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Ready to lead at the front door of children’s services?

We’re looking for a confident, driven and inspiring Team Manager to lead one of our Assessment Teams—a critical service that sits at the front of Dudley Children’s Services, making timely decisions that shape the journey of children and families from the outset. This is a fast-paced and influential leadership role where your decisions and oversight will directly impact how we safeguard children and support families at the earliest point of intervention. You will lead a team managing high levels of demand, ensuring assessments are robust, timely and focused on achieving the right outcomes.

If you thrive in a dynamic environment, enjoy leading under pressure, and are passionate about high-quality practice—this could be the role for you.

As Team Manager, you will:

• Lead and support a team of social workers delivering high-quality assessments
• Oversee timely decision-making at the front door, ensuring children receive the right response at the right time
• Provide clear direction on complex and high-risk cases, ensuring effective risk management
• Drive strong performance and quality of practice across a busy and demanding service
• Support your team to work effectively under pressure, maintaining high professional standards
• Ensure assessments are analytical, child-centred, and outcome-focused
• Work closely with partners to ensure a coordinated multi-agency response
• Collaborate with senior leaders to manage demand, improve services, and embed best practice

About you

You’re someone who:

• Is a qualified, experienced social worker with a strong track record in children’s services
• Has a sound understanding of front-line services, thresholds, and assessment processes
• Brings strong skills in risk assessment, decision-making, and service leadership
• Is confident leading in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment
• Can motivate, support and develop staff to achieve high standards
• Is organised, resilient and able to manage competing priorities effectively
• Is committed to delivering timely, high-quality interventions that improve outcomes for children

Why join Dudley?

At Dudley Children’s Services, we are committed to innovation, improvement, and putting children first.

In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Lead at a critical point in the child’s journey, shaping outcomes from the start
• Develop your leadership in a challenging and rewarding front-line service
• Be part of a supportive and collaborative leadership team
• Play a key role in driving service improvements and managing demand effectively
• Benefit from hybrid working, with an expectation of 3 in-person office-based days per week

This is more than a management role This is your opportunity to lead at the front line of safeguarding, ensuring children and families receive the right help at the right time, and setting the standard for high-quality assessment practice across the service.

If you’re ready to lead with confidence, make critical decisions, and drive meaningful change—we’d love to hear from you.

For further information regarding this role please contact the Interim Service Managers for the Assessment Service: Elsie Fordam, Elsie.Fordam@dudley.gov.uk

So that we can demonstrate Dudley’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and to improve bias in the recruitment process that could create barriers for candidates. Your personal data will be anonymised when you apply, to ensure that you comply with our anonymisation process, please ensure you have removed your name and date of birth from any attachments prior to uploading them to your application.

Online application forms will only be accepted for this vacancy, online facilities for jobs are available at public libraries within the Dudley Borough.

All applicants must be able to provide documentation to prove their right to work in the UK.

Please note: Dudley MBC does not currently offer sponsorship for candidates without the Right to Work in the UK.

If you require support completing an online or paper application form and or interview techniques, please contact Dudley Adult and Community Learning on 01384 818 143 or acl@dudley.gov.uk who can support with Digital Skills and Job Applications.

If you have a disability and require assistance in making an application please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk

If you are experiencing a problem whilst applying for a position, please follow the link below to the WM Jobs Help Page in the first instance https://help.wmjobs.co.uk/

If the WM Jobs Help Page does not resolve your issue then please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk

Dudley Council will check the information that you have provided against any details already held for accuracy and completeness. The Council will check, share and cross match your information both internally within the council and with external organisations to protect public funds and prevent or detect crime, only where the law allows us to do so.

The Council’s full Privacy and Disclaimer Statement can be accessed on the website at https://www.dudley.gov.uk/privacy-disclaimer-statement/

N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications

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