Senior Practice Lead - Permanence Service

Cheshire West and Chester Council; Ellesmere Port; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Cheshire West and Chester Council is recruiting a Senior Practice Lead for the Permanence Team. The role requires a professional social work qualification and involves high-quality care planning for children and young people, alongside practice development within a collaborative team environment. The council offers excellent work-life balance, flexible and remote working options, and a commitment to professional development.

Benefits

Excellent work-life balance

Flexible and remote working arrangements

High-quality progression and developmental opportunities

Free parking at all office locations

Pay for Social Work England registration

Re-location allowance in some circumstances

Qualifications

• Experienced practitioner with a commitment to high-quality care planning.
• Passionate about providing support for children and young people.
• Strong reflective and team player.

Responsibilities

• Support children and young people with complex care planning.
• Drive practice development and performance.
• Engage in trauma-informed practice and motivational interviewing.

Skills

Communication skills

Teamwork

Education

Professional social work qualification

Job description

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Senior Practice Lead - Permanence Service, Ellesmere Port

Client: Cheshire West and Chester Council

Location: Ellesmere Port, United Kingdom

Job Category: Other

EU work permit required: Yes

Job Reference: ac84121ffe75

Job Views: 8

Posted: 22.06.2025

Expiry Date: 06.08.2025

Job Description:

We are recruiting an experienced Senior Practice Lead within our Permanence Team.

Cheshire West and Chester Council is a place where everyone can Thrive – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money and Empowerment.

We are looking for a highly motivated, reflective, and experienced practitioner to join our Permanence Team based at The Portal, Ellesmere Port. You will be a strong team player with great communication skills, a commitment to working collaboratively, and delivering high-quality care planning for our children and young people. A professional social work qualification is essential for this post.

The post holder will be an integral part of our Children’s Social Care Permanence Hub and will demonstrate a commitment to driving performance, practice development both within the team and within our service. You will support children and young people with complex care planning, creatively driving their care plans and improving outcomes, while maintaining practice standards and expectations, leading by example.

Our role as Corporate Parents in Cheshire West and Chester is both a privilege and a responsibility. Candidates should be passionate about providing care, nurture, and support for our children and young people. Our practice model, Our Ways of Working, is rooted in trauma-informed practice, offering opportunities to engage in bespoke trauma-informed practice and motivational interviewing training to ensure the highest quality of care and planning for our children and young people. We have developed and embedded ‘Our Way of Working’ with our multi-agency partners to ensure improved collaboration and a unified approach to work with families using Motivational Interviewing and Trauma-Informed Practice.

Our Children's Social Care workforce is passionate and committed to improving outcomes for children by providing a consistent, high-quality service to children and families, along with excellent working relationships with our partners and support from a stable leadership and management team. We are committed to a culture of shared learning and development, in which you will play an active part in the continued progress of our services to children and families.

Our social workers will tell you: - They feel supported and part of a team. They have access to excellent training opportunities. Managers at Cheshire West and Chester strive to make Social Workers feel valued and recognized, they are approachable, available, and compassionate. Social Workers are encouraged and supported to be creative and strive for excellence. They feel valued and supported by their team, manager, and senior managers.

Our commitment and investment in professional development means that most of our Senior Practice Leads, Team Managers, and some Senior Managers have progressed within our own organization.

As a local authority, we continue to develop and enhance our social work offer to support and develop our valued workforce.

We will offer you: -

• Excellent work-life balance, flexible and remote working arrangements. We took the positives we learned from ‘lockdown’ and kept them
• Bright, modern, and recently refurbished office environments
• High-quality progression and developmental opportunities
• Up to days ‘flexi time’ per year as well as your annual leave
• High-quality supervision
• Strong reflective practice framework
• Free parking at all our office locations
• We’ll pay your Social Work England registration
• Re-location allowance in some circumstances

As employers, we recognize that Cheshire West and Chester Council has a major role to play in improving the quality of life of its employees. We are committed to agile, flexible, and mobile working and helping employees maintain an effective work-life balance. The COVID lockdown has enabled us to improve our ability to work remotely, be more flexible and creative with our time, and maximize technology use, while ensuring regular team and support network meetings. This ‘hybrid’ arrangement allows for more flexibility in service delivery to children and families and enhances work/life balance for our Social Workers.

We have a strong and supportive political and senior leadership team with extensive experience and knowledge about children’s outcomes across Cheshire West and Chester.