Qualified Children's Social Worker

We are hiring Children’s Social Workers

to join our Public Law team based in our Bournemouth office as well as our Pathfinder team based from our Dorset and Portsmouth office

Our Public Law teams are involved with cases where the local authority has serious concerns about the safety or welfare of a child, and the court requests for Cafcass to become involved in the case. The Cafcass Social Worker, often referred to as Children’s Guardians, is typically involved with the child across an extended period carrying out relevant assessments to understand their needs, wants and feelings, and effectively communicate this to the court through a combination of written reports and giving evidence.

Have you heard about Pathfinder?

It’s an innovative approach to improving family justice, supporting us to keep children at the heart of decisions.

At Cafcass, we’re committed to creating an environment where social workers can achieve exceptional outcomes for children, giving you the chance of a more fulfilling and effective way of working, that enables you to do your best work for children and families.

Make sure you check the vacancy documents for more details about the Pathfinder model (fact sheet).

• Conducting assessments and directly engaging with children to understand and represent their views and wishes to the court.
• Using expertise in robust risk assessment and mediation will be essential as you advocate for arrangements that prioritise the best interest of the children.

• Relevant Social Work qualification is essential
• You must be registered with Social Work England (Cafcass reimburses costs of this annual cost)
• You’ll have demonstrable, relevant experience of working with children and families in a social work setting,
• Experience in Family Court proceedings and understanding of Private and / or Public Law would be an advantage
• Organised and resilient with ability to work independently and managing workload effectively
• Strong report writing skills are essential. (Pathfinder)

Whilst you may see the roles have contractual base in our Portsmouth office and our Bournemouth office, our teams work flexibly and remotely, your proximity to the office doesn’t always have to be a critical consideration. This hopefully will allow you to work in a way that suits you best.

We provide the resources, equipment, and support, so that individually and collectively, we can be the voice of children and young people when the family court makes critical decisions about their futures.

We provide extensive wellbeing support for colleagues, as well as excellent benefits, all of which we hope encourages you to work within our dedicated team.

The advertised salary reflects our 2024 / 25 pay award. We are awaiting confirmation of our 2025 / 26 when salaries will be updated to reflect this.

Below we have given you an indication of a timetable we are hoping to work towards, although dates are subject to change.

Closing date: 08 December 2025

Telephone interviews :

w / c 08 December 2025

Final interview :

w / c 15 December 2025

In anticipation of your successful application, we encourage you to review our offer and pre-employment checks process. You are welcome to raise any questions or concerns about these checks during your application, with the assurance that this information will remain confidential.

Successful applicants will undergo various pre-engagement checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). In line with the DBS code of practice and our policy, if a criminal offence is declared, an individual assessment will be conducted. For further details regarding this assessment, please refer to the Cafcass DBS policy.

We look forward to receiving your application!