Erase Assistant Team Manager

Are you passionate about improving outcomes for teenagers at risk of exploitation, missing episodes and harm outside the home?

Durham Children's Services is seeking an enthusiastic, skilled and motivated Assistant Team Manager to join our well-established ERASE (Exploitation and Missing) Service. This is an exciting opportunity to help lead a specialist team that works with some of County Durham's most vulnerable young people, supporting innovative and effective responses to child exploitation, missing episodes and extra-familial harm.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a service that is at the forefront of developing innovative responses to adolescent safeguarding, exploitation and Harm Outside the Home. Working alongside a wide range of partners, you will help shape and influence practice that improves safety and outcomes for young people across County Durham.

As an Assistant Team Manager, you will play a key role in developing high-quality practice, supporting staff performance and contributing to Durham's continued commitment to Contextual Safeguarding and Harm Outside the Home approaches. Working alongside managers, practitioners and partner agencies, you will help ensure that young people receive the right support, at the right time, to improve safety and achieve positive outcomes.

ERASE is a specialist countywide service within Durham Children's Services that works with teenagers who are vulnerable to child exploitation, going missing and other forms of harm outside the home.

You will provide day-to-day operational management, supervision and support to practitioners within the Exploitation and Missing Teams, ensuring high standards of practice, effective safeguarding interventions and positive outcomes for young people and their families.

Working closely with the ERASE Team Manager and colleagues across Supporting Solutions, you will:

• Support the leadership and development of the ERASE Service.
• Provide supervision, guidance and support to the missing staff to promote high-quality practice and professional development.
• Monitor performance, workload management and quality assurance activity across the missing team.
• Promote strengths-based, trauma-informed and relationship-based approaches when working with adolescents and families.
• Build and maintain effective multi-agency partnerships with Social Care, Police, Education, Health and voluntary sector organisations.
• Contribute to the development of services responding to missing episodes, exploitation and extra-familial harm.
• Represent the service at operational and multi-agency meetings, ensuring effective partnership responses to safeguarding concerns.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across Supporting Solutions, including ASET, Rapid Response, Edge of Care and wider adolescent safeguarding services.

The service is countywide and based at The Nest, Nettlesworth. We operate a hybrid working model that supports a balance of office-based, home and community working.

We encourage you to contact Alex Black, ERASE Team Manager, via email at  to arrange an informal discussion about the role.

You will hold a relevant Level 3 qualification and have significant experience of working with vulnerable adolescents, particularly those affected by child exploitation, missing episodes and harm outside the home.

You will be able to demonstrate:

• Experience of supporting, supervising or leading staff within a safeguarding environment.
• Strong knowledge of child exploitation, contextual safeguarding and adolescent risk.
• Experience of effective multi-agency working and partnership development.
• The ability to analyse risk and support high-quality safeguarding interventions.
• Strong communication, organisational and leadership skills.
• A commitment to achieving the best possible outcomes for children, young people and families.

Please refer to the attached Person Specification for the full criteria. If successful, you will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure.

Durham County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore if successful in your application, an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be sought inclusive of a check of the Children's Barred List, due to the position working in regulated activity. Applicants should be aware that the DBS check will disclose both spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings, in line with current legislation - and will confirm whether an individual is barred from working with children.

Interviews will be held on Monday 14th September 2026.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that can show they meet all the essential criteria and have indicated they have a disability, are a looked…