Advanced Children's Social Worker

Staffordshire County Council; Cannock Chase; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

Staffordshire County Council is seeking an experienced Social Worker to join the assessment and staying together team in Cannock on a full-time basis, with part-time options discussed. You will support vulnerable children and families through protection planning and court processes, ensuring the child's voice remains central in decisions.

The role offers training in restorative practice, agile working, and opportunities for learning and development within a supportive county council environment.

Qualifications

• ASYE year completed and registered social worker in England.
• Registered with Social Work England as a qualified practitioner.
• Must hold a current UK driving licence and access to a vehicle.
• Strong understanding of public and private family law proceedings.
• Demonstrated commitment to child-centred practice in all decisions.

Responsibilities

• Support children and families through Child Protection planning, Public Law Outline and care proceedings.
• Conduct meaningful visits to children and coordinate regular multiagency meetings to progress plans.
• Prepare child-focused assessments and documents for reviews and court hearings, with confidence in public and private proceedings.

Skills

ASYE experience

Social Work England registration

UK driving licence

Public & private family law

Child-centred practice

Education

Social Work degree

Job description

With our new operating model, we're making sure our social workers can do what they do best!

We have an opportunity for an experienced Social worker to join our assessment and staying together team on a full-time basis but we're also happy to discuss part time as well, just get in touch.

You would be supporting vulnerable children, and the families through child protection planning and care proceedings. Ensuring the needs of children are paramount and their voice is central to the work you do.

Our Social Workers make a huge difference to the lives of people across our county. They take pride in supporting children and families and we're equally proud to help them give their best in whatever ways we can. That's why you can expect everything from agile and flexible working options to exceptional learning and development if you join our team. You can also expect our commitment to creating the best service we can.

Although we're already rated as Good' by OFSTED, we're determined to uphold the highest standards and drive continual improvement and learning. That's why we've recently gone through an exciting transformation, underpinned by a restorative practice model, which focuses on keeping families together through a community-based approach. If you've not worked in this way before, don't worry - we'll give you full training to bring you up to speed.

This role is for 30 hours, based in Cannock

For information, please note that there is currently an ongoing review within Children and Families to realign individual teams and the wider team's ways of working. As a result, this role may be affected by the review. For further information, please speak to the hiring manager.

Main Responsibilities

As an advanced practitioner within an assessment and staying together team, you will support children and families who are supported via Child Protection planning, Public Law Outline, and care proceedings.

This will involve completing meaningful visits to children, and regular multiagency meetings to ensure plans are progressed in a child focussed and timely way.

You will be expected to complete child focussed assessments and documents for reviews meetings and court. Therefore, being confident in both public and private proceedings is key to this role.

The Ideal Candidate

The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:

• Experienced Qualified Social Worker having completed your ASYE year
• Registered with Social Work England
• Have a current UK driving licence and vehicle
• Have a firm understanding of public and private family law proceedings
• Be passionate about child centred practice

But above all, you'll bring the desire to work with children and families to give them the right support, at the right time with the aim of keeping families together where it's safe to do so.

Interviews will take place on 7th October 2026.

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as yourapplication meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you'll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that's why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.