Practice Lead – Children & Families Service

Hackney is one of London’s most vibrant and diverse boroughs. As part of our journey to be Anti-Racist, at Hackney we want our workforce to represent the community we serve and embrace diverse talent so we strongly encourage applications from Black and Global Majority Ethnic backgrounds.

We are currently recruiting for two Practice Lead roles. One based within our Child Protection Service and one based with our Assessment and Planning Service.

These new roles are based within Hackney’s Children & Families Service, which have been created as part of a wider restructuring in January 2025. Following our 2024 Ofsted “Good” rating, the role of Practice Lead, will assist and advise on how we continue the journey towards delivering Outstanding Service Delivery for the Children and Families in Hackney.

In practice, these exciting roles will be working with practitioners in areas such as STAR practice, leadership, management, training, extra familial harm, safeguarding, service improvement and practice standards. You will have a direct impact on the quality of engagement and outcomes with children and families in Hackney, as well as the professional development of practitioners across the Directorate. Overall, as the Practice Lead, you will play a vital role in ensuring that our services remain impactful, effective, and aligned with the highest standards of practice excellence.

This crucial role will lead practice improvement, providing expertise, knowledge and experience across services within the Directorate.

Reporting directly to Heads of Service, you will form part of the Leadership Team and be responsible for ensuring that day to day social work practice is in line with Hackney’s Systemic, Trauma-Informed and Anti Racist practice model.

As the Practice Lead, you will contribute to the shaping of a confident, professional and respectful service that always places children at the centre of practice. Your strong leadership skills will enable you to engage social workers, managers, senior leads to embed the very best practice based upon research, quality assurance and feedback from our children, families to ensure that we achieve the very best outcomes for children in Hackney. You will have an indepth understanding of risk, assessment, care planning and quality assurance.

You will be responsible and accountable for ensuring that learning is systematically embedded, contribute to quality assurance of practice and support strategic change in order that our services for Children and Families become outstanding.

A strong practitioner and leader with a proven capacity to create service wide change in the interests of children and families, you will be dedicated to our STAR approach, committed to child centred safeguarding practices and to identifying and challenging discrimination and racism. You will be creative, analytical and reflective and be willing to work hard to improve outcomes for children and young people. You will have excellent communication, negotiation and diplomacy skills to effectively create change.

Candidates must:

– Hold a relevant social work qualification

– Be registered with Social Work England

– Have substantive experience of supervising and leading social workers

– An enhanced DBS check is required.

As a Council, our most outstanding asset is our staff, who are highly dedicated to serving our residents and committed to our goals as an organisation.

If you want to work in a place where you can represent our values so we achieve the best for our residents, please click on the apply button below.

We operate a fair and open anonymous selection process. Therefore, we do not accept supporting statements or CV’s.

To proceed with your application, you will need to create an account and submit your application.

As part of the application process, you will need to complete a number of competency based questions. These questions allow you to demonstrate your suitability for the role and provide examples of your skills, knowledge and experience outlined in the job description.

We understand the benefits of using AI in the workplace. However, if you are thinking of using this tool to submit your application, we ask you to think about what value it will add. AI tools tend to lack the personal touch and authenticity we value in candidates. We encourage you to showcase your unique knowledge and skills using your own voice.

Closing date for applications: 18 February 2025 (22.59)

Interview and assessment date: 11 March 2025

We are also working towards our vision, which is to be a place for everyone; where residents and staff can be proud; a place that celebrates diversity and where everyone can feel valued, included and involved. In order to achieve this, we look for people who are: Proud; Ambitious; Pioneering; Open; Proactive; Inclusive.

Hackney Council works to eradicate discrimination on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. We also recognise that people can be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will also work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class. We also welcome those interested in flexible working. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people, as this group is currently under represented in our workforce.

The Council has a dedicated employment support service (Hackney Works), which offers Hackney residents guidance in relation to applying for jobs. If you are thinking about applying for a job, please contact the Hackney Works team to find out what support is available: hackneyworks@hackney.gov.uk