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Cambridgeshire County Council; Wisbech; On-site; GBP 36,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation package

Retention payments

Refer a Friend scheme

CARE Academy

Job summary

Cambridgeshire County Council's Family Support and Safeguarding Team is seeking dedicated Children’s Social Workers to keep the child’s voice at the heart of practice. The role covers Child in Need, Children in Need of Protection and care proceedings, with offices at Stanton House (Huntingdon), Awdry House (Wisbech), Noble House (Ely) and Fawcett House (Cambridge).

The Council may relocate the Fawcett House site in 2026.

Qualifications

• Be a qualified Social Worker with a Social Work England registration.
• Ability to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently.

Responsibilities

• Act as the lead professional and ensure safeguarding matters are dealt with promptly and in line with procedures.
• Undertake assessments to identify needs and ensure robust analysis with SMART outcomes.
• Engage with children, young people and families to develop empowering relationships and improve outcomes.
• Produce reports and plans for forums, including court, reflecting the child’s experience.

Skills

Motivational Interviewing

Education

Social Work England registration

Job description

Children's Social Worker - Family Support and Safeguarding Team

We are looking for passionate and enthusiastic Social Workers who have the child’s voice at the heart of everything they do to join us in our Family Support and Safeguarding Team!

We manage a varied caseload of Child in Need, Children in need of Protection, Public Law Outline and care proceedings, focusing on children up to the age of 18. You will all use a Motivational Interviewing approach where you will act in partnership with children and their families to achieve sustainable change and improved outcomes for children. This is an exciting and creative time to join us in Family Safeguarding, and we would welcome applications from a diverse range of workers to enhance our existing workforce.

We currently have vacancies in our teams based at Stanton House in Huntingdon, Awdry House in Wisbech, Noble House in Ely and Fawcett House in Cambridge. However, please note that as part of the Council’s ongoing Asset Review, the Fawcett House office base may change during 2026. Teams currently located at Fawcett House may be relocated to an alternative site within the County, which in most cases will be in close proximity to the current location.

In Children’s Services we are working to reshape what we do and how we do it. Why not be part of it?

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

wellbeing package to cover

all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family

• 6 days of

protected time each year to support in maintaining your Continuous Professional Development

• A

relocation package (eligibility applies)

• A

pay progression scheme to enable you to accelerate through the pay grade as you gain experience and skills

Scalable retention payments of up to

£8,392 over a 3 year period, starting after your first full year of employment

• A

Refer a Friend Schemewhere if you refer another Social Worker to us who is subsequently employed by us as a result of that introduction, we’ll pay you an introduction fee of £350

• Access to our

Cambridgeshire Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) who will support your development, enabling you to become the best practitioner you can be

What will you be doing?

Day-to-day responsibilities of a Social Worker in Family Support and Safeguarding include:

• Act as the lead professional and ensure all matters in respect of safeguarding are dealt with promptly, effectively and in line with child protection procedures, escalating where necessary.
• Undertake assessments to identify and respond to needs, building on strength and ensuring that analysis is robust and leads to clear outcomes that can be met through SMART targets.
• Engage with children, young people, and their families to develop effective and empowering relationships which facilitate change and improve outcomes.
• Produce reports and plans for a variety of forums, including court, which are child focussed and reflect their experience.

About you

We're looking for confident and dynamic individuals who enjoy making a difference in their local community, are curious and spot things that others might not see, enjoys building relationships and likes to explore possibilities.

You must:

• Be a qualified Social Worker with a Social Work England registration
• Have the ability to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently

For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification.

Please note we are not accepting applications from candidates living overseas who require sponsorship to move to the UK

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.