Team Manager - Duty and Assessment

Bradford Children and Families Trust; Long Lee; On-site; GBP 51,000 - 54,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Retention payment

Annual leave 31 days + holidays

LG Pension

Parental leave

Health & wellbeing support

Professional development

National Living Wage employer

Job summary

Bradford Children and Families Trust invites applications for a permanent Social Worker Team Manager based in Keighley & Shipley. Lead a team of social workers and a community resource worker to drive outcomes for children, young people and families in Bradford, with strong safeguarding oversight and collaborative partnership work.

You will oversee reflective supervision, staff development, and performance management, ensuring high-quality practice within a restorative, relational culture

Qualifications

• Hold a DipSW or equivalent qualification and be registered with Social Work England as a qualified social worker.
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills with a track record of managing social work teams.
• Experience delivering quality outcomes for children and families, and working within safeguarding frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of social workers and community resource workers to deliver outcomes for Bradford's children and families.
• Provide reflective supervision and support progression while addressing performance issues.
• Chair multi-agency meetings and lead change within the team to safeguard children.

Skills

Leadership

Interpersonal skills

Team management

Change management

Reflective supervision

Education

DipSW or equivalent qualification

Job description

Salary: PO6, SCP 40-43, £51,356 - £54,495 per annum, 37 hours per weekBradford Children and Families Trust are looking for an experienced, innovative and dedicated social work practitioner to drive our services forward and to ensure that our promise to improve the lives of Children and Young People in Bradford becomes a reality.You will have a passion and drive to ensure children are at the heart of all we do. You will practice within a relational and restorative culture of continuous learning and reflective practice that inspires staff to give their best in their roles. If you’re up for the challenge and want to help us achieve our vision, then we’d love to hear from you!We are looking to recruit to a permanent Social Worker Team Manager in the Keighley & Shipley area of the district which is based at Keighley Town Hall.

About Us

Bradford Children and Families Trust was established in April 2023 to bring an improvement in the quality and delivery of Children’s Services across our district.Our purpose is clear - to ensure that our promise to improve the lives of children and young people in Bradford becomes a reality. It’s a tough ask. It requires dedication, determination, and resilience – but under our Chief Executive, Senior Leadership team and an unswerving drive to deliver the best outcomes, we are confident that we will achieve our ambition. Ofsted undertook an inspection of our children’s services in 2026 and found that there have been significant improvements since the last inspection in Bradford and following the forming of the Trust. This means that the children and families we come in to contact with are having a better experience with the right support being offered at the right time. We are not sitting on our laurels and know that there is still a lot of work to do but there is a solid commitment to getting this right. The recent Ofsted inspection identified improvements to our practice and we are looking to build on this over the coming months.

Working for the Bradford Children and Families Trust offers the opportunity to work with some great people who are passionate about delivering change in a city whose culture offers as much diversity as it’s geography. We cannot do this alone and have strong, collaborative working relationships with our partners. You can make a real difference to families and children and be an active part in delivering the service Bradford families should receive. Our workforce is unwavering in their pursuit to give the best possible services to those who need support.

We have invested in our services to ensure that we are the best we can be.We have and continue to invest in our Early Help services so that we are reaching as many people as possible who needsupport to prevent things escalating into statutory services; this includes the development of a Family Help Team who offer intensivesupport to families.Families are the experts in their own lives and we need to listen to what they have to say; to that end, we have also invested in our voice and participation service tosupport children and families to have a voice in what happens next and our aspiration is that all our development is co-produced with those who need oursupport in their lives.We are striving to ensure that we are a restorative and relational organisation and have been working with Leeds Relational Practice Centre for over 12 months, they will continue to work with us for the next 12 months, working with our leaders, managers and workforce so that we all have ashared understanding of what this means for children and families. We have invested in conferences and workshops led by Mark Finnis who is a renowned expert in this field.Our ASYE academy is well established, and we have a high number of applicants who want to have the dedicated support the academy offers during the full 1 months of the ASYE programme; those who have gone through the academy have felt supported through dedicated practice educators, the learning and development offer and the experience of those delivering. We are committed to the ongoing development of all our workforce.

About the Role

You’ll know how to keep everyone in your team energised and focused on doing the right thing for the children of Bradford. Managing a team of professional Social Workers and Community Resource Workers, you’ll help us achieve our aim of delivering outcomes for the children, young people, and families of Bradford. It’s about showing strong leadership, driving continuous improvement, and putting the needs of children first, always. Here in Bradford, welead from the front, and we know our most valuable resource is our staff, helping us to meet the needs of our communities.We have built a strong culture of listening to our staff and involving them to ensure everychild receives the right help.Bradford is a great place to build your career.You’ll receive an extensive training andsupport package that will help you develop as a professional, a manageable caseload that will enable you to make a difference and the backing of asupportive leadership team.

Key Responsibilities

• Managing a team of social workers of differing levels, a practice supervisor and a community resource worker
• Supporting social workers to help andsupport families while managing and reducing risk
• Offering reflective supervision to workers, bothchild focused and personal
• Supporting progression of your workers and tackling performance issues when needed.
• Performance monitoring of your team through audit activity, reflective group supervision and quality assurance activity.Undertake audit activity and disseminate identified learning.
• Undertake practice development projects with those who use our services, colleagues, and stakeholders.
• Attendance at relevant partner agency meetings and service manager meetings.
• Implementing andsupporting change within the team and offering asupportive and nurturing leadership style
• Chairing multi-agency meetings and making decisions linked to a thorough understanding of safeguarding thresholds.

About You

• Hold a DIPSW or equivalent qualification and are registered with the Social Work England as a qualified social worker, with at least four years post qualifying experience.
• Be registered with Social Work England as a qualified Social WorkerStronginterpersonal skills.
• Experienced and expert in managing the delivery of quality outcomes for children and young people. An ability to build strong relationships with children, their families, colleagues and partner agencies.
• Passionate about the development of others
• Embrace change and strive for excellent practice placing children and young people at the heart ofdecision making; you have experience of tackling the most complex needs withenthusiasm, drive, and determination.
• An experience and understanding of relevant statutory and legal requirements to safeguard children and young people

Benefits

• Retention Payment: You will be eligible for our annual retention payment, paid in 12 monthly instalments. This is non contractual (reviewed annually)
• Generous annual leave - 31 days rising to 34 with service, plus bank holidays
• Excellent Local Government pension
• Family-friendly policies and enhanced parental leave
• Health & wellbeing support, including Occupational Health and counselling
• Professional development and career progression opportunities
• we are a National Living Wage employer

Bradford Children and Families Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all employees to share this commitment.If shortlisted, you will be required to disclose relevant information regarding criminal history prior to interview.A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check including a check against the Children’s barred list, will be carried out on preferred candidates.

Want to Know More

If you would like to know more about the role, the recruitment process or working for Bradford Children and Families Trust feel free to contact Sarah Thomas Head of Service at [e-mail] Date: Monday 28th September 2026Interviews: Tuesday 6th October 2026