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Principal Social Worker for Children
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Staffordshire County Council
Our Children and Families services and our vision here in Staffordshire is rooted in four core principles that underpin everything we do:
- Families first – network and community always
- Right help, right time – proportionate, timely and co-produced with children and families
- Whole-system responsibility for supporting children and families to be happy, healthy and safe
- Permanence as belonging from day one
To achieve our ambition, we have taken a bold decision to transform our service structure and we’re looking for talented, values-driven leaders who can champion these principles, inspire others and help shape the future of Children and Families services in Staffordshire.
We want to create a more resilient, child-centred and future-focused system that enables children, young people and families to receive the right help at the right time.
Through this redesign, we are strengthening leadership, increasing capacity and creating clearer lines of accountability across our services. These changes will support high-quality practice, stronger partnerships and better outcomes for children and families, while ensuring we are well positioned to respond to national reforms and future challenges.
Main Responsibilities
As the professional lead for social work practice across Children & Families, you will drive excellence in practice, social work development and continuous improvement. You will provide strategic leadership across quality assurance, workforce capability, inspection readiness and ensuring children, young people and families receive high-quality support and services.
You will:
- Provide strategic leadership for social work practice, promoting innovation, learning and continuous improvement across the directorate.
- Lead quality assurance, auditing and performance improvement activities, using insight and evidence to strengthen practice and outcomes.
- Oversee social work development, including induction, professional development, ASYE programmes, student placements and career pathways.
- Lead preparation for Ofsted inspections and ensure learning from inspections, reviews and audits is embedded into practice.
- Build strong partnerships with colleagues and external organisations to improve outcomes for children, young people and families.
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The Ideal Candidate
The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:
- Recognised Social Work qualification and registration with Social Work England.
- Relevant management or professional qualification, or substantial management training and development.
- Significant leadership and management experience within children's social care.
- Proven experience of quality assurance, workforce development and inspection preparation.
- Strong understanding of legislation, safeguarding requirements and statutory guidance relating to social work practice for children and families.
Need more information?
If you’re unsure whether your skills and experience meet the needs for the role, please get in touch with us, we’d love to chat to you! You can reach us at Maria Tenny, maria.tenny@staffordshire.gov.uk or Emma Lightfoot, emma.lightfoot@staffordshire.gov.uk
Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 23 October and 5 November
“We’re happy to talk flexible working”
Our Recruitment Process
We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role. Please note: The minimum essential criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes detailed below.
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.
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Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:
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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.
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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 - Careers at Staffordshire
Our recruitment process
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 background 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.
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