Director of Family Help & Children's Social Care

Director of Family Help & Children's Social Care

With strong investment, renewed energy and a clear sense of purpose across our services, we're transforming how we support children, young people and families in Cheshire East. Together, we're building something special: a service that is ambitious for children, rooted in strong relationships and designed for long-term success.

As our Director of Family Help & Children's Social Care, you will play a pivotal role in leading this transformation, providing strategic leadership for children's social care, family help, safeguarding and prevention services across the borough. Working closely with partners, elected members, colleagues, children and families, you will help shape services that deliver the best possible outcomes for children and young people, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

If you're driven by better outcomes for children and families, passionate about transformational leadership and ready to leave a lasting legacy, we'd love to hear from you.

About the Role

This is a rare opportunity for a strategic and inspirational leader to make a significant difference, shape the future of services and drive the next chapter of our improvement journey. As we continue to embed the national Families First reforms across Cheshire East, you will lead service transformation, helping to build a system that intervenes earlier, strengthens families and delivers better outcomes for children and young people. Our workforce and partners share a genuine energy and commitment to doing things differently, with relationships at the heart of everything we do. Together, we are creating a culture where children, families and communities are supported by connected services, strong partnerships and a relentless focus on continuous improvement. You will play a key role in harnessing this momentum while ensuring services remain sustainable, effective, safe and ambitious for the future.

In this role you will:

• Lead the council's statutory children's social care functions and safeguarding responsibilities.
• Provide strategic leadership for Family Help, prevention and early intervention services.
• Drive service improvement, transformation and innovation to achieve outstanding outcomes for children and families.
• Ensure effective partnership working across health, education, police, voluntary sector and wider public services.
• Lead multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and promoting a strong culture of continuous improvement.
• Oversee performance, quality assurance, workforce development and professional standards across children's services.
• Develop and delivering strategic plans that improve children's wellbeing and support family resilience.
• Manage significant budgets and resources to ensure value for money and sustainable service delivery.
• Advise elected members and senior leaders on children's social care policy, strategy and performance

The successful candidate will bring:

You must be able to demonstrate the following essential requirements:

• Qualified social worker with a recognised qualification and registered with Social Work England.
• Completion of a structured management development programme with significant leadership experience within Childrens Services.
• Evidence strong collaborating with colleagues and partners and building highly effective teams.
• Significant experience of leadership and management at a strategic level in Childrens Services, working and providing expert advice in a political environment.
• Experience of successful management of services designed to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children, particularly the most vulnerable in our communities.
• An understanding of the policy and legislative background to services for children and families.
• Experience of managing the interface between service provision and the regulatory framework.
• Experience of service/business planning and of leading change/redesign programmes and financial/budgetary responsibilities.
• Evidence of developing and delivering innovation within challenging environments. Able to build a shared vision, develop partnerships, resolve complex problems and facilitate change sensitively.
• Evidence of successful working across organisational boundaries and in partnership/collaboration at a local, sub regional, regional level and national level. Ability to represent the council externally.
• Experience of managing a large service with complex and competing demands. Leading the service to get the best from staff and challenging performance when needed. Leading individuals, showing genuine concern, being accessible, enabling, encouraging, and professionally curious.
• Excellent planning, research, organisational and decision-making skills. Ability to analyse and interpret information and data and to present to a wider audience.

In return we are able to offer:

• A competitive salary – up to £123,477 per annum
• Enhanced annual leave - Start with an impressive 34 days of annual leave (including bank holidays) from day one, and watch it grow to 39 days after just five years of service
• Purchase of annual leave – Want more time off? You can purchase up to 10 extra days of annual leave each year, giving you the flexibility to balance work and life just the way you want (Pro-rata for part-time staff)
• Flexible working pattern - Enjoy a 37-hour standard full-time work week with the added perks of flexi-time and hybrid/remote working arrangements where possible. Your work-life balance just got a whole lot better
• Salary sacrifice green car scheme - Drive green and save green! Lease a brand-new electric or hybrid car through our salary sacrifice scheme. There’s no credit checks, no deposits, just significant savings and exclusive offers on a three-year lease
• White goods salary sacrifice scheme - Upgrade your home with ease. Purchase home and electronic items through our salary sacrifice scheme, spreading the cost of big-ticket purchases like appliances, computers, and tech gadgets directly from your salary
• Enhanced public pension - Secure your future with our career average pension, where contributions are built at a rate of 1/49th of your yearly pensionable pay
• Cycle to work scheme - Save up to 25-39% on the retail price of bikes and safety equipment through Income Tax and National Insurance savings. Get fit and save money!
• Employee assistance programme - Access a completely free and confidential assistance service to help manage, reduce, and overcome life’s challenges, both at work and in your personal life
• Discounted gym membership - Stay active and healthy with corporate membership prices for Everybody Leisure, including:
• Gym, Swim and Group Fitness at all 16 facilities
• Off-Peak Racket Sports
• Athletics Tracks
• Sauna/Steam/Spa

Join us and experience a workplace that truly values and supports you!

How to apply

We’re delighted that you’re considering applying for this role!

As an equal opportunities’ employer, we warmly welcome applicants from all backgrounds. We believe that a diverse workforce helps us better reflect and serve our local communities, and together, we can build something truly special.

To join our team, simply click ‘Apply for this job’ at the bottom of the page. If you’d prefer a confidential informal chat first or have any questions about the role, feel free to reach out to Dawn Godfrey at dawn.godfrey@cheshireeast.gov.uk .

Once you’ve applied for the position, please keep an eye on your email inbox (including your junk and spam folders), as we’ll send any correspondence there to stay in touch with updates about your application.

If you haven’t heard from us within four weeks of the closing date, it likely means we weren’t able to move forward with your application at this time but please don’t let this discourage you as your interest means a lot to us, and we’d truly love to hear from you again in the future!

We wish you all the best in your application and if you run into any technical issues, our friendly team are here to help at: sourcingteam@ecwip.co.uk.

Closing date: Sunday 1 November 2026.

Cheshire East Council is committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults across the Borough. As such, any cautions, convictions, reprimands or final warnings that are ‘not protected’ as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) order 1975 (as amended in 2013) relating to the non-disclosure of spent convictions do not apply to this job. You must therefore, disclose whether you have any previous convictions where prompted to do so within the application process.

Attachments

• Director of Children’s Social Care & Prevention Job Description and Specification.pdf