Head of Service in Family Safeguarding

Salary: £80,401 – £87,928 (Grade 14)

Location:

Lancashire – Countywide

Lead With Purpose. Strengthen Families. Help Children Stay Safe and Thrive.

Children’s Social Care – Lancashire County Council

Great social work can change the course of a child’s life. Great leadership creates the conditions for that work to happen every day.

As our Head of Service – Family Safeguarding, you will lead services supporting children and families across Child Protection, Children in Need and Children with Disabilities, with responsibility for approximately 515 FTE.

You will champion Lancashire’s Family Safeguarding approach, bringing professionals and partners together to tackle the challenges that can affect family life, including domestic abuse, mental health and substance use. Your leadership will help strengthen families, manage risk and ensure children receive the right help at the right time.

This is an opportunity to lead at scale, shape practice and make a lasting difference for children and families across Lancashire.

You will provide strategic and operational leadership across our Family Safeguarding services, ensuring children are seen, heard and safeguarded through timely, purposeful and effective social work practice.

You will lead and embed the Family Safeguarding practice model, promoting strengths-based and relational social work that works with families to create sustainable change. You’ll provide leadership across Child Protection and Children in Need practice, alongside statutory services for children with disabilities.

Your influence will extend across the whole child’s journey. You will work closely with the Front Door (MASH), Assessment and Duty, Children in Our Care and Care Leavers, Adolescent Services, Fostering and Adoption, Early Help and partners across education, health and policing.

You will oversee quality, performance, workforce, demand, resources and budgets while helping drive wider Children’s Social Care reform, inspection readiness and continuous improvement. Most importantly, you will ensure the voices and lived experiences of children and families shape the services we provide.

You will be an accomplished senior leader with significant experience within statutory children’s social care, including Child Protection and Children in Need services, and a strong track record of improving social work practice and outcomes.

You will understand what excellent Family Safeguarding practice looks like and be confident leading complex services through change. You’ll bring strong professional judgement across safeguarding, statutory intervention and court work, alongside the ability to manage operational, workforce, financial and reputational risk.

You’ll be a visible and inclusive leader who can inspire a large workforce, build strong partnerships and create a culture where practitioners feel supported and challenged to deliver their best work. You’ll also be comfortable influencing senior leaders, elected members, partners and regulators on complex and sensitive issues.

You must hold a recognised social work qualification and current registration with Social Work England.

We want our senior leaders to feel trusted, supported and empowered. You’ll have the opportunity to lead with professional autonomy while working alongside colleagues and partners who share your commitment to achieving better outcomes for children and families.

You’ll have significant scope to influence the strategic direction of Children’s Social Care across Lancashire. You’ll lead major services, contribute to wider reform and play an important role…