Families First Programme Practice Lead

Bury Council; Bury St Edmunds; On-site; GBP 57,000; Full time

Job summary

A local authority in the UK is seeking an experienced Social Work Lead to drive the Families First Partnership Programme within Children's Services. This role focuses on implementing key reforms aimed at improving outcomes for children and families, fostering integrated working, and ensuring sustainable change in social care practices. The ideal candidate should possess significant experience in leadership within statutory children's services and have a track record in delivering service improvements. This is a fantastic opportunity to shape the future of children's social care during a time of national reform.

Qualifications

• Qualified and registered social worker with substantial post-qualification experience.
• Strong track record of leadership within statutory children’s services.
• Experience in developing service improvement or transformation programmes.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and practice leadership across all elements of the reform agenda.
• Lead the development and delivery of the roadmap to implementing service reforms.
• Work closely with partners to strengthen integrated working and joint accountability.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Analytical skills

Education

Degree in Social Work

Job description

Salary: £56,723 - £58,883 plus £5,000 market rate supplement (grade SM1)
Contract Type: Fixed Term for 12 months
Hours: Full time, 37 hours per week
Location: Bury Council Offices, 3 Knowsley Place

About the Role

Bury Children's Services are embarking on an ambitious journey to transform how we deliver social care - placing children and families, relationships, and communities at the heart of everything we do.

We are seeking an experienced and passionate Social Work Lead to help shape and drive Families First Partnership Programme implement within Children’s Services. The reforms have arisen from the Independent Review of Children's Social Care, and the Governments Plan for Change aiming to reshape how help is provided to children and families.

Intended outcome of the reform are to:

• Improve early intervention/prevention so families get the help they need and reduce the risk of escalation of concerns.
• Reduce the number of children entering care and supporting children to grow up in their own families.
• Improving the multi-agency safeguarding response.
• Strengthening the families voice, networks and decision making (including via FGDM) to keep children safe and to engage families in finding solutions and planning.
• Better information sharing and consistent identifiers to keep children safe.

The Families First Programme represents a fundamental shift in how we work with children, young people and families. It is built around three key cornerstones:

• Family Help Teams integrated local teams providing early, responsive and relationship-based support.
• Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams bringing professionals together to improve decision-making and child protection outcomes.
• Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) empowering families to take the lead in planning for safety and change.

As our Lead for Reform, you will play a pivotal role in setting out and delivering our roadmap to implementing these reforms within children's services, ensuring that the implementation translates into meaningful, child and sustainable change across practice, service design keeping children at the heart of everything we do and responds to wider Council and Partnership initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and practice leadership across all elements of the reform agenda within children's services and promoting effective partnership working.
• Lead the development and delivery of the roadmap to implementing national and local social care reforms, ensuring clear milestones, strong governance and measurable outcomes.
• Co-design, pilot and embed new models of working including Family Help Teams, Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams and develop our FGDM and family network meeting approaches.
• Translate reform objectives into operational reality, supporting managers and practitioners to adopt new ways of working.
• Championing our family safeguarding approach and ensure this is reflected in plans and developments.
• Lead our workforce development offer and foster a culture of reflection, learning and continuous improvement across Children’s Services.
• Work closely with partners across education, health, police and the voluntary sector to strengthen integrated working and joint accountability.
• Use data, feedback and evaluation to evidence impact, inform decision-making and refine our roadmap as reforms progress.

About You

You will be a qualified and registered social worker with substantial post-qualification experience in children’s social care, ideally including service transformation or reform.

You will bring both strategic insight and operational credibility, able to connect high-level vision with the realities of frontline delivery. You will be confident in leading change, influencing across systems and inspiring others to deliver excellence in practice.

• Degree or equivalent qualification in Social Work, with current registration with Social Work England.
• Strong track record of leadership within statutory children’s services.
• Experience of developing or implementing large‑scale service improvement or transformation programmes.
• Comprehensive knowledge of current legislation, statutory guidance and national social care reform agendas.
• Excellent analytical, communication and partnership‑building skills.

Why Join Us?

This is an exciting and unique opportunity to shape the future of children’s social care at a time of national reform. You will be at the centre of designing and delivering our roadmap to implementation, helping to embed the Families First cornerstones Family Help Teams, Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams, and Family Group Decision Making as the foundation of our future model of support.

Closing Date: 04/01/2026

Interview Date: 12/01/2026

For an informal discussion, please contact: Linda Evans, Director of Social Care and Early Help/ [e-mail]