Child Protection Expert

Child Protection Expert | 10889 | Secondment Opportunity / Temporary Fixed Term Contract for 12 Months |37 hours per week | £50,166 to £54,277 per annum | Grade L | Norwich

Join an Outstanding Children's Service and Help Children Flourish

Are you an experienced social worker who is passionate about protecting children, developing others and driving excellent practice?

Would you like to be part of a service recognised nationally for delivering exceptional outcomes for children and families?

At Norfolk County Council, our Children's Services were judged Outstanding in all areas by Ofsted in 2026
, with inspectors recognising the positive difference our practitioners make every day. Ofsted praised our child-centred approach, inspirational leadership and strong partnership working.

The inspection recognised how Norfolk's Family Help approach provides seamless support to children and families, ensuring effective safeguarding interventions, reducing risk, strengthening family networks and helping children to flourish.

This is an exciting opportunity to join one of the country's leading Children's Services teams and play a key role in shaping the future of safeguarding practice across Norfolk.

The Child Protection Expert is a key member of the wider management team within Family Help, Protection and Care. This specialist role provides professional leadership, oversight and expertise to front‑line practitioners.

As the recognised lead practitioner for Child Protection matters within your locality, you will provide expert guidance, professional challenge, support and case oversight to social workers and managers. Working closely with safeguarding partners and the Court Proceedings Expert, you will drive excellent safeguarding practice and help ensure children receive the right support at the right time.

A key focus of the role is developing effective child protection trajectory planning, strengthening practitioner confidence and supporting newly qualified social workers to build expertise in managing complex safeguarding concerns and reducing risk.

You will be responsible for:

• Leading on child protection practice across locality teams.
• Chairing strategy discussions and supporting complex safeguarding decision‑making.
• Providing expert consultation, supervision and case oversight.
• Driving high‑quality child protection planning and risk reduction.
• Supporting newly qualified and experienced practitioners to develop confidence and expertise.
• Undertaking audits and quality assurance activity to improve outcomes.
• Building strong partnerships with safeguarding leads across the multi‑agency network.
• Influencing service development and championing best practice.
• Ensuring statutory responsibilities, departmental procedures and practice standards are consistently met.

Most importantly, you will help ensure children are safe, families are supported and practitioners have the guidance they need to achieve lasting change.

Everything we do is guided by our Vital Signs for Children practice framework.

Our approach is:

• Relationship Based – building consistent and trusted relationships with families.
• Strengths Oriented – recognising and building on family strengths to create positive change.
• Outcome Focused – doing whatever it takes to achieve the best outcomes for children and families.

We believe children flourish when they have:

• Family and Friends
• Access to Learning
• Opportunities to Lead a Good Life
• Building Resilience
• Respect for their Individuality
• Feeling Safe and Secure

We are looking for an exceptional social work professional who can inspire confidence, influence others and lead through expertise.

You will bring:

• Significant experience working with children and families.
• Detailed knowledge of safeguarding legislation and child protection practice.
• Excellent professional judgement and decision‑making skills.
• The ability to motivate, coach and develop practitioners.
• Experience of working effectively in multi‑agency environments.
• A commitment to restorative and relationship‑based practice.
• Strong leadership, communication and influencing skills.
• A passion for improving outcomes for…