Return Worker

• Suffolk County Council
• Address: Landmark House, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 5PB
  , Community and onsite
• Salary: £35,570 per annum, (pro rata if part time)
• Hours: 37 hours per week, flexible working options available
• Contract: Permanent

Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Suffolk County Council
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We're looking for a compassionate and motivated Return Home Interview Worker to join our Integrated Front Door. If you're passionate about hearing young people's voices and making a real difference following missing episodes, we'd love to hear from you.

This is a unique and important role where you'll work directly with children and young people following missing episodes, helping them feel heard, understood and supported.

On a day-to-day basis, you'll build trusted relationships with young people, exploring their experiences and identifying risks, vulnerabilities and opportunities for support. Your work will directly inform safeguarding decisions and help shape better outcomes.

This role is county wide with an office base in Ipswich. The expectation is that staff are office-based aside from arranged visits.

You will:

• Undertake timely Return Home Interviews, ensuring the child's voice and experience are central
• Identify risk, vulnerability and protective factors to inform safeguarding responses
• Work closely with the Integrated Front Door to inform decision-making and planning
• Support identification and disruption of exploitation and contextual risks
• Build trusting, respectful relationships to encourage engagement and disclosure
• Share insight with partners to strengthen multi-agency safeguarding responses
• Use learning from interviews to identify themes, patterns and emerging risks.

You'll play a vital role in helping us understand why children go missing and how we can better protect and support them.

We're looking for someone who is passionate about working with children and young people and confident managing risk and safeguarding concerns.

Our ideal candidate will bring:

• A Level 5 qualification (or equivalent experience) in a relevant field.
• Experience of working directly with children, young people and families.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding, risk identification and early intervention.
• Ability to build trust and communicate effectively with young people.
• Confidence to assess situations and use professional judgement to support safe outcomes.
• Experience of working with partner agencies and contributing to multi-agency responses.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage your own workload.
• Knowledge of Signs of Safety or solution-focused approaches.
• Experience of working with complex family needs or safeguarding concerns.

Due to the nature of this role, you will be required to have a driving licence and access to personal transport. If you feel you can meet these travel requirements through other suitable means, please contact the Hiring Manager before applying to discuss.

At Suffolk County Council, we aspire for every child to live their best life.

The Integrated Front Door is a fast-paced, multi-agency environment bringing together professionals from across the partnership - including social care, police, health and education - to ensure concerns are responded to quickly, consistently and effectively.

You'll be part of a service that:

• Supports early decision-making and earlier help
• Works within a shared safeguarding framework and statutory duties
• Promotes joined-up, high-quality responses for children and families
• Plays a key role in Suffolk's Families First approach.

We believe that being together matters. Visible leadership supports better decision-making, stronger oversight, professional development and a culture where practitioners feel…