Organisation: Leicestershire County Council Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, LE3 8RA
Worker Category: Field Based Worker
Salary: Grade 12 – £43,860 - £47,829 per annum (Pro rata for part time) plus market premium
Working Hours: 37 hours per week
Contract Type: Permanent
Closing Date: 11th January 2026
Interview Date(s): 20th January 2026 Come and be part of our Outstanding First Response Service, Assessment and Screening.
It's an exciting time to be a part of Children and Family Services at Leicestershire County Council, our staff are at the heart of delivering excellent services to children and families across Leicestershire. Come and join us and make a difference to the lives of children and families in Leicestershire.
Our recent Ofsted inspection praised Leicestershire's work to build "strong and long-lasting relationships" with children and families which lead to many families achieving "positive changes" in their lives. They highlighted an "ambitious and child-focused senior leadership that has successfully created a culture where the experiences and progress of children at the heart of social work practice". About the Role
We have Senior Practitioner roles within the First response, Assessment team. These are exciting opportunities to be part of a diverse and highly skilled team, we are looking for a passionate, dedicated, and child focussed, social worker. As a Senior Practitioner within the Assessment team, you will be within 1 of 5 team PODs, consisting of a team manager, a senior practitioner and five social workers. This is predominantly an office-based role but there is scope to work flexibly which is balanced with meeting the service needs and demands. You will be expected to produce quality assessments that are timely and proportionate to level of need. As well as support staff on complex assessments, or scenarios where greater experience is required, . care proceedings. You will lead and present at development meetings, support with service performance and the learning and development of individuals as well as the team. In Leicestershire we have a fantastic package to provide our workers. This includes the option as a full-time worker to do hybrid working, celebrating diversity with a range of events throughout the year, recognition of our staff in annual Pride in Practice events, fantastic learning and training opportunities – enabling our staff to develop and progress within their roles and committed wellbeing support. We are proud of our continuous improvement plan – 'Achieving Excellence through Purposeful Practice' which sets out our key values, behaviours and ambitions. We have embedded the Signs of Safety approach throughout our services and this approach mirrors our values of Aspiration, Being Curious and Collaboration. We are focused on working with families and the networks of family, friends and professionals around children, to work in collaboration to achieve shared goals. We are committed to our vision of becoming a trauma informed responsive department where we believe we are "stronger together". Our culture is one of partnership, where we look for solutions and recognise the potential impact of trauma on the children and families we work with and on our staff. We will strive to create a safe, compassionate, healing environment demonstrated through relationships based on trust, respect, hope and empathy. We will achieve this through a spirit of curiosity, by nurturing connections through relationships, making a deliberate effort to know and understand people, and by providing hope for growth and recovery.
We support and empower our staff to be the best that they can be. We will give you the support and resources that you need to work in collaboration with children and families. A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post. For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our . About You
To apply for this post, you must: Be a qualified Social Worker holding a Social Work degree or equivalent, ., CQSW, DipSW (with specialism in children’s services) and be registered with Social Work England, hold a valid driving licence and access to a vehicle. Extensive knowledge, experience and application of social work legislation, methodologies, social care policies, guidance, procedures and case reviews. This includes demonstrating your experiences with regards to complex case work and court work in private and public law. Demonstrate the ability and experience of supporting with the service performance and the learning and development of the team and individuals as well as a commitment to your continuous professional development. You must also understand, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion and demonstrate this in your practice with Children, Young People, Families and your peers. Understand and demonstrate experience of the importance of multi-agency working and the differing roles, responsibilities, remit and functions of other parts of the wider service and agencies. The ability to communicate clearly and accurately, both orally and in writing, with a wide range of people, including representatives from other agencies and court, completing reports and assessments to a high standard, thus being a model of good practice. Excellent demonstration of the ability to prioritise effectively, manage competing demands to meet deadlines and the flexibility to respond to changing requirements. This includes stepping in and supporting staff in the absence of the Team Manager. In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process. In addition, we expect you to share and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the interview process. Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability. Interested in Flexible Working?
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual’s personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc. Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the page on our career site. For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:
Danielle Webster – Team Manager, First Response. To contact me via email, please click How to Apply
Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity, and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services, we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ Plus communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the ‘About You’ section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme. To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the ‘About You’ section above. For more information, see the section on our career site. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible. If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: . By applying for this post, you agree to our
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