Advanced Children's Social Worker

We have an opportunity for a Social Worker to join our Children in Care and Care Leavers team in Stafford to support our children who are not able to live with their families without the local authorities involvement and welcome experienced social workers to apply.

If you are looking for a rewarding role where helping young people to return to their families safely or supporting them into adulthood safely is one of your passions, this may be the role for you.

We support hybrid working patterns, co-located teams for good working partnerships and a town centre based office.

Here at Staffordshire, we’re proud of each other, of the supportive team we’ve built and all that we’ve achieved together and we hope you’ll become part of our team.

You’ll be:

• be working with children and their families from the point of the second child in care review or full care order being granted, until we support them to return home safely or up to their 18th Birthday and they become young adults.
• carry out the key statutory duties within a children in care team supporting our children to flourish whilst in our care.
• have a passion for supporting families to make positive changes so that they can be reunited as soon as possible along with supporting young people to gain valuable key life skills and positive enduring relationships.

You'll:

• have a good understanding of the impact of childhood experiences and be supporting young people to overcome and manage a range of challenges, helping them rebuild their family relationships.
• be passionate about supporting families to be able to safely care for their children without our intervention.
• be committed to developing young peoples key life skills through pathway planning, working in partnership with families and supporting them to build positive strong relationships and networks around them.

You will need to be:

• Qualified and have experience of working as a soclal worker (completed ASYE 1 and 2 or equivalent)
• Have a current UK driving licence and access to use of a vehicle
• Be registered with Social Work England

But above all, you’ll bring the desire to work with children and families to give them the right support, at the right time with the aim of keeping families together where it’s safe to do so.

Interviews will be held 31 March 2026

Don’t feel you meet all the requirements? We value transferable skills, experiences, and qualifications so consider applying anyway or for an informal chat about the role please contact Rachel Harvey, Team manager at: rachel.harvey@staffordshire.gov.uk

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.