Team Manager- First Response Assessments

ESPO Trading Limited; England; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A local governing authority in the United Kingdom is seeking an experienced Social Work Team Manager to lead the Assessment Team. This role focuses on safeguarding children and families, demanding strong leadership, statutory experience, and a passion for child-centered assessments. Candidates must hold a Social Work degree, have a solid understanding of relevant legislation, and be committed to making a real difference in the community. The position offers competitive salary, professional development opportunities, and a supportive work environment.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Professional development opportunities

Hybrid working options

Employee wellbeing services

Qualifications

• Proven track record in child protection and frontline practice.
• Ability to support, challenge, and develop a social work team.
• Experience in managing statutory child protection processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead a small team of social workers in the Assessment Team.
• Oversee quality assessments under Section 17 and Section 47.
• Drive service improvement and innovation.

Skills

SWE registration

Knowledge of Children Act

Risk management

Child-centered focus

Education

Social Work degree or equivalent

Job description

Team Manager- First Response Assessments

Job Description

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall Glenfield, LE3 8RA

Worker Category: Fixed Location Worker

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
• 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

Please refer to the 7 point criteria giving examples of how you meet the criteria below:

• 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 shareour 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.

This is more than a job – it’s your chance to shape the future of social work.

If you’re ready to take the next step in your career and lead with impact,we want to hear from you.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

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 To contact me by email, please click here

Helen Rhind – Team manager To contact me by email, please click here

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 .

Our aim is to work with communities and partners to deliver public services that make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone. Our employees play a key role in supporting this goal and helping us deliver the vital services we provide to the people of Leicestershire.

For further information on what it’s like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please refer to the following:

• Locations Leicestershire County Council, Glenfield, LE3 8RA, GB
• Apply Before 01/04/2026, 11:59 PM
• Assignment Category Permanent
• Worker Category LCC Fixed Location Worker