Lead Child Protection Practitioner

Derbyshire County Council; East Midlands; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Local Government Pension Scheme

Generous annual leave

Employee discounts

Occupational health services

In-house counselling

Cycle to work scheme

Free parking

Job summary

Derbyshire County Council is seeking a Lead Child Protection Practitioner to enhance safeguarding arrangements through effective multidisciplinary teamwork. This role emphasizes chairing child protection conferences, championing children's voices, and ensuring timely, robust decision-making.

The practitioner will work closely with families, locality teams, and partner agencies while ensuring high standards of practice leadership and quality assurance.

Qualifications

• Experience in chairing complex child protection conferences.
• Ability to champion participation and the voice of the child.
• Strong relationship-building skills with families and agencies.

Responsibilities

• Chair complex child protection conferences.
• Champion child participation in decision-making.
• Provide practice leadership and quality assurance.

Skills

Child protection conferences

Multi-agency collaboration

Relationship building

Case consultations

Job description

Closing date: 11 October 2026

Service: Family Help and Children's Social Care

An exciting opportunity has arisen to appoint to the position of the Lead Child Protection Practitioner (LCPP) within our integrated safeguarding arrangements as part of the Families First Partnership Programme.

This role will be embedded within our Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTS), working alongside Family Help Lead Practitioners and Locality social work teams. The aim of this role is to strengthen relationship-based practice, multi-agency responses to child protection and to improve outcomes for children and families.

The successful applicant will have a primary focus on:

• Chairing complex child protection conferences and multi-agency strategy discussions, exercising the local authority's statutory child protection decision-making responsibilities.
• Championing participation and the voice of the child, ensuring decisions and plans are evidence-based, timely and robust.
• Ensure strong relationships with families, locality teams and partner agencies.
• Providing practice leadership and quality assurance across the partnership, including reflective case consultations, audit and performance activity.

The role will also require regular travel across North and South Derbyshire with duty days at Matlock County Hall.

Please note: As the Families First Partnership Programme continues to embed, there may be refinements to the role to ensure our safeguarding arrangements deliver consistent and outstanding practice across the council.

For an informal discussion please contact the Assistant Head of Service - Kourtney Farrell. Email address: [e-mail]

Working for Derbyshire County Council

Derbyshire is a great place to live and work, offering beautiful countryside alongside excellent transport links to Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester.

Benefits include

• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Generous annual leave entitlement
• Employee discounts
• Occupational health and wellbeing services
• In-house counselling and physiotherapy support
• Cycle to work scheme
• Free parking at most sites

Our Values

We welcome applications from individuals who share our values:

Collaborative | Innovative | Empowered | Accountable

These values guide how we work together and how we support children, families and colleagues.

Provisional Interview Date: 22nd October 2026