Head of Service: Family Help

Our Children and Families services and our vision here in Staffordshire is rooted in four core principles that underpin everything we do:

• Families first – network and community always
• Right help, right time – proportionate, timely and co-produced with children and families
• Whole-system responsibility for supporting children and families to be happy, healthy and safe
• Permanence as belonging from day one

To achieve our ambition, we have taken a bold decision to transform our service structure and we’re looking for talented, values-driven leaders who can champion these principles, inspire others and help shape the future of Children and Families services in Staffordshire.

We want to create a more resilient, child-centred and future-focused system that enables children, young people and families to receive the right help at the right time.

Through this redesign, we are strengthening leadership, increasing capacity and creating clearer lines of accountability across our services. These changes will support high-quality practice, stronger partnerships and better outcomes for children and families, while ensuring we are well positioned to respond to national reforms and future challenges.

As Head of Service – Family Help, you will lead and shape services that support children, young people and families at the earliest opportunity, helping to prevent needs from escalating and ensuring the right support is provided at the right time. You will provide strategic leadership across Family Help services, driving high-quality practice, strengthening partnership working and delivering positive outcomes for children and families.

You will:

• Lead and develop Family Help services, ensuring children and families receive effective, timely and child-centred support.
• Drive service improvement, innovation and transformation programmes that strengthen early intervention and improve outcomes.
• Build and maintain strong partnerships with schools, health services, social care, police, community organisations and other key stakeholders.
• Oversee quality assurance, performance and safeguarding arrangements, ensuring services are compliant, effective and continuously improving.
• Lead, motivate and develop managers and teams, creating a culture of learning, accountability and high professional standards.
• Manage budgets, resources and change programmes to ensure sustainable, high-quality services that meet the needs of children and families.

The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:

• Qualified and registered Social Worker.
• Relevant professional/management qualification or evidence of substantial management training.
• Substantial post-qualification experience within children's social care and leading teams within children's social care or early help.
• Significant experience of managing risk within a safeguarding context.
• Substantial supervisory and management experience and knowledge of relevant HR guidance and procedures.
• Substantial experience of managing investigations and complaints.
• In-depth understanding of statutory frameworks, national agendas, and best practice relating to children in need, early help, prevention and effective partnership working.
• Proven ability to both lead and embrace innovative practices and developments, lead change and project manage/ pilot new initiatives
• Strong ability to make sound judgements and hold risk appropriately based on analysis of the relevant facts in planned and unplanned circumstances

Interviews will take place week commencing 9 November 2026.

Need more information? If you’re unsure whether your skills and experience meet the needs for the role, please get in touch with us, we’d love to chat to you! You can reach us at Gemma Gerrish gemma.gerrish@staffordshire.gov.uk

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role. Please note: The minimum essential criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes detailed below.

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.