Team Manager - Children's Services

3 Month Contract With A Local Authority

Job Purpose

To provide effective leadership, supervision and management within Children's Social Care, ensuring children, young people and families receive high-quality, timely and outcome-focused services.

The Team Manager will lead, support and develop a team of Social Workers, Advanced Practitioners and other professionals, ensuring safeguarding responsibilities are met and statutory duties are delivered to a high standard. The postholder will oversee complex child protection, safeguarding and neglect cases, promote reflective practice and support continuous service improvement.

The role will work closely with Advanced Practitioners who hold a reduced caseload while providing coaching, mentoring, case oversight and direct practice support to less experienced practitioners.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day leadership and management of a Children's Social Care team.
  
• Ensure statutory responsibilities are fulfilled in accordance with legislation, policies and procedures.
  
• Manage and oversee child protection, safeguarding, child in need and neglect casework.
  
• Provide effective supervision, support and performance management to Social Workers and Advanced Practitioners.
  
• Promote high-quality, child-centred practice that delivers positive outcomes for children and families.
  
• Monitor caseloads, workloads, performance targets and service delivery standards.
  
• Ensure assessments, child protection plans, care plans and statutory visits are completed within required timescales.
  
• Quality assure casework, reports, assessments and plans to ensure consistency and compliance.
  
• Support the management of complex safeguarding, neglect and child protection cases.
  
• Facilitate reflective practice and create opportunities for professional learning and development.
  
• Lead on risk management, decision-making and escalation processes where required.
  
• Support Advanced Practitioners in delivering mentoring, coaching and practical support to less experienced staff.
  
• Chair meetings, strategy discussions and case planning meetings where appropriate.
  
• Build effective relationships with partner agencies including education, health, police and voluntary sector organisations.
  
• Manage complaints, safeguarding concerns and service issues appropriately.
  
• Contribute to service development, transformation programmes and continuous improvement initiatives.
  
• Support recruitment, induction and retention activities.
  
• Ensure accurate recording and effective use of case management systems.
  
• Promote a culture of accountability, learning and high performance.
  

Requirements

Essential

• Qualified Social Worker with Social Work England registration.
  
• Significant post-qualification experience within Children's Social Care.
  
• Experience managing or supervising social work teams.
  
• Strong knowledge of:
  • Child Protection
    
  • Safeguarding
    
  • Children in Need
    
  • Neglect
    
  • Public Law Outline (PLO)
    
  • Children Looked After
    
  • Relevant childcare legislation and statutory guidance
    
• Experience overseeing complex and high-risk safeguarding cases.
  
• Experience providing supervision, mentoring and professional support to practitioners.
  
• Strong leadership and decision-making skills.
  
• Excellent assessment, analytical and risk management skills.
  
• Ability to build effective partnerships with internal and external stakeholders.
  
• Experience delivering service improvements and maintaining high performance standards.
  
• Excellent communication, report-writing and organisational skills.
  

Desirable

• Management qualification or leadership training.
  
• Practice Educator qualification.
  
• Experience within Child Protection or Safeguarding Teams.
  
• Experience supporting workforce development and practice improvement.
  
• Knowledge of restorative and strengths-based practice models.
  
• Experience managing organisational change and transformation programmes.
  

Additional Information

• Location: Walsall - Silver Court, Brownhills
  
• Hours Per Week: 37 Hours
  
• Payment Frequency: Bi-Weekly Payments