Heading Home Practitioner– In Care Service| 10869 | Secondment Opportunity / Temporary Fixed Term Contract for Two Years | 37 hours per week | £32,061 to £33,699 per annum | Grade G | County Hall, Norwich
Do you believe that, when it is safe to do so, children should have every opportunity to return home to their families?
Are you passionate about helping families make positive and lasting changes that enable children to thrive within their family network?
We are looking to recruit dedicated, resilient and skilled practitioners to join our newly established Reunification Team within Norfolk's In Care Service.
This is an exciting opportunity to be part of an innovative service focused on supporting children and young people to safely return home from care and remain living successfully with their families. Working directly with children, parents and carers, you will provide intensive, evidence-informed and relationship-based interventions that support families to build on their strengths, overcome challenges and create sustainable change.
As a Heading Home Practitioner, you will work with children and families both before and after reunification. You will deliver targeted, hands-on support, helping parents develop their parenting capacity, strengthen family relationships and understand their children's experiences and developmental needs. You will work creatively and flexibly with families facing complex challenges, including mental health difficulties, disability, trauma, substance misuse and family breakdown.
Working alongside Social Workers and other professionals, you will contribute to assessments, care planning and intervention delivery, with the aim of reducing risk, improving family functioning and achieving stable, long-term reunification outcomes. Your work will be underpinned by Norfolk's Vital Signs for Children practice model, embracing relationship-based, strengths-focused and outcome-driven approaches.
You will have a minimum of three years' experience working directly with children, young people and families, including experience of supporting those with complex needs. You will be confident working independently within family homes, building trusted relationships and delivering interventions that create meaningful and lasting change.
You will require an NVQ Level 3 in a relevant subject (or equivalent professional experience) and have a sound understanding of child development, the impact of trauma and adverse childhood experiences, and the factors that influence positive outcomes for children and young people.
The role requires strong communication, assessment and engagement skills, together with the ability to work collaboratively within a multi-agency environment. Experience of delivering parenting support, undertaking direct work with children and working intensively with families experiencing crisis or significant challenge would be advantageous.
The role involves travel across Norfolk and, on occasion, you may be required to work outside normal office hours to meet the needs of children and families. You may also be required to transport children and young people as part of your duties.
This is a unique opportunity to help shape a developing service and play a key role in achieving better outcomes for children and families across Norfolk. If you are passionate about relationship-based practice and committed to supporting children to safely return home and flourish within their families, we would love to hear from you.
The interview process will consist of a competency-based interview.
Before you apply, we recommend reading the full Job Description and Person Specification to help you demonstrate you meet the criteria. Please ensure that within your supporting statement you clearly demonstrate how you meet the essential and desirable criteria outlined in the person specification.
For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Michelle Jones, Service Manager In Care – [email protected]
These are some benefits you can enjoy by working for Norfolk County Council:
- Competitive salary
- Generous holiday entitlement
- Health and Wellbeing services including fast-track physiotherapy and a free counselling service
- Flexible working opportunities including flexi-time, part time, remote and hybrid working – dependant on your job role and business need.
- Financial benefits such as:
- ‘ Norfolk Rewards’ our employee discounts programme which helps you save money on almost anything, from everyday groceries and clothes, to holidays, new technology, gym membership, trips to the cinema and days out.
- A Blue Light card for Fire Service and Social Care Workers
- Relocation expenses (where applicable)
- An advance of your expenses if you travel for work
- Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contribution, life assurance, death in service payments and dependants’ pensions.
Tax efficient ways of getting extra pension and new bikes
Access to our tax efficient car lease scheme for greener travel enabling you to lease a brand new, ultra-low emission vehicle (subject to eligibility)
A payment if you refer someone you know to a hard to fill job
You can also find information on our Terms and Conditions here.
Already a Norfolk County Council employee? See and apply for internal and external vacancies in myOracle using your @norfolk.gov.uk or @nccal.ac.uk email.
We would like to make you aware that priority consideration for this post may be given to current employees who are at risk due to restructure within the organisation or are in a redeployment position.
Redeployment closing date: 16 July 2026 at 23:55
All other applicants closing date: 06 August 2026 at 23:55
