Senior Practitioner - Family First

Company: Cambridgeshire County Council Salary: £46,956 to £50,157 a year Hours: Full-time Location: Cambridge, CB2 9NL Job type: Permanent Posting date: 23 Oct 2026 Closing date: 21 Nov 2026

Summary

Are you an experienced child protection practitioner? Do you want the ability to use your skills to support the development of a new Families First model? We’d love to hear from you.

We have several Families First Senior Practitioner roles available across Cambridgeshire based within our Targeted Support teams. These new positions will not case-hold or have line management responsibilities, allowing you to focus on providing expert social work advice to our Family Help Lead Practitioners.

The postholders will support all Family Help Managers including those from Targeted Support, Social Care and Lead Child Protection Practitioners to make decisions in relation to appropriate levels of need and response.

Roles could be based in Ely, Wisbech, Huntingdon or Cambridge but will all involve countywide travel.

If you would like to discuss the role in more detail

please email Joanna Middleditch, Targeted Support Service Manager East Cambridgeshire,

via

[email protected] to arrange a phone call or Teams meeting.

Interviews will be held in person at New Shire Hall wherever possible.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this

Our benefits





We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

- A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
- 6 days of protected time each year to support maintaining your Continuous Professional Development
- A relocation package (eligibility applies)
- Refer a Friend Scheme where if you refer another Social Worker to us who is subsequently employed by us as a result of that introduction, we’ll pay you an introduction fee of £350
- Access to our Cambridgeshire Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) who will support your development, enabling you to become the best practitioner you can be

For more information and to see our other benefits, take a look at the advantages brochure attached to this advert.

What will you be doing?

This will be a varied and rewarding role that offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on outcomes for children and families. Key responsibilities will include:

- Working closely with a variety of professionals in our supportive Family Help service.
- Providing professional leadership in situations involving highly complex assessment, intervention, and support planning arrangements.
- Offering expert advice, guidance,



and support to alternatively qualified Family Help Lead Practitioners (FHLPs), enabling them to plan and deliver safe, effective, and child-centred interventions for children and families.
- Acting as a practice lead within the team, contributing to the induction of new staff, and supporting FHLPs to deliver high standards of practice.
- Leading and contributing to service development work to enhance outcomes and drive continuous improvement across the service.
- Overseeing and advising on safeguarding threshold decisions.

About you

You are an innovative and reflective practitioner who is committed to continuous learning and service improvement. You have experience building strong relationships with children, families, and other professionals and can evidence proven ability to identify and respond to significant harm.

You must:

- Be a qualified Social Worker with a Social Work England registration
- Have the ability to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently

This is a Senior Practitioner post, you must be able to demonstrate experience in complex case management, court proceedings, and providing informal support or supervision to others.

For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workf

📌 Senior Practitioner (Town of Cambridge)
🏢 Cambridgeshire County Council
📍 Town of Cambridge