Enhanced Social Work Practitioner

Do you believe every child deserves to grow up surrounded by love, family, and a sense of belonging? Are you an experienced social worker ready to progress your career and step into a role supporting our Newly Qualified Social Workers, modelling exceptional practice that will inspire and develop their skills at this important stage of their careers? We’re on an exciting journey to expand our Connected Carers Service, doubling in size over the next 12 months, from two teams to four. This growth means more children staying within their family networks, more stability, and more opportunities for lifelong connections.

About the role

We want every team to have an Enhanced Social Work Practitioner who will mentor the Newly Qualified Social Workers in the team. In addition to holding a reduced caseload, you will use your experience and knowledge to:

• Provide advice and guidance to our Newly Qualified Social Workers to help them build their confidence, resilience, knowledge, and skills in line with the post qualifying standards.
• Plan and facilitate sessions that encourage our Newly Qualified Social Workers to reflect, develop multiple hypotheses and enable peer challenge and critical reflection in decision-making. Sessions will incorporate the Signs of Safety practice model and trauma informed relational practice.
• Provide advice and guidance to Newly Qualified Social Workers on their cases and co-working more complex cases ensuring this reflection is evident on the child’s record and improves outcomes for the child.
• Work closely with the Practice Leads in our Social Work Academy and your Team Manager to ensure that the Newly Qualified Social Workers have appropriate caseloads in terms of number and complexity, and that they progress well.

You will be joining us at a fantastic time. Inspectors have judged our Children’s Services as outstanding.

Support

We are passionate about social work in County Durham. We are committed to providing a culture where good practice can flourish. You will benefit from high quality professional supervision, a great induction, and access to our strong learning and development offer.

We encourage you to contact Julie Naylor, Team Manager of one of our current Connected Carers teams, for an informal discussion. Contact Julie by e-mail at julie.naylor@durham.gov.uk.

Requirements

• Be a social worker with significant experience of work with children, young people and families.
• Have experience of using evidence-based practice to devise effective interventions.
• Have knowledge and experience of implementing legislation and national standards relevant to the role.
• Have the ability to implement a range of social work theories relevant to the role.
• Be committed to improving outcomes for children, young people, families and carers.

If successful, you will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure. This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be sought inclusive of a check of the Children’s Barred List, due to the position working in regulated activity. Applicants should be aware that the DBS check will disclose both spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings, in line with current legislation and will confirm whether an individual is barred from working with children.

Benefits

• Competitive salary: Grade 12 - £44,075 - £48,226 per annum (pay award pending).
• Generous annual leave entitlement of 27 days (rising to 32 after five years’ continuous local government service).
• Membership of the excellent contributory career average Local Government Pension Scheme.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working (home and office) where applicable.

Schedule

Hybrid working applies to this post.

Interviews

Interviews will be held from the 27th August 2026 onwards. We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that can show they meet all the essential criteria and have indicated they have a disability, are a looked after young person, care leaver or a veteran.