Social Worker (Progressed)

Newcastle City Council; Newcastle upon Tyne; Hybrid; GBP 32,000 - 42,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free parking

Excellent transport links

Pool car scheme

Job summary

Newcastle City Council is recruiting a Progressed Social Worker to join the Children & Families Newcastle Connect Team. You will analyse safeguarding concerns at referral, coordinate information from multiple agencies, and make timely evidence-based risk decisions in a busy multi-agency setting.

You’ll work within the Families First framework to provide early, relational and restorative support, aiming to improve outcomes for children and families across the city while building strong

Job description

This is your moment. Shape the Future. Feel Supported. Belong in Newcastle.

Newcastle is more than a workplace - it’s a community. A vibrant, multicultural city where creativity, kindness, and resilience run deep. From the Quayside to Jesmond Dene, from Ouseburn’s indie cafés to our world class universities, this is a city that welcomes you and your ideas with open arms.

About the Role

We are recruiting a Progressed Social Worker to work within our Childrens and Families Connect Team where children are first referred into our service. We are looking for someone who can bring their expertise, confidence and curiosity to the frontline, and make a real impact every day. You’ll take the lead on meaningful work, collaborating closely with partners to make decisions in terms of how best to help and support families as well as ensuring any safeguarding concerns are appropriately responded to.

As part of our Families First approach, you’ll help drive working with families at the right time in a way that's relational and champions restorative practice which will strengthen families and improves outcomes across the whole system, quality, integrated support. As part of our Families First approach, you’ll help drive earlier, relational and restorative practice that strengthens families and improves outcomes across the whole system, quality, integrated support.

Our Children and Families Newcastle Connect Team

We are looking for a Progressed Social Worker to work within our CFN Connect Team where children are first referred into our service. You will need to have excellent organisational skills, have extensive knowledge, understanding and application of threshold, a sound understanding of relevant legislation and statutory guidance including Children Act 1989 and 2004, as well as local procedures.

You will be responsible for analysing safeguarding concerns at the point of referral, coordinating information from multiple agencies, and making timely, evidence-based decisions about risk. You must be able to work at pace within a Multi-agency team where you will be committed to providing the best outcomes for the children in our city.

Our Family Help Service

The ambition for Family Help in Newcastle is for families to receive the right support at the right time and at the first time from the right people. The level of support can vary depending on the needs of the family. Family Help is underpinned by relational practice. In Newcastle, we have established a Family Help Service which provides a seamless service throughout the targeted Early Help and Child in Need spectrum.

Within Family Help there is a range of skills and experience delivered by Family Help Keyworkers and Social Workers which encompasses our Family Help Lead Practitioners. Support is also provided by Family Support Workers who can deliver specific help to families.

Family Help in Newcastle is locality-based, meaning that professional relationships are established to support families and encompasses 8 locality-based Family Help Teams. Family Help Lead Practitioners within the Family Help Service come from a variety of disciplines who lead and coordinate support for families.

Family Help Lead Practitioners will work with families to build strong relationships based on respect and work in a strengths-based way, recognising that families, and family networks, will often have solutions to their own challenges.

Why Newcastle, Why Now

We’re not just a local authority. We’re a city with ambition, heart, and a bold vision for children. At Children & Families Newcastle, we’re building something special: a service rooted in relationships, restorative practice, and real impact.

We’ve been judged Good with Outstanding areas by Ofsted — and we’re not stopping there. We’re working towards becoming a UNICEF Child Friendly City and a Marmot City, tackling inequality and putting children at the centre of everything we do.

Families First: Transforming How We Support Children and Families

Families First is at the heart of our transformation in Newcastle. It’s a whole system shift designed to give children and families the right help at the right time and to make our practice more meaningful, relational, and effective. Through earlier intervention and prevention, our new Family Help teams step in at the right time, when families need support, helping them work through challenges they face. We’re breaking down traditional silos by bringing local authority services together with police, health, and education partners to create a single, seamless system of support.

Families are placed firmly in the lead through Family Led Decision Making now embedded as standard practice, ensuring their voices shape the decisions that matter most. We’re strengthening support networks so more children can remain safely at home, including increased support for kinship carers. Instead of “stop/start” involvement, families will experience consistent, long‑term relationships with one Lead Practitioner walking alongside them throughout their journey. And when significant harm is present, our new multidisciplinary child protection teams provide expert, decisive intervention. Families First is about doing what works, earlier, together, and with families at the centre.

A Culture Where You Can Thrive

Our values are simple but powerful: Be safe. Be heard. Be innovative. Be supported.

We want Newcastle to be a place where people enjoy coming to work, where you feel able to talk openly when things are difficult, where your ideas matter, and where you’re encouraged to grow. We invest in our people because we want them to stay, progress, and build long‑term careers with us.

Our leadership team is visible, approachable, and deeply connected to the realities of frontline practice. They understand the pressures, celebrate the successes, and stand alongside you when challenges arise.

Flexibility That Works for Real Life

We know that great social work happens when people have balance, space, and trust. That’s why we offer:

• While many employers are pushing for a return to the office, we continue to recognise the value of working from home. Which means hybrid working that genuinely works - not just in name, meaning the freedom to avoid the rush hour or do the school run.
• The ability to carry over up to one week’s worth of flexi with an allowance of two days a month to take off.
• A culture that recognises you’re a whole person, not just an employee.
• A Connected, Supportive Workplace

Our teams are based in our locality bases in the heart of our communities and at Partnership House, a modern, collaborative space designed to support meaningful relationships and team connection.

You’ll also benefit from:

• Free parking
• Excellent transport links. Regent Centre Metro is a 5minute walk from the office, and it’s only 13 minutes into the city centre for after work plans.
• Pool car scheme
• NHS car fleet scheme Benefits

Benefits That Make a Real Difference

We want you to feel valued, not just in your work, but in your everyday life. Through our benefits package, you’ll have access to:

Vivup discounts, including savings at major supermarkets including:

• 5% off B&Q
• £12.50 spa days at the Crowne Plaza
• Discounted gym memberships
• 10% off Mr Mulligans

A wide range of wellbeing, lifestyle, and financial support offers It’s all part of creating a workplace where you feel appreciated, supported, and part of something bigger.

A Community That Welcomes You

Newcastle is a city full of energy, warmth, and opportunity. A place where people look out for each other. A place where you can build a career, make a difference, and feel like you belong.

Grow your practice. Make a difference. Thrive in Newcastle.

This isn’t just another job. This is Newcastle.

Our Commitment

Newcastle City Council is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and to building services that reflect, value and respond to our communities.

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, and particularly from individuals whose identities or experiences are currently underrepresented in our workforce.

We recognise that this role involves sensitive and sometimes emotionally demanding work relating to racism and inequity. You will be supported through reflective spaces, supervision and team-based support tailored to your needs

Your Next Step

Interested in a career with Newcastle City Council?

If you’re committed, and ready to take the next step in your career, this is your moment.

For an informal conversation about the role please contact [e-mail]

We are committed to protecting and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expect all staff to share this commitment. This post is working in regulated activity. If you are successful we will undertake additional recruitment checks which will include a check to see if you have had any criminal convictions, a check of police information and we will check the barred list(s). It is a criminal offence for a barred individual to apply for a job in regulated activity.