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Social Worker Advanced Practitioner Return Home Team
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Warwickshire County Council
About the Team:
This role is based within Warwickshire's Children in Care Permanence Team.
The Children in Care Permanence Team provides a countywide service for children and young people in care who have a permanence plan, including those living both within and outside Warwickshire. We are a dedicated, experienced and supportive team, committed to ensuring that children and young people are at the heart of all care planning and pathway planning decisions.
We work with children and young people from infancy through to adulthood, supporting a wide range of permanence arrangements, including foster care, residential care, supported accommodation, supported lodgings and connected persons care. We also work closely with families and partner agencies and, where it is safe and appropriate to do so, support children and young people to return home.
Our primary focus is to help children and young people achieve the best possible outcomes. We are committed to ensuring that they are safe, healthy and able to access education, training and employment opportunities, while developing the skills and independence needed for adulthood. Building strong, meaningful relationships and ensuring that the voice of the child influences every decision are at the centre of our practice.
As a team, we are passionate about delivering high-quality social work and creating lasting positive change in the lives of the children and young people we support.
Warwickshire's Return Home Team is a specialist, passionate and highly supportive service dedicated to helping children and young people safely return to the care of their families whenever this is the right plan for them. The team provides intensive, relationship-based support to children, young people and their families, working alongside a wide range of professionals to assess risk, build resilience and strengthen family relationships. Our focus is on creating sustainable change that enables children to achieve permanence within their family network where it is safe and in their best interests to do so. We are committed to keeping children at the centre of all decision-making, listening to their views and ensuring they are supported through what can be a complex and emotional transition. We believe that, with the right support at the right time, many children can successfully return home and thrive within their families and communities.
If you want to build strong relationships and connections with families, join Warwickshire’s Children and Families service. Click here to find out more about Warwickshire County Council’s Children and Families Service.
Our Offer to you includes:
- Supportive managers who provide recognition and a robust supervision policy focussed on wellbeing and workload.
- Full reimbursement of Social Work England annual fee.
- A Volunteering & Wellbeing Day in addition to generous annual leave and an additional day at Christmas
- We also offer a Refer a Friend package for some roles. Terms and Conditions apply
Click here to download our Why work for Us Brochure
About the Role:
As a Social Worker within the Return Home Team, you will have responsibility for overseeing and progressing the care plans of children and young people who are working towards returning home to their families. Once home you will become the allocated worker who will offer ongoing support to the children and families. You will fulfil all statutory responsibilities for children in care, including visiting, assessment, care planning and review processes, ensuring that children's views, wishes and feelings remain central to decision-making.
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Working creatively and collaboratively with families, you will provide intensive, relationship-based support to help address the issues that led to children entering care and support sustainable change. You will work closely with partner agencies to assess risk, strengthen family relationships and ensure that return home plans are safe, well-planned and child-centred.
This is a rewarding role for practitioners who are passionate about achieving permanence for children and who believe that, where it is safe and in a child's best interests, children should have every opportunity to return home and thrive within their family and community.
Key Responsibilities
- Hold responsibility for the care planning and statutory duties of children and young people in care with a plan of reunification, ensuring all visits, assessments, reviews and records are completed to a high standard.
- Develop, implement and review robust return home plans that are child-centred, evidence-based and focused on achieving safe and sustainable permanence.
- Provide intensive, relationship-based support to children, young people and their families to strengthen relationships, build resilience and promote positive change.
- Work effectively with uncertainty and risk, applying the principles of safe uncertainty to balance support, challenge and professional curiosity while maintaining a focus on the child's welfare and safety.
- Undertake comprehensive assessments of family functioning, strengths, needs and risks to inform planning and decision-making.
- Build meaningful relationships with children and young people, ensuring their views, wishes and feelings are heard and influence all aspects of planning.
- Coordinate and lead multi-agency planning, working closely with education, health, safeguarding partners and other professionals to achieve positive outcomes.
- Monitor and evaluate progress against agreed plans, adapting interventions where necessary to ensure children remain safe and plans remain effective.
- Support children and families through complex transitions, including returns home, ensuring appropriate support is in place to promote long-term stability.
- Maintain high-quality recording, analysis and report writing that demonstrates clear decision-making and professional accountability.
- Champion the belief that, where it is safe and, in a child’s, best interests, children and young people should have every opportunity to return home and thrive within their families and communities.
Applicant Requirements
Applicants for the role will need a professional Social Work qualification and Social Work England Registration.
For further information please see the Job Description and Person Specification.
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Working for Warwickshire – This is the difference you make:
Warwickshire County Council is a place where everyone feels valued, included, safe, supported, and welcome. Our people are at the heart of this vision, could you be one of them!
At Warwickshire County Council we are committed to ensuring Warwickshire’s economy is vibrant and supported by the right jobs, training, skills and infrastructure. Our people vision for Warwickshire County Council is a great place to work where diverse and talented people are enabled to be their best.
Your future matters to us, we provide a generous pension scheme which includes an employer contribution rate of typically around 19 percent per month, to help support your financial security during retirement. The scheme also offers a valuable package of benefits for members and their dependants. To find out more please visit: Warwickshire Pension Fund homepage – Warwickshire Pension Fund.
The benefits we offer include agile working, a valuable part of the pay and reward package for employees working in local government, generous annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays and an additional day at Christmas, and access to Vivup benefits and discounts platform.
Click here to view the benefits at Warwickshire County Council.
Additional Information:
Warwickshire County Council are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. Please be advised successful applicants will be subject to a range of pre-engagement checks, including a relevant Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). In accordance with the DBS code of practice and our own policy, should an individual have a declared criminal offence an individual assessment will be completed. Warwickshire County Council adheres to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
The Fluency Duty is outlined in the Code of Practice on the English language requirements for public sector workers. The Fluency Duty for this role is Required. You must be able to speak and provide advice in accurate spoken English to the public.
This role requires employees to undergo Non-Police Personnel Vetting (NPPV). This process ensures that individuals who are not police staff but have physical or remote access to police premises, information, intelligence, financial, or operational assets are assessed for their reliability and integrity. This assessment determines their suitability for clearance to work within police premises.
To discuss the role please contact Team Manager Alaina Rayworth alainarayworth@warwickshire.gov.uk
Closing Date: 7th September 2026
Interview Date: 16th September 2026
Should you require application forms in an alternative format / language or any adjustments to be made throughout the application process or upon appointment, please contact hrandpayroll@warwickshire.gov.uk and we will make every effort to meet your specific requirements.
Warwickshire County Council is committed to equality of opportunity for all employees and is keen to address areas of under representation in its workforce. See more
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