Team Manager - North Pod 3

Luton Borough; Luton; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 59,000; Full time

Job summary

Luton Council is seeking a Family Help Team Manager to lead a multi-disciplinary team delivering joined-up early-help and child-in-need services to keep children safe at home. You’ll coordinate social workers, CAMHS clinicians, housing officers and others in Bedfordshire, with a focus on high-quality safeguarding and collaborative outcomes.

You will drive practice quality, supervise practitioners, manage budgets and partner across agencies to improve outcomes for families.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in children’s social care, including early help and statutory work.
• Ability to manage, motivate and develop multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong decision-making skills in safeguarding and complex casework.
• Experience supervising, coaching and quality assurance to support high standards.
• Excellent written and spoken communication; ability to represent the service.
• Experience managing budgets and deploying resources effectively.
• In-depth knowledge of relevant legislation, guidance and best practice in children’s services.

Responsibilities

• Inspire and lead a diverse team of specialists with high support and high challenge.
• Oversee early-help and child-in-need cases with safeguarding decision-making.
• Drive practice quality through evidence-based interventions and QA indicators.
• Forge partnerships with schools, health, police and voluntary sectors for seamless service.
• Manage resources, budgets and deployed services for maximum impact.
• Coach and develop practitioners to sustain high-quality social work.

Skills

Significant experience

Lead multidisciplinary teams

Decision making

Supervision & QA

Communication

Budget management

Legislation knowledge

Education

DipSW/CQSW or equivalent

Job description

The following content displays a map of the jobs location - Bedfordshire

£55,224 - £58,552 a year plus £3,203 car cash and £5,000 market supplement allowance

Working Hours:

37

Location:

Bedfordshire

Closing Date:

16/09/2026

Job Category:

Family Help

Directorate:

Children, Families and Education Services

Business Unit:

Job Introduction

Salary: £55,224 - £58,552 a year plus £3,203 car cash and £5,000 market supplement allowance
Hours: 37 per week
Contract type: Permanent

Please note this role does not attract sponsorship.

What You’ll be doing

Make a difference that lasts – lead a truly multi-disciplinary team

We’re building a bold new Family Help model that wraps the right professionals around families at the right time. As our Family Help Team Manager you will coordinate social workers, psychologists, PCSO’s, CAMHS clinicians, housing officers, youth workers and many others to deliver joined-up early-help and child-in-need services that keep children safe and thriving in their own homes and communities.

What you’ll be doing

• Inspire and lead a diverse team of specialists, embedding a culture of high support and high challenge.
• Hold strategic oversight of all early-help and child-in-need cases, making decisive safeguarding judgements – including initiating Care Proceedings where necessary.
• Drive practice quality – champion evidence-based interventions, run reflective supervision, and track impact through robust QA and performance indicators.
• Forge strong partnerships with schools, health, police, voluntary and community sectors so families experience one seamless service.
• Manage resources wisely – set priorities, control a devolved budget and deploy staff and commissioned services for maximum impact.
• Promote continuous learning – coach, mentor and develop practitioners so that excellent social work flourishes across the service.

What we’re looking for

You’re an experienced and confident social care professional with a strong background in Family Help, Safeguarding, and Child Protection. You lead with purpose, make sound decisions in complex situations, and are passionate about delivering high-quality services for children and families.

You’ll bring:

• Significant experiencein children’s social care, including early help and statutory work.
• A proven ability to manage, motivate and develop multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong decision-making skills, particularly in safeguarding and complex casework.
• A track record of supporting high standards through supervision, coaching, and quality assurance.
• Excellent communication skills – able to write clear reports and represent the service at all levels.
• Experience managing budgets and deploying resources effectively.
• In-depth knowledge of relevant legislation, guidance, and bestpractice in children’sservices.
• A collaborative approach, with experience working across agencies to achieve better outcomes.
• Social work qualification (DipSW, CQSW or equivalent) and Registered with Social Work England

About us

Luton Council has been selected to deliver the government’s Families First for Children Pathfinder programme.

Luton is one of seven new areas in the second wave to be chosen with the aim of protecting vulnerable children from harm and improving services to help more children stay with their families in safe and loving homes.

The programme is an amazing opportunity for Luton to shape future social care practice, which includes closer working relationships with our health, police, education and voluntary sector partners.

Children are at the heart of everything we do in Luton, and we are very proud of the tremendous work that is already taking place together with our partners, including the development of our Family Hubs and working towards making Luton a child-friendly town where our children and young people can grow up feeling happy, healthy and secure.

Our ambitious Luton 2040 Vision – that no-one in Luton will have to live in poverty – is at the heart of everything we do. We recognise that our people are remarkable, talented, committed and passionate about serving our residents.

The people of Luton depend heavily on this council – and that means our workforce! Are you ready to realise the remarkable and help us deliver our vision?

Application Process

Because of the nature of this job, it will be necessary for the appropriate level of criminal record disclosure to be undertaken. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare all unspent cautions and convictions; and also any adult cautions (simple or conditional), and spent convictions that are not protected as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020). A person’s criminal record will not in itself prevent a person from being appointed to this post. Applicants will not be refused posts because of offences which are not relevant to, and do not place them at or make them a risk in, the role for which they are applying. However in the event of the employment being taken up, any failure to disclose such offence, as detailed above, will result in dismissal or disciplinary action by the Authority.

Applicants for this public-facing post will need to demonstrate the ability to converse, and provide effective help or advice, fluently in spoken English

On occasions, we may close a vacancy early due to a very high number of applications being received.