The Ideal Candidate

More generally, overall, our social workers need to be a:

• Qualified Social Worker with significant experience in a Child in Need, Child Protection Team & Court Proceedings.
• Registered with Social Work England.
• Have a current UK driving licence and vehicle.
• Experience of supporting and mentoring your colleagues.

But above all, you will bring the desire to work with children and families to give them the right support, at the right time with the aim of keeping families together where it is safe to do so.

For more information about this vacancy or for an informal chat please contact Team Manager, Angela Cooke at angela.cooke1@staffordshire.gov.uk. Interviews will be held week commencing 3 November 2025.

Our Recruitment Process

To ensure fairness, we anonymise applications during shortlisting so that only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement to highlight the skills, experience, and values you'll bring to the role.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council: Our Values: The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively. Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy: We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future. We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance. In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to our rewards and benefits.

As an Authority, we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all backgrounds and communities. As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you'll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that's why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.