Head of Service - Family Help & Protection

Sandwell Childrens Trust; Oldbury; Hybrid; GBP 77,000 - 88,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation allowance

Job summary

Sandwell Children’s Trust in Oldbury is seeking a Head of Service for Family Help and Protection. You will provide strategic leadership across Family Help, Child Protection and Court services, driving the Families First programme and ensuring timely, evidence-based intervention.

The role requires a qualified Social Worker with senior management experience, strong budget management, and the ability to build multi-agency partnerships.

Qualifications

• Be a qualified Social Worker with significant leadership experience in children and families services.
• Strong track record of major policy and organisational change.
• Excellent systems thinking and stakeholder relationship skills.
• Experience managing complex budgets in local government.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic development across Family Help, Child Protection and Court services.
• Drive Families First programme with visible leadership and delivery.
• Ensure integrated front door operations and timely decision-making.
• Build multi-agency partnerships to improve outcomes for children and families.

Skills

Leadership

Policy & organizational change

Systems thinking

Stakeholder engagement

Budget management

Education

Qualified Social Worker

Job description

Sandwell Children’s Trust - rated as a Good Provider.

At Sandwell Children’s Trust, we firmly believe that the voice of the child should be at the centre of everything we do. We are on an ambitious journey to ensure that children and families in Sandwell are safe and empowered to thrive.

Our’ ‘Sandwell Deal’, brings together our offering that make Sandwell Children’s Trust a great place to work.

What we can offer you:-

• Generous annual leave of up to 31 days, plus 5 additional days for long service recognition.
• Your birthday off paid in addition to annual leave entitlement and 8 Bank Holidays, plus a concessionary day at Christmas.
• We recognise individual loyalty with service awards from 2, 5, 10 and every 5 years onwards.

To find out more please visit The Sandwell Deal via this hyperlink

https://sandwelldeal.co.uk

Job title: Head of Service - Family Help & Protection
Grade/Salary: Hay Grade (£76,911 - £87,590 per annum)
Relocation Allowance: Up to £6,500*
Contract Type: Permanent
Working pattern: 37 hours per week
Location: Oldbury/Hybrid
Closing date: midnight on Monday 16 November 2026

This is an exciting opportunity to lead at the heart of a once-in-a-generation change in how children’s services are delivered in Sandwell. As Head of Service for Family Help, you will play a pivotal role in taking forward our ambitious Families First programme, providing strategic leadership across Family Help, Child Protection and Court services, Sandwell’s Integrated Front Door and the Emergency Duty Service.

We have transformed children’s services in Sandwell, moving from a long history of inadequate services to achieving an overall Good judgement from Ofsted. Recent inspections have recognised the strength of our leadership, including Outstanding leadership and management within our adoption service. This role offers the opportunity to build on those strong foundations, work alongside committed colleagues and partners, and lead the next phase of our journey through Families First.

We are looking for the right person in Sandwell to take this work forward: a talented, aspirational and ambitious leader who is ready to shape the next chapter of our services. You will be relentless in driving excellent practice through relational social work and courageous innovation. Highly visible and responsive, you will role model the Trust’s ethos, values and standards, inspire colleagues and partners, and turn the ambition of Families First into meaningful and lasting change for children and families.

You will lead the development of a truly integrated approach, building strong multi-agency local partnerships and ensuring children and families receive the right help, from the right service, at the right time. Through your oversight of Sandwell’s Integrated Front Door and Emergency Duty Service, alongside locality Family Help and statutory services, you will strengthen decision-making, improve the child and family journey and ensure that risk and need are identified and responded to quickly. You will lead services that deliver relational and trauma-informed practice, high-quality assessment, purposeful planning and timely evidence-based intervention. Working with your management teams, you will provide strong oversight of child protection, pre-proceedings and care proceedings, ensuring children achieve permanence through tenacious, timely and ambitious planning.

You will:

• Be a qualified Social Worker with significant experience of providing energetic, passionate and effective leadership within children and families services, with the ability to motivate, develop and bring the best out of individuals and teams.
• Bring senior management experience and a strong record of leading major policy, service and organisational change.
• You will be an accomplished systems leader who can see the whole picture, work across organisational boundaries, build shared ownership and translate an ambitious vision into measurable delivery and lasting change.
• Be an energetic, passionate and credible leader with a proven track record of leading high-performing services, inspiring the workforce and influencing partners at every level.
• You will bring people together around a shared purpose, create momentum and lead with visibility, confidence and determination to deliver better outcomes for children and families.
• Have experience of managing complex budgets and financial pressures within local government, with the commercial awareness to make sound, cost-effective decisions while protecting quality and outcomes for children.

We are committed to creating an inclusive environment. Reasonable adjustments are available at every stage of the recruitment process and throughout employment, helping everyone to thrive, perform to the best of their ability, and achieve success in their role.

Sandwell Children’s Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable groups including children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Completion of an enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check is a requirement for working with children and young people.

*Terms & Conditions apply for relocation allowance