Team Manager - Child Protection

Liquidpersonnel; Knowsley; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working arrangements

Hybrid working arrangements

Generous holiday entitlement

Disability Confident Employer

Local Government Pension Scheme

Progression and learning opportunities

Well-being support

Job summary

Knowsley Council is seeking an experienced Team Manager to lead the Children’s Services Child Protection team. A new funding programme increases teams from 4 to 8, with duty allocations every 8 weeks and seven weeks for assessment and planning.

You will provide professional leadership, supervise social workers and ensure timely, safe interventions for children at risk of significant harm, while working with education, health and police partners.

Qualifications

• Holding a Social Work England registration.
• Eligibility to work in the UK.
• Holding a full UK driving licence.
• Social Work qualification, degree or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of social workers within the Children’s Services Child Protection service.
• Provide effective professional leadership, supervision and support to social work staff.
• Ensure children at risk of significant harm receive timely, safe and effective intervention.
• Oversee child protection assessments, plans and statutory interventions in line with legislation, policy and best practice.
• Monitor the quality, timeliness and effectiveness of casework and decision-making.
• Chair and oversee key meetings, ensuring children’s voices, wishes and feelings remain central.
• Work closely with partner agencies, including education, health, police and other safeguarding professionals.
• Promote a strengths-based, child‑centred approach to safeguarding and improve outcomes for children and families.
• Ensure staff comply with relevant safeguarding legislation, procedures, standards and professional requirements.
• Manage performance, workloads, case allocation, staff development and professional standards within the team.
• Identify and address risks promptly, escalating concerns where appropriate.
• Contribute to service development, quality assurance, audits and continuous improvement across Children’s Services.
• Support a culture of reflective practice, learning and evidence-based decision‑making.
• Ensure effective communication with children, families, professionals and senior management.

Skills

Team management

Leadership

Supervision

Stakeholder collaboration

Education

Social Work England registration

UK work eligibility

Full UK driving licence

Social Work qualification or degree

Job description

Liquid Personnel are in partnership with Knowsley Council to recruit an experienced Team Manager to manage a Child Protection Team. They have recently secured permanent funding to increase their CP service from 4 to 8 teams. This means their teams are only on Duty once every 8 weeks, this is where cases are allocated and the team have 7 weeks to work through Assessment and Planning.

Are you an experienced manager? Do you want to make a difference to the lives of Children and Families through effective Social Care? Do you want to be part of a team that cares and will value your knowledge, experience and you as a person? Then Knowsley Children’s Services could be the place for you. Following their recent Ofsted inspection, Knowsley’s Children’s Social Care Services (CSC) department are on an improvement journey they would love you to be part of.

What will your responsibilities be?

• Lead and manage a team of social workers within the Children’s Services Child Protection service.
• Provide effective professional leadership, supervision and support to social work staff.
• Ensure children at risk of significant harm receive timely, safe and effective intervention.
• Oversee child protection assessments, plans and statutory interventions in line with legislation, policy and best practice.
• Monitor the quality, timeliness and effectiveness of casework and decision-making.
• Chair and oversee key meetings, ensuring children’s voices, wishes and feelings remain central.
• Work closely with partner agencies, including education, health, police and other safeguarding professionals.
• Promote a strengths-based, child‑centred approach to safeguarding and improve outcomes for children and families.
• Ensure staff comply with relevant safeguarding legislation, procedures, standards and professional requirements.
• Manage performance, workloads, case allocation, staff development and professional standards within the team.
• Identify and address risks promptly, escalating concerns where appropriate.
• Contribute to service development, quality assurance, audits and continuous improvement across Children’s Services.
• Support a culture of reflective practice, learning and evidence-based decision‑making.
• Ensure effective communication with children, families, professionals and senior management.

Benefits of working for Knowsley:

• Salaries will be increased and backdated from 1st April soon to reflect a 3.3% pay increase
• A friendly, supportive team who genuinely cares about their employees
• A smaller local authority in easy commuting distance from across the North West
• Free parking
• Quick interviews
• Flexible working, manageable caseloads and a vast array of employee benefits details of which can be found below

Additional Benefits:

• Knowsley are a Disability Confident Employer,meaning they offer Inclusive & accessible recruitment, offering an interview to disabled people, providing reasonable adjustments, & supporting existing employees.
• Flexible working, Hybrid working arrangements & family friendly initiatives;their flexible working scheme allows you to manage your hours & plan your life more easily. They will consider requests for flexible working. For most roles, the following types of flexibility are usually possible: flexible hours, working from home, compressed hours, part-time.
• Generous Holiday Entitlement:starting at 28 days leave with an option to buy additional 10 days leave
• Manageable Workloads- directors of their service work closely with the Heads of Service & Team Managers to ensure caseloads are manageable & you are supported.
• Differentiated sickness absencefor individuals living with a disability.
• Menopause policysupporting women in the workplace.
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Newly Developed Bespoke Four-Week Induction Programme
• High Quality IT Kitsupporting agile working arrangements
• Learning & Career Development:Knowsley offer a wide range of blended learning opportunities available to all employees, which will be relevant to your job & progression
• Supportive Practice Improvement Team- They have a team of experienced staff who build positive working relationships with staff to work alongside you to embed learning from audits or reviews.
• A range of Workers Groups,g., Black & Minority Workers' Group, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Forum, Neurodiverse Staff Support Group.
• Well-being Support:Knowsley want to improve the well-being of our employees both in & out of the workplace
• Apprenticeship Offer
• Secondment Opportunities
• MyTime- Monthly supervisions scheduled with you. This is your one-to-one time solely focused on your career development
• Reflective Supervision - 4 weekly
• Access to Signs of Safety Group Supervision
• Newly Developed Progression Pathway
• Learning at Work Week: A yearly celebration awards to recognise & celebrate individual practice across the council.
• Visible and accessible Leadership including Monthly Principal Social Worker (PSW) drop-in sessions
• Themed Practice Learning Week: Providing a range of bitesize learning opportunities.
• Cycle to Work Scheme:We are committed to greener transport solutions. Our scheme entitles you to significant discounts on the price of a new bike & safety equipment.
• bank holidays.
• Eye Tests:We provide all display screen users with a free eye test on request. We have a corporate eye care scheme which includes a contribution to the cost of glasses
• Childcare Vouchers
• Free Refreshments- Tea, Coffee and Milk
• Discounted Gym Membership
• Credit Union Membership
• VIVUP Discounts & SavingsThe program offers a staff discount scheme.

Qualifications and Experience:

To be successful in this role you must have;

• Hold a Social Work England registration.
• Be eligible to work in the UK.
• Hold a full UK driving licence.
• Social Work Qualification, degree or equivalent.

Reasonable Adjustments:

If you consider yourself to have a disability or require any reasonable adjustment during the recruitment process or within the workplace, please highlight this at the earliest opportunity by contacting our team. With this information, we will provide appropriate support to you throughout the process and into your work placement. We are unable to support or accept applications from candidates who are residents within the Red or Amber list of the Code of practice for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel in England, based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) Workforce Support and Safeguard List.