Senior Practitioner - Family Support and Protection, South

Senior Practitioner - Family Support and Protection, South Essex Permanent, Full Time
* 48,205 to 57,988 per annum

Location:

Basildon Working Style:
Community-based worker

Closing Date: 25th October 2026
* Essex County Council understand how important flexibility and wellbeing is for our colleagues working across children's Social Care and that we need to think differently. We have therefore developed a nine-day working fortnight for full time frontline Social Workers within Children’s services. If you would like more information on this, please follow this link .The Opportunity Children and Families is recognised as a service in which social work can develop and prosper, with a culture of collaboration, integrity and compassion;

promoting development and wellbeing of children, young people and their families; protecting them from neglect and abuse. Working together with partners delivering a range of early help, family support and effective social work interventions which build resilience, remove barriers and enable children and young people to look forward to a brighter future.

The Senior Practitioner manages a complex caseload and provides expert supervision and coaching for colleagues, to achieve positive change for children, young people and families. The role deputises for the Team Manager, leading the team and management of duty services.

The role requires an experienced social work practitioner, able to manage higher levels of risk, mentor and advise staff, manage performance and deliver improvements. Building strong working relationships with key partners and stakeholders is essential.

There is ‘No Magic’ to it,  to see why.

Family Support & Protection (FS&P)
Family Support and Protection work with families that have long-term complex issues. We’re talking about where there’s a need for more than three months’ intervention, and where children are subject to child protection or child-in-need plans, or where children can no longer live at home and care proceedings need to be initiated.

Accountabilities Responsible for providing a source of expert advice and professional supervision for social workers and contributing to the development of practice standards.

Accountable for assessment of complex social care needs and development of support for vulnerable people, children and families.

Accountable for working within the statutory legal framework, policy and guidance and determining when the threshold for statutory intervention has been reached.

Responsible for managing a complex caseload, maintaining accurate and timely data, reports and presentations as required.

Participates in a range of case conferences, court attendance, meetings and statutory reviews, pro-actively taking the lead when a social care perspective is required.

Accountable for conducting assessments and plan responses to safeguard and promote a child’s welfare including appropriate intervention as determined by need.

Builds strong effective working relationships across the Council, with partners and members of voluntary agencies to help people get the best start in life and age well.

Delivers a high level of expertise in particular areas of practice and leads on those areas, contributing to the development.

Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework

The Experience You Will BringA recognised social work qualification i.e. Diploma, degree or Masters in social work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent, with current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a registered social worker.

Evidence of continuing professional development, aligned to any relevant Professional Competency/Capability frameworks or Knowledge and Skills Statements.

Signific…