Head of Service: Family

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Our Children and Families services and our vision here in Staffordshire is rooted in four core principles that underpin everything we do:

• Families first – network and community always
• Right help, right time – proportionate, timely and co‑produced with children and families
• Whole‑system responsibility for supporting children and families to be happy, healthy and safe
• Permanence as belonging from day one

To achieve our ambition, we have taken a bold decision to transform our service structure and we’re looking for talented, values‑driven leaders who can champion these principles, inspire others and help shape the future of Children and Families services in Staffordshire.

We want to create a more resilient, child‑centred and future‑focused system that enables children, young people and families to receive the right help at the right time.

Through this redesign, we are strengthening leadership, increasing capacity and creating clearer lines of accountability across our services. These changes will support high‑quality practice, stronger partnerships and better outcomes for children and families, while ensuring we are well positioned to respond to national reforms and future challenges.

As Head of Service – Family Help, you will lead and shape services that support children, young people and families at the earliest opportunity, helping to prevent needs from escalating and ensuring the right support is provided at the right time. You will provide strategic leadership across Family Help services, driving high‑quality practice, strengthening partnership working and delivering positive outcomes for children and families.

You will:

• Lead and develop Family Help services, ensuring children and families receive effective, timely and child‑centred support.
• Drive service improvement, innovation and transformation programmes that strengthen early intervention and improve outcomes.
• Build and maintain strong partnerships with schools, health services, social care, police, community organisations and other key stakeholders.
• Oversee quality assurance, performance and safeguarding arrangements, ensuring services are compliant, effective and continuously improving.
• Lead, motivate and develop managers and teams, creating a culture of learning, accountability and high professional standards.
• Manage budgets, resources and change programmes to ensure sustainable, high‑quality services that meet the needs of children and families.

The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:

• Qualified and registered Social Worker.
• Relevant professional/management qualification or evidence of substantial management training.
• Substantial post-qualification experience within children's social care and leading teams within children's social care or early help.
• Significant experience of managing risk within a safeguarding context.
• Substantial supervisory and management experience and knowledge of relevant HR guidance and procedures.
• Substantial experience of managing investigations and complaints.
• In-depth understanding of statutory frameworks, national agendas, and best practice relating to children in need, early help, prevention and effective partnership working.
• Proven ability to both lead and embrace innovative practices and developments, lead change and project manage/ pilot new initiatives
• Strong ability to make sound judgements and hold risk appropriately based on analysis of the relevant facts in planned and unplanned circumstances

Interviews will take place week commencing 9 November 2026.

Our Recruitment Process
:
We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant…