Consultant Social Worker – Frontline

Are you an experienced children and families social worker keen to help develop the next generation of social workers in Durham?
Are you passionate about working with vulnerable teenagers across County Durham?

We are expanding our very successful partnership with Frontline, by creating a new hub in our Adolescent Safeguarding and Exploitation Team (ASET) team. Our ASET team support young people who are at risk of, or experiencing, harm outside of the family home, including child exploitation, mental health, radicalisation and homelessness. This is an incredible opportunity to join us in a new post which has been added to our growing team.

Your first cohort of trainees will start in September 2026, so you will have plenty of time to get ready.

As a Consultant Social Worker you will hold a protected caseload and will have responsibility for a hub of typically five trainees, who you will support, manage and develop as they train to be social workers on the Approach Social Work programme. Your trainees will learn through observing your practice and gradually taking on more responsibility for working with the families you support.

You will assess them throughout their first year on the programme and recommend if they should qualify as social workers at the end of the year. You don't need to already be a practice educator. You can work towards achieving stage two of the Practice Educator Professional Standards during your training.

To develop your practice you will participate in Frontline’s very high quality Consultant Social Worker Leadership Development Programme, delivered by top practice experts and systemic trainers.

You will be joining us at a fantastic time. Inspectors have judged our Children's Services as outstanding. You can read the full report here.

We are passionate about social work in County Durham. We are committed to providing a culture where good practice can flourish.

We will ensure you are highly supported. You will benefit from high quality professional supervision, a great induction, and access to our strong learning and development offer alongside the fantastic offer from Frontline.

You can find out more about social work in Durham here.

You will need to be:

• an experieced child and family social worker who is keen to nurture future social workers.
• Passionate about working with vulnerable teenagers across County Durham

Please refer to the attached Person Specification for the full criteria.

If successful, you will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure.

Durham County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore if successful in your application, an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be sought inclusive of a check of the Children's Barred List and Adults Barred List, due to the position working in regulated activity.

Applicants should be aware that the DBS check will disclose both spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings, in line with current legislation and will confirm whether an individual is barred from working with children, adults, or both.

We encourage you to contact Joanne Ormston Relationship and Development Manager at Frontline so that you understand the role well. You can contact Joanne by e-mail at joanne

There is lots of really useful information about the Frontline programme and the role of the Consultant Social Worker at

For information about the ASET team contact Sue Thornton, Team Manager by e-mail at

We offer a competitive rewards package that includes attractive salaries, a generous annual leave entitlement of 27 days (rising to 32 after five years' continuous local government service), membership of the excellent contributory career average Local Government Pension Scheme, and a range of flexible working arrangements including hybrid working (home and office)…