Senior Practitioner – Children in Care – North Essex

Essex County Council; Tendring; On-site; GBP 48,000 - 58,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working options

Job summary

Essex County Council in North Essex is seeking a Senior Practitioner – Children in Care to join the Clacton-on-Sea team. This permanent, full-time role offers a salary of £48,205 to £57,988 per annum and requires leadership, mentoring and expert guidance in complex cases.

You will mentor colleagues, lead practice development, and work with partners to secure positive outcomes for children in care.

Qualifications

• Social work with children in care experience strongly preferred.
• IT/word processing skills essential.
• Experience supporting social workers in court and meetings is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Manage complex cases and seek supervision as required.
• Provide professional guidance and feedback to the team.
• Maintain up-to-date case records and prepare reports and court submissions.
• Represent ECC in court proceedings.
• Participate in quality assurance, audits and reviews.
• Critically appraise practice and contribute to forums.
• Keep up-to-date with legislation affecting children in care.
• Support staff development and training.
• Act as expert advisor to schools and families as needed.
• Chair strategy meetings and placement team meetings as required.
• Attend team meetings and deputise for the Team Manager.
• Undertake occasional evening or weekend duties.

Skills

IT / Word Processing

Court work support

Child protection knowledge

Mentoring / supervision

Education

Diploma or degree in social work or equivalent

Job description

Senior Practitioner – Children in Care – North Essex

Permanent, Full Time

About The Role

Senior Practitioner – Children in Care – North Essex

Permanent, Full Time

£48,205 to £57,988 Per Annum

Location: Clacton on Sea

Working Style: Community-based worker

Closing Date: 4th October 2026

Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK, serving a population of 2 million residents, and has a very successful track record of delivering transformational change. ECC anticipated change was needed in the public sector and has worked to deliver better quality at lower cost. We have an ambitious transformation agenda – one with the scope to reach every part of the council. We are changing the way we think, the way we work, and the ways in which we deliver our services. We are committed to becoming a place where individuals, partners and communities feel proud to play their role and genuinely want to belong. We're immensely proud of our flexible working options.

The Team

Children in Care teams work with children and young people up to the age of 18 who are in care – they're unable to live at home and are either placed with foster carers or live in residential homes. They work with children and young people to ensure their experiences in care is a good one and that the work undertaken prepares them for their transition into leaving care or return home to family. The CIC Teams receive cases in proceedings after the first hearing, they visit children and young people in placement, develop permanency plans which include SGO and adoption, undertake life-story work to enable a child to understand the reasons for being in care and also support children to return home to birth family. The teams are all committed to high quality work and engagement with all children in care to maximise young people’s potential. Like many other areas across Essex, they believe in working collaboratively with agencies including Health and Education to ensure that care plans support the outcomes for the child.

To read more about our business area, please visit: Children & Families

Please take a look at our 'No Magic' Children & Families video

The Role

The Senior Practitioner role provides leadership in the team, providing both support and mentoring to newly qualified or less experienced staff and deputising for the Team Manager when needed. They will support less experienced social workers at court, panel attendance and complex meetings and will have responsibility to lead in a practice area. There will be good opportunities for their own professional development and for being part of developing our team and service. There is an ethos of openness to the development of new ideas, particularly to reinforce our relationship based focus, both with our service users and within the staff group.

Job Purpose

The successful candidate will be expected to bring skill and high standards of social work to their own caseload as well as providing modelling, advice and support to colleagues. They will be committed to systemic, relationship based social work, providing effective, innovative interventions and with the ability to build good partnerships, both with our external partners and within the organisation.

Key Accountabilities

• Responsible for complex cases, seeking management support and accessing supervision as required.
• Responsible for providing professional guidance to colleagues and support and feedback to the team manager.
• To maintain an up to date record of activity on case files, produce reports, attend court and give verbal presentations as required. To participate actively in case discussions, legal case discussions, Child Protection conferences, Statutory Reviews, etc.
• Represent ECC in court proceedings
• Participate in quality assurance processes, for example undertaking case file audits and diagnostic exercises.
• Critically appraise the quality of own/others practice and challenge this within identified forums.
• To maintain a current and active interest and knowledge in legislation and policy changes, research findings and practice developments, from a wide field, as are relevant to the development of interventions and support to service users.
• Responsible for own professional development including training and other development opportunities.
• To act as a source of expert advice and consultation for staff within Schools, Children & Families, on professional issues relating to children in care proceedings and assessments of risk to the child or young person affected.
• Chair strategy meetings and team around the placement/child meetings
• Participating in and/or chairing team meetings and deputising for the Team Manager in the day-to-day running and informal supervision of the team when necessary.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade that may, from time to time, be required.
• To undertake occasional evening work and be available for very occasional weekend activities as required by the Schools, Children & Families Directorate.

Skills And Knowledge

• Diploma or degree in social work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent and registration with Social Work England as a registered Social Worker.
• Qualified Practice Educator or the willingness to train as a Practice Educator
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• IT/Word Processing Skills
• Evidence of recent practice at an experienced social worker level, supported by comprehensive working knowledge and experience within the field of practice in Children Services
• Preferably with experience of Child Protection work including section 47 investigations and assessments since the implementation of the Children's Act 1989. Considerable, recent experience of communicating with children of all ages and working in partnership with parents and/or carers.
• Experience in planning activities and programmes for children, young people and parents. Experience of Court work in relation to Child Care matters and have an understanding of the legal process.
• Detailed knowledge of current legislation pertinent to Children in Care and Child Protection (e.g. CA1989, CJA1991), Guidance and Regulations.
• Knowledge and understanding of child development, relating theory and practice.

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we're committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We're committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We're also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you've secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car is essential.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email [e-mail]

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