About the role
We currently have a vacancy for an experienced Service Manager to join our Family Help & Safeguarding service. We firmly believe that relationship-based social work makes a real difference to the lives of children, young people and their families, and our generic Together for Families Teams, ASYE Academy Team, and Supporting Families Team all focus on delivering outstanding support to families.
Our Together for Families (TfF) Teams have been developed in order to allow children and families to benefit from the continuity of having only one social worker, and to form a relationship with that worker that promotes sustained positive change. The benefit for our social workers in this practice model is the ability to form consistent, meaningful relationship with children and their families; the opportunity to learn and to develop new skills whilst working across the journey of the child in statutory social work; to have lower caseloads, and a supportive environment that makes relationship-based social work flourish.
Our Together for Families teams, and the ASYE Academy Team both work with children during S.17 (Children Act, 1989) single assessments, S.47 child protection investigations, as well as working with children subject to Child In Need Plans, Child Protection Plans, pre-proceedings, proceedings and those becoming looked after.
Our Supporting Families Team currently provides a range of supportive interventions including supervised contact for Children Looked After; specialist support for parent/carers with substance misuse difficulties via a Consultant Practitioner; providing direct work and parenting interventions for those children subject to CIN and CP Plans and offering group work support for parents/carers who are survivors of domestic abuse. There is also now an exciting development within the Team to introduce a small group of Lead Practitioners to case hold Child in Need (S.17, Children Act 1989) cases, with the support of a social work qualified and experienced Assistant Team Manager.
As a Service Manager you will be responsible for leading and managing 4 Together for Families Teams, each team comprising a Team Manager and 5 social workers and taking new cases from our Children’s Single Point of Access Team (MASH) on a 9-week duty cycle. You will also manage the ASYE Academy Team, comprising of a Team Manager, 3 Consultant Practitioners and 9 ASYEs.
You will provide passionate and inspiring leadership to your Teams, providing regular high quality management oversight, supervision and support. You will ensure that the child’s lived experience is at the very heart of everything that is done. At Brighter Futures for Children, we have a culture of providing high support and high challenge, in the very best interests of children. We are immensely proud to be growing and developing our staff in the Family Help & Safeguarding service and now benefit from having a very stable workforce where over 90% of our staff are permanent, our reliance on agency cover is low, and caseloads are mostly manageable. We need skilled and committed people to join our Team and support our delivery within this relationship-based practice model and make a real difference to our children and families in Reading. In return we offer a very competitive salary and benefits package, a recruitment and retention allowance, generous pension, relocation package, annual leave up to 26 days, and excellent career progression opportunities. Whether you want to develop your skills and experience as a social worker or step into more senior roles including management, we offer a comprehensive range of training and learning opportunities to do so, making a commitment to investing in you. At Brighter Futures for Children, we invest in the well-being of our staff too, and know that we can’t deliver excellent outcomes for families if our staff are also not exceptionally well supported. We really do like to “grow our own” and are immensely proud at how so many of our staff have stayed working with us, and have been supported to progress in their careers, including to more senior roles. If you like the sound of this, please get in touch with us today for a confidential discussion about the post.
Inclusion and Diversity
We want Brighter Futures for Children to be a great place to work and to ensure that our children, young people and families are represented in leadership roles and positions of power. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking.
We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and those of Other Ethnicities, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our children, young people and families so that equalities and justice remains at the heart of everything we do.
Asking for Adjustments
Brighter Futures for Children is committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions.
If you would like us to do anything differently during the application, interview or assessment process, including providing information in an alternative format, please let us know.
Closing date: 8 November 2024
Interview date: 27 November (face to face)
We look forward to hearing from you!
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to
Disability Confident.
