Return Home Interview Worker

Job Description

• Suffolk County Council
• Address: Landmark House, Ipswich IP1 5PB - Community and onsite
• Salary:£35,570 per annum,(pro rata if part time)
• Hours:37 per week, flexible working options available
• Contract:Permanent

Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Suffolk County Council. We’re looking for a compassionate and motivated Return Home Interview Worker to join our Integrated Front Door. If you’re passionate about hearing young people’s voices and making a real difference following missing episodes, we’d love to hear from you

Reimagine the possibilities.

Your role and responsibilities

This is a unique and important role where you’ll work directly with children and young people following missing episodes, helping them feel heard, understood and supported.

On a day-to-day basis, you’ll build trusted relationships with young people, exploring their experiences and identifying risks, vulnerabilities and opportunities for support. Your work will directly inform safeguarding decisions and help shape better outcomes.

This role is county wide with an office base in Ipswich. The expectation is that staff are office-based aside from arranged visits.

You will:

• Undertake timely Return Home Interviews, ensuring the child’s voice and experience are central
• Identify risk, vulnerability and protective factors to inform safeguarding responses
• Work closely with the Integrated Front Door to inform decision-making and planning
• Support identification and disruption of exploitation and contextual risks
• Build trusting, respectful relationships to encourage engagement and disclosure
• Share insight with partners to strengthen multi-agency safeguarding responses
• Use learning from interviews to identify themes, patterns and emerging risks.

You’ll play a vital role in helping us understand why children go missing and how we can better protect and support them.

You will need

We’re looking for someone who is passionate about working with children and young people and confident managing risk and safeguarding concerns.

Our ideal candidate will bring:

• A Level 5 qualification (or equivalent experience) in a relevant field
• Experience of working directly with children, young people and families
• Strong understanding of safeguarding, risk identification and early intervention
• Ability to build trust and communicate effectively with young people
• Confidence to assess situations and use professional judgement to support safe outcomes
• Experience of working with partner agencies and contributing to multi-agency responses
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage your own workload
• Knowledge of Signs of Safety or solution-focused approaches
• Experience of working with complex family needs or safeguarding concerns.
• Due to the nature of this role, you will be required to have a driving licence and access to personal transport. If you feel you can meet these travel requirements through other suitable means, please contact the Hiring Manager before applying to discuss.

You can view a full list of requirements in the Job and Person Profile (JPP), which you can find in the ‘How to apply’ section towards the bottom of this advert.

If you believe you can succeed in this role, apply. Even if you don't meet all requirements, still apply. We would appreciate the opportunity to consider your application.

The team

At Suffolk County Council, we aspire for every child to live their best life.

The Integrated Front Door is a fast-paced, multi-agency environment bringing together professionals from across the partnership – including social care, police, health and education – to ensure concerns are responded to quickly, consistently and effectively.

You’ll be part of a service that:

• Supports early decision-making and earlier help
• Works within a shared safeguarding framework and statutory duties
• Promotes joined-up, high-quality responses for children and families
• Plays a key role in Suffolk’s Families First approach.

We believe that being together matters. Visible leadership supports better decision-making, stronger oversight, professional development and a culture where practitioners feel supported to do their best work.

Take a look at what makes our Ideal Worker, shaped by the voices of young people: find out more.

Empowering Everyone

We’re big believers in potential, possibility and the power of different ideas. We’re always searching for ways to encourage, respect and enable everyone to be the best they can be. We want to represent the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all individuals, especially those from groups that are currently underrepresented in the organisation, as shown in our Workforce Equality Report.

For more information

For a casual chat, please contact Milly Clark by calling 01473 263139 or emailing milly.clark2@suffolk.gov.uk or Sean Segal by calling 01473 260673 or sean.segal@suffolk.gov.uk

How to apply

Step 1 - Read the Job and Person Profile (Word).

Step 2 - Click ‘Apply Now’ to start your online application.

Step 3 - Upload asupporting statementanswering the following questions below (no more than 400 words per question). You should use the Supporting Statement template (Word).

1. Describe your experience of working directly with children or young people. How have you built trust and encouraged open communication?
2. Tell us about a time you identified a safeguarding concern. What action did you take and what was the outcome?
3. Describe your experience of working with children or young people who may have experienced risk, vulnerability or exploitation. What approach did you take?

Please note: Without a supporting statement, your interest will not be progressed. Any supporting documents must be in either PDF or MS Word format.

For guidance on completing your application, please see our How to Apply page.

Planning to use Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Please ensure your application still reflects your own skills, experience and ideas. If used inappropriately, your application may not be processed. Please read our guidance for using AI to understand what’s acceptable.

Do you need any reasonable adjustments to help you to apply? If you are disabled and/or have additional support needs, you can request reasonable adjustments. You can do this by contacting our Recruitment Team at recruitment@suffolk.gov.uk or 03456 014412. You can find examples of possible adjustments on our Reasonable Adjustment pages.

Closing date: 11.30pm, 5 October 2026

Interview date: Week commencing 12 October 2026

This role will be worked on-site from a fixed base. The job details above list the location. If you want to discuss how that might affect your work, please talk to the contact person. #LI-Onsite

About us

As a modern and effective council, we offer a wide variety of careers to suit people with a range of skills, abilities and ambitions. We offer working options that flex to reflect the way people work today and take the time to understand and support your individual needs. We’re driven to make a positive difference to the world around us and encourage everyone with drive and focus to join us and build an influential and impactful career. Reimagine the possibilities.

In return, you’ll enjoy:

• up to 29 days annual leave entitlement (pro rata), plus UK bank holidays and two paid volunteering days
• membership of a competitive Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• travel, lifestyle, health and wellbeing benefits
• performance-related annual pay progression, in addition to an annual cost-of-living pay increase
• training and encouragement to expand your knowledge
• a variety of career development opportunities across our organisation
• diverse and active staff networks
• flexible working options, with the right to request flexible working from your first day

If you want to know more about our benefits, values and equality commitments please visit our Suffolk County Council careers website (careers.Suffolk.gov.uk).