Senior Practitioner - Care Leavers Team

Leicestershire County Council; East Midlands; Hybrid; GBP 43,000 - 48,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority in England seeks a Senior Social Work Practitioner in the Care Leaver and UASC Service. The role involves mentoring newly qualified workers and leading group supervision sessions while providing vital support to young people and families. Candidates must possess relevant social work qualifications and experience in statutory children's services. A hybrid working model is offered, alongside comprehensive professional development opportunities.

Benefits

Employee counseling services

Free car parking

Cycle to work scheme

Qualifications

• Experience in statutory children's services.
• Understanding of supporting young people transitioning into adulthood.
• Familiarity with the Signs of Safety methodology.

Responsibilities

• Lead on facilitating group supervision sessions.
• Mentor and support newly qualified workers.
• Provide supervision for Personal Advisors.

Skills

Enthusiasm for practice

Understanding of supervision

Collaboration with families

Creativity in social work

Education

Qualifications such as MA, DipSW CQSW or equivalent

Job description

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, LE3 8RA

Worker Category: Fixed Location Worker

Salary: £43,860 - £47,829 per annum (pro-rata for part-time)

Working Hours: 37 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 5 October 2025

Interview Date(s): 14 October 2025

About the Role

We have the opportunity to join our skilled and supported workforce. We have a vacancy for a senior social work practitioner in the Care Leaver and UASC Service as part of the Care Leaver Team.

As a senior social work practitioner, you will work with families under complex and challenging circumstances. Your role will be to develop and support the skills of newly qualified workers through coworking and mentoring and providing supervision for Personal Advisors. You will lead on facilitating our regular group supervision POD sessions. You will also provide support to the team manager.

As an organisation, we are committed to a strong and skilled workforce providing high quality services to the children and families of Leicestershire following our relationship-based Signs of Safety practice approach.

If you are interested in a post with us read on

About Us

At Leicestershire County Council we are committed to doing our very best for vulnerable children and families; working to make a positive impact on their lives so they can achieve their potential and flourish.

We are proud of our Road to Excellence Plan which sets out our key values, behaviours and ambitions. We have embedded the Signs of Safety approach throughout our services and this approach mirrors our values of Aspiration, Being Curious and Collaboration. We are focused on working with families and the networks of family, friends and professionals around children, to work in collaboration to achieve shared goals.

As Children and Family department we are committed to our vision of becoming a trauma informed responsive department where we believe we are stronger together; our culture is one of partnership where we look for solutions and recognise the potential impact of trauma on the children and families we work with and on our staff. We will strive to create a safe, compassionate, healing environment demonstrated through relationships based on trust, respect, hope and empathy. We will achieve this through a spirit of curiosity, by nurturing connections through relationships, making a deliberate effort to know and understand people, and by providing hope for growth and recovery.

We are committed to supporting and empowering our staff to be the best workers that they can be. We will give you the support and resources that you need to work in collaboration with children and families.

We are focused on being an inclusive department where a culture to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion is embedded and discrimination challenged at every level together as a department and as Council. We warmly welcome applicants from Black, minority, ethnic (BME) communities, disabled people and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities, as they are currently under represented within our workforce; this diversity is vital to our journey and is fundamental to our values and enriches the service we offer our Children and Families.

We want all our staff to be inspired to go the extra mile. We are creating a culture where practice excellence can flourish. We want to learn from what works, as much as if not more than from when things go badly—we are ambitious to create a true learning organisation.

• Every year we run three annual conferences for staff to come together and reflect and learn.
• Every month each team sets aside time for team learning.
• You will receive consistent, regular and reflective supervision
• You will receive group supervision support
• Twice a year our senior leaders spend a week with social workers observing practice and talking to young people and parents about their experience of services
• All Social Work England registered workers have three extra Continuous Professional Development days over the year.
• Our training offer to social workers is refreshed each year and is highly valued by our staff
• We provide courses and training to support workforce career progression including Practice Educator Awards, Aspiring Managers Program, and Social Work Apprenticeship Program.
• We have a team dedicated to supporting practice excellence who work alongside practitioners offering monthly training and learning, coaching and mentoring to build practitioner confidence, 1:1 or group reflective case discussions, and other support to staff and teams that can be requested.
• Our Practice Development Group is well established for practitioners to collaborate on practice development.
• We have a Critical Incident Response service for staff which provides independent therapeutic support within 48 hours if you experience a significant traumatic experience at work.
• We have a well-respected Wellbeing Service who provide specific support to staff when needed, but also offer events throughout the year.

In all service areas you are expected to work closely with colleagues across team and agency boundaries to ensure that families get the most appropriate level of support. Staff workloads are manageable and are monitored and managed closely. Managers and staff all have regular monthly supervision and you will be supported in your practice by an experienced management team.

We are currently operating a hybrid model of working, which includes office working and working from home. You will be provided with equipment including a laptop and smartphone to enable you to complete your role. We utilise smarter and flexible working policies to support staff to fulfil their roles within flexible circumstances.

A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.

For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our policy statement.

About You

Care Leaver and UASC Service (based centrally at County Hall) The Care Leaver and UASC service works with Care Leavers, 16+ homeless teenagers, and Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children. This service provides support and advice to children and young people throughout their time in care to enable them to make positive life choices. The teams are made up of senior practitioners and social workers as well as personal advisers and support workers.

To apply for this post, you must respond to and evidence the following 7 essential criteria within your personal statement. This should be no more than 1,000 words.

• Appropriate social work professional qualifications such as MA, DipSW CQSW or equivalent
• You will be an energetic and enthusiastic worker who demonstrates enthusiasm and passion for practice, with good understanding of supervision and performance management.
• You will have experience of working in statutory children's services and an in depth understanding of supporting young people to transition into adulthood.
• You will be able to evidence your skills and knowledge of creative, innovative and relationship-based social work, working in collaboration with families and professionals.
• We want people who will help us to build a real culture of reflection and learning.
• You have retained a strong interest in research and the evidence base for practice and are confident about how this can be used in practice
• Ideally you will already be confident in the application of the Signs of Safety methodology but certainly in the value of relationship-based social work.

By the Way A Few More Benefits of working in Leicestershire.

• Well-regarded employee counselling services
• Free car parking
• Cycle to work scheme
• Paid SW registration
• Lease car scheme
• Option to purchase of additional leave
• Discounts at high-street stores and supermarket shopping
• Special offers on leisure activities and gym memberships

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual\'s personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories on the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Louisa Kelly - Team Manager

Telephone: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.