Assistant Service Manager - Part time East of England

We are recruiting for a part-time (3 days) role of Assistant Service Manager in our Public and Private Law team(s) covering the East of England
. We trust and empower colleagues to work in a hybrid way, providing 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.

Whilst this role is part of a team based from our office in Chelmsford, our teams work flexibly and remotely; proximity to the office isn’t always a critical consideration.

We are a diverse, inclusive organisation that is a safe space for colleagues with shared aspects of identity and lived experience, which helps ensure we provide a service that promotes the diversity and uniqueness of children and families from all backgrounds. We especially welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds as we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with.

We provide extensive wellbeing support for colleagues, as well as excellent benefits, all of which we hope encourages you to join us.

Being an Assistant Service Manager is very rewarding but challenging too. You will manage a team of Family Court Advisers and have a good understanding of what good looks like in Public and Private law cases.

Through your own practice and reflective/case supervision of colleagues, you will consistently reflect and champion the values and core practice of our practice framework, ‘Together with Children and Families’.

As an Assistant Service Manager, it is your duty to safeguard and protect the welfare of children, and the support you provide to colleagues to achieve the same standards of safeguarding practice.

Providing high‑quality reflective case supervision, you will be accountable for your own practice and for the quality and impact of the practice quality standards of the Family Court Advisers you directly manage.

• Registered with Social Work England, organised, resilient, and some experience of supervising, coaching, or mentoring social workers.
• Promote resilience and wellbeing at work, maintaining morale and be confident in managing employees with a wide range of professional experience.
• Good communicator, both orally and in writing, with emotional intelligence at all levels, especially when interacting with children.

If and when you are ready to apply, our application process is straightforward and quick to complete. You don’t need to complete your application in a single visit; you can start it, come back, and update your CV. Just make sure you come back before the closing date to submit.

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

19th February 2026

24th February 2026

10th March 2026

We understand you may benefit from finding out more to help you decide to apply. There is a lot of information available at Cafcass Careers but if you need something else, you can contact Narinder Kaur at N from our HR Resourcing team if your query is related to the recruitment process or is HR‑related, or Tracey Betts, Service Manager at  if your questions relate more to the role.

Provide your contact information and best times/methods to get in touch.

Finally, in anticipation of your application being successful, you might want to read about the offer and pre‑employment checks process. As part of your application you can highlight any concerns or questions about the pre‑employment checks and we encourage all applicants to do so, safe in the knowledge such information will not be shared with individuals involved in the selection process.

Successful applicants will be subject to a range of checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). In accordance with the DBS code of practice and our own policy, if an individual has a declared criminal offence an individual assessment will be completed. Further information can be found by viewing the Cafcass DBS policy.