We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Team Manager to join the Children in Care West team at Northamptonshire Children’s Trust.

As Team Manager, you will provide effective leadership and oversight, ensuring workloads are allocated and prioritised appropriately to keep children’s welfare and outcomes at the heart of service delivery. You will play a key role in developing and supporting your team to deliver a high-quality, efficient, and responsive service.

The successful candidate will be responsible for leading the delivery of the team’s objectives, driving performance, and ensuring key targets and outcomes are achieved.

We are committed to continuous improvement, building a skilled, knowledgeable, and flexible workforce alongside promoting innovation and creativity whilst keeping children, young people and families at the heart of all we do.

We really value our workforce and offer you a great benefits package including:

• SWE Registration paid yearly (social care colleagues)
• Recruitment Welcome Bonus of £2,200
• Relocation costs of up to £8,000
• Retention bonus payments for established personnel
• 28 days annual leave, plus 8 Bank Holidays (pro rata for part time) and an additional 5 days, after 5 years
• Local Government Pension Scheme plus immediate life cover (3 times your annual salary from day one) and ill-health pension protection.
• Opportunity to purchase up to 25 days annual leave
• Employee Assistance Programme - We have an employee support programme run by Health Assured, an independent, external organisation. Health Assured is available for you and your immediate family members, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and includes telephone counselling, legal advice, bereavement support and medical information.
• Employee discounts with local and national retailers, days out, finance, health and beauty, travel and eating out plus lots more.
• Flexible and family working arrangements including enhanced maternity benefits
• A permanent, supportive and inclusive management team where you will be empowered to make good professional decisions
• Extensive Learning & Development and career development opportunities
• Subsidised town centre car parking scheme

The Team Manager should ideally have experience of working with Children in Care complex needs and their families. 

• You will supervise Social Workers and Family Support Workers with a range of cases, where the focus and oversight will be the effective progression of Care Planning to ensure the best outcomes for our children and young people. The team focusses on children that are children in care on a longer term basis but does complete court work.
• You will have excellent time management and organisations skills to oversee your dedicated team.
• You will demonstrate high levels of resilience, managing and prioritizing demanding workloads.
• Excellent people management and strong leadership skills to manage your own team.
• You will be able to build effective relationships and work collaboratively with internal and external partner agencies to ensure positive outcomes for children in care.
• Be a good problem solver, supporting your team of practitioners to make best interest decisions for children in line with legislative, regulatory and best practice guidelines.
• You will use management information systems to maintain and drive good performance and quality of the practice in your team.
• You will demonstrate professionalism, leadership and accountability and possess excellent skills in problem solving, analysis and planning.  

We welcome the opportunity to speak to any interested candidates so please feel free to email: lesley.lown@nctrust.co.uk and they can agree a mutually agreeable time to call you

You should be registered with  Social Work England. Previous leadership experience in a similar role.  You will provide leadership to your team, who will consist of a Apprentice Social Workers, Senior Social Worker, Social Workers, Advanced Practitioner, a family support worker and a business support administrator.  

You will be responsible for allocating and prioritising workloads effectively to ensure the care of the child is paramount, whilst also ensuring you develop your team to provide an effective and efficient service.   The right candidate will have responsibility for the team plan to meet objectives and ensure performance targets are achieved

You will have the ability to manage a team and ensure development and performance issues are addressed though support and coaching.  You may have previous budgetary control experience, ICT skills, court skills and experience and the ability to represent the service at a more senior level if required.

This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore subject to an enhanced DBS certificate. It is also a regulated activity and will be subject to a Barred List check

At Northamptonshire Children’s Trust, children, young people and families are at the heart of everything we do. Every decision we make and every action we take is guided by our commitment to delivering high-quality services that make a lasting difference to the lives of children, young people and families across Northamptonshire.

We know that our people are our greatest strength. Our workforce is at the centre of our success, and we are committed to creating an environment where colleagues feel valued, supported and empowered to do the best job of their lives every day. We foster a culture built on kindness, collaboration and trust, where achievements are recognised, ideas are welcomed and innovation is encouraged.

We are proud of the positive impact we make together and delighted that our work has been recognised by Ofsted, with an Outstanding rating for Leadership and Management and Good ratings across Help and Protection, Children in Care and Care Leavers.

At NCT equality, diversity and inclusion are part of us and in everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and thrive in our organisation.  We are a Disability Confident employer and have a commitment to care leavers, who we guarantee an interview if they meet the essential criteria.

If you are passionate about making a difference and want to be part of an ambitious, supportive and forward-thinking organisation, Northamptonshire Children’s Trust could be the place for you. 

Supporting Children – A Career That Matters