Head of Service

Job introduction

Head of Service for the Front Door for Families and Social Work Pods

Are you able to lead relationship-based practice?

Can you provide support and containment for social workers and managers so that they can deliver excellent practice that makes a difference for young people and families?

Can you lead a multi-agency Front Door for Families and a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub building relationships across agencies to help safeguarding children in the city?

Are you a qualified and experienced social work manager?

Do we sound like the kind of organisation in which you would like to progress your social work career: "Social workers consciously choose to work in Brighton and Hove. As a result, there are exceptionally low levels of temporary or short-term staff. Staff are drawn by the strong commitment to anti-discriminatory practice and the relationship-based practice model. They value the highly supportive, child-centred environment in which they practise and feel that the responsibility for children is shared. Management oversight is thorough at all levels and social workers value the individual and group supervision, within each of the small discrete teams.  Social workers benefit from regular and relevant training and have manageable, mixed caseloads .This gives them the time that they need to be able to build and sustain relationships with their children and families and so achieve change when it is needed. Social workers know their children very well and talk about them with great affection, warmth and care. One social worker said, ‘They have my heart." (Ofsted 2024)

We don’t need to tell you about why you should work for Brighton & Hove – our staff will do that - Hear more about Brighton & Hove’s model of relationship-based social work and how it makes a difference for families and practitioners.  Our social workers tell us that ‘social workers’ voices are heard’ and ‘I really love working for Brighton & Hove; I feel well supported and there are good opportunities to develop’

You can hear directly from our practitioners themselves: Life as a social worker in Brighton & Hove (brighton-hove.gov.uk)

Closing date: Midnight on 12th June

The interviews will be on the 27th June

For more information about these roles please contact: Kirsty Hanna, Director Family Help and Protection - Kirsty.hanna@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Hear from our practitioners about why they think Brighton & Hove is a great place to live and work

We know that you and our existing social workers are our greatest asset and we strive to give you the time and active support you need so that you can make a real difference to children’s lives and realise our vision for social work. Our pod model is based on providing emotional containment for you. This includes a supervision model of weekly group supervision, 1:1 supervision, and Reflective Practice Groups for practitioners and managers at every level, as well as a clear CPD pathway. 

We have set up an anti-racist project as we recognised that we need to do further work to support Black and global majority families in the city and to support our staff from Black and global majority communities.  Hear more about anti-racist practice from our workers including our anti-racist lead practitioner

For these post, you must hold a Professional Social Work Qualification and be registered as a social worker with Social Work England

Useful links

Social work in Brighton & Hove

Empathy, tenacity, & compassion: an evaluation of relationship-based practice in Brighton & Hove

Evaluation of Reflective Practice Groups in Brighton & Hove

Ofsted Report

About the role

In addition to leading one of our social work hubs, with 4 social work pods which provide support covering child in need and child protection work, court work, and children in care, you will also lead our multi agency Front Door for Families based in Kingswood Street. If you are looking to lead a fast paced, dynamic and supportive team and you have excellent Social Work experience, knowledge, analysis and leadership, we would like to hear from you.

We have developed a whole system that provides containment for social care workers so that they can build ongoing relationships with families and use these relationships to make a difference for children and young people. This system is made up of small teams, or pods, of workers who get to know each other and the families they are supporting. 

Ten years ago, we re-designed our Children’s Social Work service based on feedback from families, young people and our practitioners. The changes we introduced have had a positive impact for social care workers and their ability to provide consistent and purposeful support to children and young people. 

We are seeking to appoint an experienced manager who can promote our relationship-based model of practice, in their management and leadership of our multi-agency Front Door for Families and a hub of our social work pods.  

 You will need to have extensive social work experience, including significant experience in management and supervision.  You will need to be able to support the learning and development of other workers, focus on outcomes for young people, and help to embed our relationship-based model of management.

Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to upload your Application Form and a supporting statement. Your supporting statement is the most important part of your application as it will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our guidance here (Application Form guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) and (Supporting statement guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us

Company information

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and How we create a fair and inclusive workplace.

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.