Child Protection Lead Practitioner

This is your moment. Shape the Future. Feel Supported. Belong in Newcastle.

Newcastle is more than a workplace— it is a community. A vibrant, multicultural city where creativity, kindness and resilience run deep. From the Quayside to Jesmond Dene, from Ouseburn’s indie cafés to our world‑class universities, this is a city that welcomes you and your ideas with open arms.

We are recruiting to the exciting and brand‑new role of Child Protection Lead Practitioner
. The Child Protection Lead Practitioner will be a qualified social worker with significant demonstrable knowledge and experience to act as a recognised expert in the field of child protection.

The role has been designed to provide expert advice and consultation to practitioners across the multi‑agency partnership and support the allocated worker to continue to work effectively with families when significant harm has been identified.

You will have responsibility for chairing meetings and Child Protection Conferences and overseeing Section 47 enquiries, children subject to Child Protection plans and children in pre‑proceedings.

Key responsibilities include:

• Providing expert advice and consultation to practitioners across the multi‑agency partnership.
• Supporting the allocated worker to continue working effectively with families when significant harm has been identified.
• Chairing meetings and Child Protection Conferences.
• Overseeing Section 47 enquiries, children subject to Child Protection plans and children in pre‑proceedings.

You’ll bring leadership, insight and compassion – helping shape a service that is as ambitious as the city it serves.

The ambition for Child Protection in Newcastle is for families to receive the right support at the right time and at the first time from the right people to ensure children are kept safe. Child Protection is underpinned by relational practice between partner agencies and families. In Newcastle we have established a Safeguarding Delivery Service and a Multi‑agency Child Protection Team which provides a seamless service when children are at risk of or have suffered significant harm.

Within the Safeguarding Delivery Service and Multi‑agency Child Protection Team there is a range of skills and experience delivered by Social Workers, overseen by experienced Team Managers with the support of Child Protection Lead Practitioners with collaboration between partner agencies such as Police, Health and Education. Our aim is to provide a proportionate multi‑agency response to harm.

We’d love to meet you at our recruitment day on 24 February 2026. Drop in for a relaxed chat over coffee and cake between 8.00–9.00am, 1.00–2.00pm, or 5.00–6.30pm at Partnership House, Regent Centre, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 4PL
.

We’re not just a local authority. We’re a city with ambition, heart and a bold vision for children. At Children & Families Newcastle we’re building something special: a service rooted in relationships, restorative practice and real impact.

We have been judged Good with Outstanding areas by Ofsted – and we’re not stopping there. We’re working towards becoming a UNICEF Child‑Friendly City and a Marmot City, tackling inequality and putting children at the centre of everything we do.

Families First is at the heart of our transformation in Newcastle. It is a whole system shift designed to give children and families the right help at the right time and to make our practice more meaningful, relational and effective. Through early intervention and prevention, our new Family Help teams step in at the right time, when families need support, helping them work through challenges they face.

We’re breaking down traditional silos by bringing local authority services together with police, health and education partners to create a single, seamless system of support.

Families are placed firmly in the lead through Family‑Led Decision Making now embedded as standard practice. We’re strengthening support networks so…