Team Manager- First Response Assessments

Nottingham City Council; England; On-site; GBP 49,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

A local authority is seeking a passionate Social Work Team Manager to lead its Assessment Team. This key leadership role requires a qualified social worker with strong ethical judgment and experience in child protection. You will inspire a team of social workers, manage risk, and ensure timely decisions that safeguard children and families. The position offers a competitive salary, opportunities for professional development, and a supportive work environment focused on high-quality child-centred assessments.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Generous annual leave

Flexible working options

Professional development opportunities

Qualifications

• SWE registration & right to work in the UK.
• Qualified social worker with extensive statutory experience in child protection.
• Ability to chair complex meetings and lead development work.

Responsibilities

• Lead a small team managing risk and ensuring safe decision-making.
• Inspire social workers through effective supervision and coaching.
• Oversee quality assessments under the Children Act.

Skills

Passion for delivering relationship-based practice

Strong leadership skills

Ability to balance risk and make decisions

Knowledge of safeguarding frameworks

Education

Social Work degree or equivalent

Evidence of continuing professional development

Job description

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall Glenfield, LE3 8RA

Worker Category: Fixed Location Worker

Salary: £49,221 - £53,826 per annum plus Market premium

Working Hours: 2 x 37 hrs & 1X 18.5hrs

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 4th January 2026

Interview Date(s): 13th January 2026

Are you ready to lead with purpose and make a real difference in children’s lives?

We’re looking for apassionate, confident, and experienced Social Work Team Managerto join our fast-pacedAssessment Team— the frontline of safeguarding and protection for children and families in our OUTSTANDING authority.

This is your chance to step into akey leadership rolewhere your decisions shape safer futures, drive excellent practice, and support a high-performing team of dedicated professionals.

About the Role

You're aqualified social workerwith a proven track record inchild protection and frontline practice, confident in your judgment and driven by a strongethical compass. You're ready to step into leadership—or build on existing management experience with the tools to support, challenge, and develop a team to be their very best.

What You’ll Bring:

• SWE registration & right to work in the UK
• Strong knowledge of theChildren Act, Working Together, and safeguarding frameworks
• The ability to balance risk, make decisions, and lead with clarity
• Passion for deliveringrelationship-based, trauma-informed practice
• A commitment toputting the child’s voice at the centre of everything you do

Why This Role? Why Now?

• Be at theheart of decision-makingthat protects vulnerable children and families at the earliest point of contact
• Lead a dynamic, skilled team of social workers committed tohigh-quality, child-centred assessments
• Bring your leadership to life in a local authority thatvalues innovation, learning, and outcomes.
• Work closely with partners to influencereal, positive change across services
• Thrive in a supportive environment that offersstructured supervision, strong leadership backing, and continuous development

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Leading the a small team of social workers in the Assessment Team, managing risk, and ensuring safe, timely decision-making. Our managers offer high support and high challenge to our social work colleagues so that we continually improve.
• Inspiring social workers througheffective supervision, coaching, and development
• Overseeing quality assessments under Section 17 and Section 47 of the Children Act
• The work is fast paced , focused on delivering against our key performance measures whilst maintaining our focus on the child. There is a specific focus on chairing strategy discussions to engage other partner agencies in the child protection process, taking a leadership role and developing joint action plans to safeguard our most vulnerable children. Therefore, collaborating across agencies to delivereffective multi-agency safeguarding responses
• You will be accountable for decision making and implementing safeguarding processes, endorsing assessment outcomes, and ensuring that children have the right support and protection at the right time.
• You will be part of a wider team manager peer group providing mutual support working to an established rota for duty and allocation of work. You will have the support of an experienced service manager with regular supervision embedded in a monthly cycle.
• Drivingservice improvement, innovation, and accountability across your team
• Making a difference—every single day

What We Offer:

• Acompetitive salaryand generous annual leave
• Excellentprofessional development opportunitiesand leadership programmes
• Flexible working optionsand a hybrid work culture
• Asupportive senior management teamwho listen and back you
• Access toemployee wellbeing services, peer networks, and more

A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.

For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our policy statement.

About You

• Social Work degree or equivalent, e.g. CQSW, DipSW (with specialism in children’s services), approved by Social Work England and evidence of continuing professional development.
• You will be a qualified social worker with extensive statutory experience focused on applying threshold and applying Child protection processes including public and private law, stepping into support and practice if needed.
• You will demonstrate your ability to support others including social workers, alternatively qualified staff and students and have experience of providing case work supervision
• You will have strong communication and leadership skills, able to confidently chair complex meetings and lead important pieces of development work
• You will demonstrate your ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, managing competing demands, meeting tight deadlines and keeping a focus on the child’s needs
• You will have experience of making decisions at an advanced level being accountable for recommended outcomes that safeguard children and you will have used performance data to drive your practice and the practice and throughput of others to not only meet key performance indicators, but ensure timely responses to children and young people where there are immediate and non-immediate safeguarding concerns
• You will understand the complexity of the statutory child protection processes as set out in legislation and statutory guidance and evidence how you have applied these in practice

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to,equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion,please contact:

Jo Searle - Service Manager – contact by email if you wish

Helen Rhind – Team manager – contact by email if you wish

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.org.uk/support.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.