Social Worker -Family Safeguarding

Our Family Safeguarding Service specialises in delivering high-quality Child Protection Services to children and families across Leicestershire. In this role, as an experienced social worker, you will have a focus on overseeing children subject to child protection plans, alongside pre‑proceedings and care proceedings, and therefore experience in this area is essential.

In Leicestershire, we have a fantastic package to provide our workers. This includes the option as a full‑time worker to do a 9‑day working fortnight, hybrid working, celebrating diversity with a range of events throughout the year, recognition of our staff in annual Pride In Practice events, fantastic learning and training opportunities – enabling our staff to develop and progress within their roles and committed wellbeing support.

We are proud of our continuous improvement plan – ‘Achieving Excellence through Purposeful Practice’ which sets out our key values, behaviours and ambitions. We have embedded the Signs of Safety approach throughout our services, and this approach mirrors our values of Aspiration, Being Curious and Collaboration. We are focused on working with families and the networks of family, friends and professionals around children, to work in collaboration to achieve shared goals.

We are committed to our vision of becoming a trauma‑informed responsive department where we believe we are “stronger together”. Our culture is one of partnership, where we look for solutions and recognise the potential impact of trauma on the children and families we work with and on our staff. We will strive to create a safe, compassionate, healing environment demonstrated through relationships based on trust, respect, hope and empathy.

We will achieve this through a spirit of curiosity, by nurturing connections through relationships, making a deliberate effort to know and understand people, and by providing hope for growth and recovery. Learn more about how we are responding to trauma, taking pride in practice and celebrating our achievements in social work here. We support and empower our staff to be the best that they can be.

We will give you the support and resources that you need to work in collaboration with children and families.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term‑time working, part‑time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

• Have a social work degree or equivalent, e.g., CQSW or DipSW (with a specialism in children’s services) with a number of years’ post‑qualifying experience. You must also be registered with Social Work England.
• You must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence (or be able to convert your current licence) and have access to a vehicle.
• Be confident and experienced in statutory child protection services, including the completion of Care Proceedings, possessing strong assessment skills demonstrating the ability to make sound decisions that offer support and that are impactful. This would need to be demonstrated through clear and evidenced examples.
• Knowledge of UK childcare legislation and Local Safeguarding Children Partnership procedures, particularly in relation to child protection and Care proceedings. Be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the theoretical underpinning of social work practice and models used.
• You must also understand, and have a commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Be able to evidence your skills and knowledge of creative, innovative, and relationship‑based social work, working in collaboration with families and professionals. Ideally, you will already be confident in the application of the Signs of Safety methodology.
• Have excellent prioritisation and time‑management skills to ensure the successful delivery of competing and changing…