Walsall Council
Senior Social Worker (Children in Our Care) - Ref: CH04226
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Senior Social Worker - Ref: CH04226
Grade: G10; Salary Range: £47,181 - £50,269
Children are at the heart of Walsall local authority. They receive support, help, and services that reduce risks for them and meet their needs. (Ofsted, 2025)
Do you want to join our OUTSTANDING local authority?
If so, we have a current opportunity for an experienced social worker within our children in care team as a Senior Social Worker
Children and families are at the heart of our practice in Walsall as identified within our recent Ofsted inspection:
- Children benefit from positive, trusting relationships with their social workers. Social workers enable children, through direct work, to share their lived experiences, hopes and aspirations.
- Children in care benefit from living in stable and long-lasting homes. They experience positive nurturing relationships with their carers, and children spoken to by inspectors talked of feeling loved by their carers.
About the job
Within Children in Our Care, you will be supported by experienced team managers and skilled social work practitioners who are committed to working alongside you to deliver high-quality, child-centred practice.
- You will work with children, young people, carers, families, and partner agencies to ensure that the voices, wishes, and feelings of children are at the heart of care planning and review meetings.
- You will be supported to build meaningful relationships with children and to help them understand their experiences, identity, and plans for the future.
- You will have access to a strong training and development offer, including opportunities to develop the knowledge, confidence, and skills needed to undertake meaningful therapeutic life story work with children and young people.
This is an exciting time to join Children in Our Care in Walsall as we strengthen our ethos of supporting children in care for now, while also ensuring that, wherever possible and safe, children are reunified with their family and wider social networks. We are developing clear pathways to support social workers and specialist practitioners to help children live with the people they love and who are important to them.
About you
We are looking for experienced practitioners who are passionate and committed to supporting children in our care. You will be confident in building meaningful relationships with children and young people, as well as with their carers, families, and wider social networks, ensuring that children feel listened to, understood, and supported.
You will bring a child-centred and relationship-based approach to your practice, with a strong commitment to helping children feel safe, loved, and connected to the people who matter most to them.
Our Offer:
- To provide the right conditions for you, we are committed to manageable workloads, high support from managers, essential paperwork only, enabling technologies.
- Within Walsall we offer a comprehensive training and development programme which contributed to our OUTSTANDING Ofsted grading in May 2025.
- There is a comprehensive training offer for workers in Walsall. There is an impressive offer to workers in gaining a social work qualification and for newly qualified social workers developing their knowledge of frontline practice. The general training offer is wide-ranging and gives workers the opportunity to learn incrementally about their role.
- Wellbeing is at the heart of our work. We offer specialised clinical supervision, to support work/life balance, flexible working, and specialist employee assistance and therapeutic support when it is needed. We know we need to make social work a career people want to stay in.
- This post also attracts a retention payment after two years in post, starting at 10% and increasing incrementally up to 14%.
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Salary Scale
Senior Social Worker: £47181- £50269
Would you like to talk to us about the realities of working in within the children in our care team? If so, contact Andy Caville – Andrew.Caville@walsall.gov.uk or Deon Rogers Deon.Rogers@walsall.gov.uk who will connect you with one of the social workers within the service
Closing date for applications: 10th August 2026
Interviews: week commencing 17th August 2026
[View: Job Description and Employee Specification](https://go.walsall.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-07/CH04226 Senior Social Worker JDES.pdf)
This post is covered by the Government’s Code of Practice on the English Language Fluency Duty for public sector workers. The post holder will be required to communicate verbally with customers and provide advice and/or information in accurate spoken English.
Walsall Council takes seriously the responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all the children, young people, and vulnerable adults entrusted to our care and it is our expectation that all staff will share this commitment. We will ensure continuous development and improvement of robust recruitment processes and procedures that promote a culture of safeguarding amongst our workforce. Completion of an enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check is a requirement for working with children, young people, and vulnerable adults.
Note: Applicants appointed to posts that require an enhanced DBS clearance must declare any periods of time that they have lived, studied, or worked abroad and be prepared to provide an Overseas Criminal Records Certificate (OCRC) or a Statement of Good Conduct (SOGC) relating to anytime they were overseas.
Important note: When completing your online application form, you will be asked to enter supporting information. You must enter a detailed supporting information statement describing how your skills, abilities, and experience meet the specific criteria included in the employee specification. If you do not include a supporting information statement, you will not be shortlisted. Please also ensure that you complete the work history and qualifications sections of your application form. Please do not add a CV as we do not accept them. Please see our [Information for Applicants leaflet](https://go.walsall.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-12/Information for Applicants 2023_0.pdf) for further information.
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We kindly request that recruitment agencies do not contact us regarding this job vacancy. We are not accepting agency applications or referrals at this time.
At Walsall Council, we appreciate that AI can be a useful tool for ideas or guidance. However, we encourage you to make sure your application reflects your own voice and experiences. Over-reliance on AI can make responses feel less personal, and we really want to understand what makes you unique. Your experiences, skills, and perspective are what set you apart, so please ensure your application as a whole – particularly your ‘Supporting Information’ – reflects your own voice.
Walsall Council’s Children’s Services are the only Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ local authority in the Black Country. During a visit in May 2025, Inspectors described Walsall Council as a place where children were at the heart of. The council’s journey of continuous improvement started in 2017 and has since transformed into a service with a clear vision, clear priorities, and a clear plan, all informed by the views of our staff and children. Staff are at the core of delivering great outcomes for children and young people in Walsall, which is underpinned by our Walsall Right 4 Children vision. The latest Ofsted inspection demonstrated that staff in children’s services are proud to work for Walsall Council and feel supported to do great work.
Here at Walsall, we want to attract the best talent. That's why - as well as a satisfying and rewarding job - we offer a range of attractive benefits [https://go.walsall.gov.uk/jobs-and-careers-/benefits-of-working-for-us]. Working arrangements in most jobs are flexible (you may work flexitime, full or part-time, and job sharing is usually available), and you can expect generous holiday entitlements, a first-class pension scheme, and plenty of opportunities for training and personal development.
We advertise vacancies because we want the best talent available. If that's you, we're waiting for your application.
Living in Walsall
Part of the Black Country, famous for its enterprising and industrial past, Walsall is reinventing itself to become a progressive modern community. The borough is centred around the major town of Walsall, but also includes five smaller and distinctive district centres (Bloxwich, Aldridge, Willenhall, Darlaston, and Brownhills), together with numerous villages.
Walsall Council is committed to Safer Recruitment. To achieve our commitment, we will ensure continuous development and improvement of robust recruitment processes and procedures that promote a culture of safeguarding amongst our workforce.
Social Work Matters - Children's Social Worker Recruitment
Some of our children require a special kind of support: yours. Visit our microsite [https://go.walsall.gov.uk/children-and-young-people/social-work-recruitment] to find out more about joining Walsall Council as a Children's Social Worker.
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