Social Worker - Stronger Families

North East Ambition; Middlesbrough; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading organization in Middlesbrough seeks a Social Worker for its Stronger Families team. This role is focused on supporting vulnerable families, helping to strengthen relationships, and preventing escalation into more serious interventions. Candidates are expected to demonstrate autonomy, teamwork, and a strong commitment to the well-being of children and families. The position offers generous benefits, ongoing training, and a supportive work environment committed to professional development.

Benefits

Generous leave entitlement

Excellent pension plus top-up options

Staff networks run by our staff

Flexible working options

Electric car lease scheme

Cycle to work scheme

Employee benefits portal

Ongoing training and development opportunities

Fantastic career progression opportunities

Qualifications

• Comprehensive knowledge and skills for a varied and complex caseload.
• Commitment to working with vulnerable children and their families.
• Ability to manage caseload autonomously.

Responsibilities

• Work with vulnerable children and their families using a whole family approach.
• Prevent escalation to statutory services and improve outcomes for children.
• Support and manage your own caseload with consultations as needed.

Skills

Communication

Teamwork

Resilience

Autonomy

Job description

We have an exciting role on offer within our Stronger Families team as a Social Worker.

About Us

This role is a rewarding one that requires you to work with vulnerable children and their families through a whole family approach, strengthening relationships and to increase family resilience. You will provide help and support at the earliest opportunity, to prevent escalation to statutory services and improve outcomes for children.

To help us recruit social workers who are committed to working in Middlesbrough we are currently offering a 15% supplement to social work salaries. This additional 15% will be reviewed at the end of March 2027.

A comprehensive knowledge and skill-base to a varied and complex caseload is needed to be successful in this role. Are you driven and ambitious, both for yourself and for the children and families you work with and have the confidence to work autonomously? If so, we want to hear from you!

As an enthusiastic team player, you will need to use your initiative and champion improvements in practice. The ability to develop strong relationships with school colleagues and other safeguarding partner agencies is also a must for this role. Your role will be to support our most vulnerable children and families that may be at threshold of Level 4 interventions or have a significant history of statutory interventions.

The post will be to prevent escalation of need and to support the wider service around assessment and safety planning. This will involve being able to manage your own caseload as well as additional consultation with Team Managers and Family Practitioners around presenting concerns.

This may require supporting Family Practitioners with home visits/ multi agency meetings and risk assessment/safety planning and to assist in decision making around threshold. At Middlesbrough we truly live our values and are looking for people who share our vision; that by putting children and relationships at the centre of everything we do, by offering the right service at the right time, we will show Middlesbrough Children they really Matter and achieve the best outcomes for them. Staff are at the heart of all we do, we want to support you to be excellent by providing a vast range of training and professional opportunities, career progression all overseen by our Centre for Practice Excellence, who have embedded a culture of learning and opportunity.

To give you the best start to your new role with us you will have a 4-week protected induction, giving you time to really get to know us, processes, systems and services. Doing the right thing for a child is just as important as doing things right. Going the extra mile for a child makes a difference in their lives. Making relationships and working with strengths supports us to increase safety and reduce risk. If you are passionate about these statements, Middlesbrough is the right place for you.

If this is you, this may be the opportunity you are looking for!

In return we can offer:

• Generous leave entitlement with an option to purchase up to 10 additional days annual leave per year.
• Excellent pension plus top-up options.
• Staff networks run by our staff for our staff.
• Flexible working (dependent on job role).
• Electric car lease scheme.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Employee benefits portal including Wellbeing and Employee Assistance Programme.
• Staff lottery.
• Travel and car parking schemes.
• Ongoing training and development opportunities.
• Fantastic career progression opportunities and lots more!

If you would like to talk through this opportunity further, please contact Claire Bickerstaff, Team Manager for Prevention and Early Help, Children’s Social Care. [e-mail]

The above post is subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Please note Middlesbrough Council do not currently offer sponsorships.

We operative a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for applicants that can show they meet all the essential criteria and have indicated they have a disability, are a looked after young person, care leaver or a veteran.