Do you believe every child deserves to grow up feeling loved, safe, and supported, with a lasting sense of family, belonging, and stability?
Are you an experienced and passionate social worker looking for the next step in your career? Do you have the skills and ambition to support children in care, champion high-quality social work practice, and help develop and inspire a dedicated team?
If so, wed love to hear from you.
Due to career progression within our service, we are delighted to offer an exciting opportunity for a Social Work Consultant to join our Children in Care Service. This rewarding role combines direct support for children and young people with opportunities to mentor colleagues, promote excellent practice, and work closely with the Team Manager to support the effective leadership and development of the service.
WHAT IS INVOLVED?
Alongside managing a reduced caseload, you will play a key role in supporting high-quality practice, developing colleagues, and contributing to the effective leadership of the team. Using your knowledge, experience, and passion for achieving the best outcomes for children, you will:
- Provide professional guidance, support and challenge to Social Workers, helping to build confidence, resilience, knowledge and skills, and supporting their ongoing development and progression.
- Co-work and oversee complex cases, offering reflective support and professional expertise to ensure effective decision-making, high-quality recording, and improved outcomes for children and young people.
- Champion good practice across the service by contributing to the Team Development Plan, undertaking case audits and dip sampling, identifying areas of strength and development, and promoting a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
- Work in partnership with the Team Manager to provide effective leadership and oversight, helping to drive performance, maintain high standards of practice, and support a positive team culture.
- Chair and facilitate key meetings, including low-level strategy discussions and stability meetings, with a strong focus on maintaining placement stability, promoting permanence, and ensuring children experience safety, security, and positive relationships.
- Act as a role model for excellent social work practice, providing consistent advice, guidance and support to colleagues while helping to foster a motivated, collaborative and child-centred team environment.
As a Social Work Consultant, you will have a unique opportunity to combine direct work with children and families with practice leadership responsibilities, influencing the quality of service delivery and helping colleagues to thrive. Your expertise will play a vital role in ensuring children in care receive the stability, support and opportunities they need to achieve their full potential.
You will be joining us at a fantastic time. Inspectors have judged our Childrens Services as Outstanding and a recent monitoring review highlighted excellent practice in relation to supporting our children and young people who are sadly in unregulated provisions.
This post is eligible for a recruitment/retention allowance of £2,500 over 12 months (pro-rata for part time workers). Payments are made in equal instalments across a 12-month period alongside your pay. The allowances are subject to tax, National Insurance and pension contributions.
We encourage you to contact Natasha Gray via email at
[email protected] or Donna Burrows via email at
[email protected] to arrange an informal discussion about the role.
WHAT WILL I NEED?
To apply for this role you will:
- Be a social worker with significant experience of work with children, young people and families.
- Have experience of using evidence-based practice to devise effective interventions.
- Have knowledge and experience of implementing legislation and national standards relevant to the role.
- Have the ability to implement a range of social work theories relevant to the role.
- Be committed to improving outcomes for children, young people, families and carers.
You can read more about the experience, skills and personal qualities we are looking for in the attached person specification.
If successful, you will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure.
OUR COMMITMENT TO SAFEGUARDING
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 Childrens 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
Interviews will be held on 24th 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 after young person, care leaver or a veteran.
OUR OFFER TO YOU
We offer a competitive rewards package that includes attractive salaries, a generous annual leave entitlement of 27 days (rising to 32 after five years continuous local government service), membership of the excellent contributory career average Local Government Pension Scheme, and a range of flexible working arrangements including hybrid working (home and office) where applicable. Explore the full range of rewards and benefits on our website
Rewards and benefits are subject to individual terms and conditions.
EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION
We are a proud equal opportunities employer and believe a diverse workforce brings fresh ideas and drives service improvement. We welcome applications from everyone and make employment decisions based on skills and ability. As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively encourage applications from disabled and neurodivergent people and offer support throughout the recruitment process.
HOW TO APPLY
Please note, we do not accept CVs. All applications must be submitted online via the Northeast Jobs portal. Use the Person Specification section of the form to clearly demonstrate how you meet the essential (and where possible, desirable) criteria. Applications that do not evidence the essential requirements will not be shortlisted.
Please visit our website to understand our position on using AI to support your application and for guidance on completing your application.
If you require assistance when applying for this role, please contact our Recruitment Helpdesk on 03000 26 27 27, or via email
[email protected]
All correspondence relating to your application will be sent from
[email protected]. Kindly check your spam/junk folder regularly to ensure you dont miss any updates.
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