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Job Title: Qualified Children's Senior Practitioner
Starting Salary: £42,839 per annum + £6,443 pa market enhanced payment progressing to £47,181 per annum + £6,279 pa market enhanced payment* PLUS £1k one off welcome payment* - pay award pending
Hours: 37
Location: Base locations in Stevenage (East) and Hemel Hempstead (West). Whilst you will have a base, each team has a geographic area they cover which will require regular access to a vehicle in order to travel to meetings.
Contract Type: Permanent and Fixed Term
Directorate: Childrens Services

All roles are full time and permanent unless otherwise stated below under 'about the role'

About the service

At Hertfordshire County Council, we believe that the children and young people in our care deserve the best. And that means ensuring the social workers who work alongside them are trained, supported, and highly motivated.

As an innovative authority, we are committed to developing motivational social work practice and you will be trained to work in this way. You will be working at the forefront of best practice to deliver first class support to vulnerable children and families which will expose you to managing complex and diverse caseloads.

By changing our approach to families, they are changing their approach to us and we are managing to keep far more children at home safely with their families.

With dedicated Diversity & Inclusion strategy and focus groups, we promote diversity and inclusion across the delivery of services and within our workforce.

We will offer a stimulating working environment, regular supervision meetings and training opportunities to help you to reach your full potential with the assistance and guidance of our specialist L&D teams.

The pandemic has brought about changes in the way we work and having learnt from this and from feedback from our staff and communities, we are embedding important principles around ‘Our Way Forward’. The overarching vision for Children’s Services is that we work in a ‘flexible and balanced’ way with a focus on ‘continuous improvement’; this is underpinned by a ‘mix and blend’ approach by adopting hybrid ways of working, balancing the need for collaborative workspaces with the right technology for staff to work from home and touchdown areas where this is right for you and for our families.

About the role

Each Team is made up of; a Team Manager, Consultant Social Worker(s), Senior Practitioners, Social Workers, Children's Practitioners and Family Practitioners.

We are looking for experienced Senior Practitioners to join one of the following teams:

• Family Safeguarding East (Permanent or Secondment / FTC to Dec 2026), based in Stevenage
• Family Safeguarding West, based in Hemel Hempstead
• 0-25 Disability Assessment Team, based in Stevenage

As a Senior Practitioner, you will already have highly developed specialist knowledge of Social Work practice. Your advanced expertise and knowledge will help you to take the lead on complex cases within the department.

This is a varied and challenging role where you will have shared responsibility for leading less experience staff. You will have a key role in researching and sharing up to date social work practice alongside creating a clear vision for the future and ensuring the best outcomes for children and their families are realised.

About you

We are pleased to offer sponsorship of eligible roles that met the UKV&I requirements for candidates who currently reside in the UK at the time of application.

It is essential that all Senior Practitioners who apply have the following:

• Qualified and Social Work England Registered
• At least 3 years post qualifying experience
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Knowledge of legislation, guidance, policy, and procedures
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft IT package
• Full UK Driving Licence
• Regular Access to a vehicle

In addition to the above, below outlines team specific essential criteria:

Family Safeguarding:

• Significant senior level frontline experience in a safeguarding team.
• Recent experience of case work in Assessments, Child Protection, Children Looked After and Care Proceedings
• In-depth knowledge of relevant childcare legislation is necessary to undertake work in this role effectively.
• For an informal conversation about the role, please contact Denise.Stafford@hertfordshire.gov.uk or Tara.White@hertfordshire.gov.uk

0-25 Disability Service:

• Ability to complete robust assessments & to assess risk.
• Ability to work in a relationship-based way.
• Knowledge/experience of working with Disabled Children and Young People
• Knowledge of legislation, guidance, policy, and procedure specific to Disabled Children and Young People
• For an informal conversation about the role, please contact Anna.Cottis1@hertfordshire.gov.uk

This job role is within the Health and Social Care, level 11 job profile. Please locate this via:

Job profiles - Health and social care

To read more about our service and opportunities available visit our Childrens Social Work page

Recruitment timeline: We review all applications regularly, with interviews arranged on an ad hoc basis - please check your emails for updates.

Benefits of working for us

Additional Benefits for Social Work roles include:

• Monthly Market Enhanced Payment
• One off £1k Welcome Payment* (terms & conditions apply)
• Lease Car Scheme
• Up to £6k relocation expenses (terms & conditions apply)
• Hybrid working model
• 5 Days additional annual leave entitlement
• SWE Registration Fee paid

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Secondment
Where fixed term or secondment is specified - the role is open to secondments for eligible employees who work for HCC. If you wish to apply on a secondment basis, you must have your line manager’s approval before submitting your application. You will be asked to confirm this within your application form. If you are not eligible for a secondment (e.g., you are currently on a fixed‑term contract that would end before this position ends) or you indicate that your manager cannot support a secondment, your application will be considered on a fixed‑term contract basis instead.

Additional information

We are changing

Hertfordshire County Council is undergoing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). If you are employed by Hertfordshire County on 1 April 2028, it is expected that most roles will transfer to the newly-created unitary councils on existing terms and conditions under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment) principles.
LGR is one of the biggest changes we will face in a generation. It will reshape how we work and how services are organised and gives us a real opportunity to build something better. To find out more, visit https://www.hertfordshire-lgr.co.uk/
Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Safeguarding
This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Driving required
You’ll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.