Adolescent Early Help Unit Lead

Kent County Council; Ashford; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government council in Ashford is seeking an experienced Adolescent Early Help Unit Lead to manage a multidisciplinary team providing support to vulnerable children and families. The role requires excellent leadership, communication skills, and experience in early help, ensuring high-quality assessments and interventions. The position promotes collaboration with various community partners and aims to reduce the need for statutory interventions.

Qualifications

• Experience in early help, social care, education, youth justice, or health.
• Strong background in case management and multi-agency collaboration.
• Sound understanding of safeguarding and adolescent development.

Responsibilities

• Manage the work of the Early Help Unit and ensure high-quality assessments.
• Provide supervision and guidance to practitioners.
• Collaborate with social work teams and community partners.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Problem-solving

Data interpretation

Education

Relevant degree or qualification in social care, education, or related field

Job description

Social network you want to login/join with:

Adolescent Early Help Unit Lead, Ashford

col-narrow-left

Client:

Kent County Council

Location:

Ashford, United Kingdom

Job Category:

Other

-

EU work permit required:

Yes

col-narrow-right

Job Reference:

f01ef37201cf

Job Views:

8

Posted:

13.08.2025

Expiry Date:

27.09.2025

col-wide

Job Description:

Role Responsibility

Kent County Council is seeking a passionate and experienced Early Help Unit Lead to join our Adolescent Services. This full-time role, offers a rewarding opportunity to lead a multidisciplinary team delivering targeted support to vulnerable children, young people and their families across Kent. This role will specifically cover Ashford and Canterbury districts.

As the Early Help Unit Lead, you will be responsible for managing the work of an Early Help Unit, ensuring the delivery of high-quality assessments and interventions. You will provide professional supervision and expert guidance to practitioners, fostering a strong team culture that promotes solution-focused approaches and mutual support. Your leadership will be instrumental in reducing the need for statutory interventions and supporting children and young people who have been stepped down from previous statutory support.

You will work collaboratively with Childrens Social Work Teams and community partners to implement effective programmes in various settings, including schools, colleges, family homes and family hubs. Your role will involve assessing lower level risk and safeguarding young people, while championing evidence-based practice and continuous service improvement. You will also be responsible for ensuring staff are appropriately trained in safeguarding and that relevant policies are in place.

We are looking for someone with excellent leadership and communication skills, capable of developing creative solutions to complex problems. You should be able to interpret data, manage competing priorities, work independently whilst fostering collaboration as part of a team. A sound understanding of Early Help, safeguarding, adolescent development and relevant legislation is crucial, along with a commitment to diversity and equal opportunities. You should have experience in early help, social care, education, youth justice or health, with a strong background in case management, supervision and multi-agency collaboration or relevant experience.

The focus of the team is to support children and young people who are at risk outside of the home, as well as youth justice - out of court resolution work, so experience in these areas is welcomed.

This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Interviews will be held on Tuesday 19th August.