Family Help Services Lead

Kirklees Metropolitan Council; Dewsbury; On-site; GBP 48,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

Kirklees Metropolitan Council is recruiting an experienced Service Manager to lead the newly established Family Help service. You will shape practice, provide strategic leadership to Team Managers and Social Workers, and drive improvements across multi-agency partnerships to support children and families at the earliest opportunity.

You will oversee performance, risk management, and budget delivery while embedding relationship-based, evidence-informed practice within the Families First reforms.

Qualifications

• Qualified and Social Work England registered social worker with significant post-qualifying experience in children and families.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding, child protection, and early help; ability to lead services in a complex environment.

Responsibilities

• Providing strategic and operational leadership across Family Help teams, ensuring high-quality, child-focused and family-centred practice.
• Line managing Team Managers and supporting them to lead confident, effective and resilient teams.
• Embedding the Family Help model as part of the wider Families First reforms, promoting earlier help and stronger assessment.
• Ensuring safeguarding, risk analysis and decision making are robust, timely and proportionate.
• Using performance information, audit findings, quality assurance activity and feedback from children and families to identify strengths and drive service improvement.
• Developing strong partnerships across education, health, police, early years, voluntary and community services and wider Council services.
• Ensuring employees are supported, skilled and equipped to deliver effective services with focus on supervision and wellbeing.
• Managing change confidently and creatively, balancing risk while embedding new ways of working.
• Contributing to strategic planning, service development, budget management and local/national priorities.
• Promoting a culture of learning, accountability and continuous improvement across the service.

Skills

Leadership

Budgeting

Performance management

Data analysis

Communication

Education

Social Work qualification

Job description

Kirklees Metropolitan Council is recruiting an experienced Service Manager to lead the newly established Family Help service. You will shape practice, provide strategic leadership to Team Managers and Social Workers, and drive improvements across multi-agency partnerships to support children and families at the earliest opportunity.

You will oversee performance, risk management, and budget delivery while embedding relationship-based, evidence-informed practice within the Families First reforms.