Senior Practitioner - Family Support & Protection, Harlow

Senior Practitioner - Family Support & Protection, Harlow

Permanent, Full Time

£46,574 to £56,027 per annum

Location: Harlow

Working Style: Community-based worker

Closing Date: 17th August 2025 

Interview date: 1st September 2025 

Essex County Council understand how important flexibility and wellbeing is for our colleagues working across children's Social Care and that we need to think differently. We have therefore developed a nine-day working fortnight for full time frontline Social Workers within Children’s services.

Family Support & Protection (FS&P)

Family Support and Protection works with families facing long-term, complex challenges. This involves interventions lasting over three months, addressing situations where children are under child protection or child-in-need plans, or where they can no longer live at home, necessitating care proceedings.

The Opportunity

Children and Families is a service where social work thrives, fostering a culture of collaboration, integrity, and compassion. Our mission is to promote the development and wellbeing of children, young people, and their families, shielding them from neglect and abuse. By partnering with various agencies, we deliver early help, family support, and effective social work interventions that build resilience, remove barriers, and enable children and young people to envision a brighter future.

The Role of Senior Practitioner

As a Senior Practitioner, you will manage a complex caseload and provide expert supervision and coaching to colleagues, driving positive change for children, young people, and families. You will also deputise for the Team Manager, leading the team and managing duty services.

Join us in making a tangible difference in the lives of children and families, helping them overcome challenges and achieve their full potential. Together, we can create a supportive and nurturing environment where every child can look forward to a brighter future.

Accountabilities

As a Senior Practitioner, you will:

Provide Expert Guidance: Offer expert advice and professional supervision to social workers, contributing to the development of practice standards.

Assess and Support: Evaluate complex social care needs and develop support plans for vulnerable individuals, children, and families.

Ensure Compliance: Work within statutory legal frameworks, policies, and guidelines, determining when statutory intervention is necessary.

Manage Caseloads: Handle a complex caseload, ensuring accurate and timely data, reports, and presentations.

Lead in Critical Situations: Participate in case conferences, court attendances, meetings, and statutory reviews, taking the lead when a social care perspective is required.

Safeguard and Promote Welfare: Conduct assessments and plan interventions to safeguard and promote children’s welfare.

Build Strong Relationships: Foster effective working relationships across the Council, with partners, and voluntary agencies to help people get the best start in life and age well.

Deliver Expertise: Provide high-level expertise in specific practice areas, leading and contributing to their development.

Achieve Targets: Meet individual and shared targets and objectives defined annually within the performance management framework.

Join us in this pivotal role where your expertise and leadership will make a significant impact on the lives of children, young people, and families. Together, we can build a supportive community and create brighter futures.

The Experience You Will Bring

• A recognised social work qualification i.e. Diploma, degree or masters in social work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent, with current registration with Social Work England (SWE) as a registered social worker.
• Evidence of continuing professional development, aligned to any relevant Professional Competency/Capability frameworks or Knowledge and Skills Statements.
• Significant experience of social work, demonstrating a comprehensive and up to date understanding of all relevant legislation, regulation and guidance.
• Experience of mentoring both Social Work students and newly qualified and experienced Social Work staff, being a subject matter expert in professional social work practice.
• Experience of chairing meetings involving clients, family members and/or carers and other multi-agency professionals.
• Developing strong relationships with partners, other agencies and the local community to achieve joint objectives and offer a supportive framework for children, young people and families.
• In depth understanding of delivery of value for money interventions balanced against need.
• Proven track record of clear decision making to highlight and limit the potential risks associated with intervention.

To read more about our business area, please visit: Children & Families

Please take a look at our ‘No Magic’ Children & Families video

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In February 2025, Greater Essex was accepted onto the Government’s devolution priority programme, which will see local authorities in Essex work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority by May 2026. You can read more about devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR) on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency.  Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service.  The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate.  This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained.  For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk

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