Early Help Team Manager

About Us

West Sussex County Council is a diverse organisation that provides services to more than 850,000 residents' every day. Through our Early Help Service, we will work with children, families, and young people to help ensure that every person is supported to achieve his or her potential. The foundations for mental health, emotional control, doing well in education and parenting ability are all set in place in the early years; the home surroundings, family life and parenting are all important factors in determining positive outcomes for children as they grow and develop.

For more information about us and about working in Early Help at West Sussex, please visit our website: www.westsussex.gov.uk/CSCR.

About the Job

Salary: £48,226 to £51,356 per annum
Working Pattern: 2 posts available: Full Time (37 hours Horsham) and Part Time (30 hours Chichester)
Contract Length: Permanent
Location: Horsham and Chichester area

Early Help ensures that children and families receive accessible and co-ordinated support when they need it. This support ranges across a continuum from early identification and preventative approaches through to more targeted help where families are experiencing more complex or multiple difficulties. At every level support is designed to address and reduce the problems or challenges and prevent them getting worse.

As a Team Manager, you will be expected to lead, supervise and provide oversight of a team that provides direct intervention to children, young people and families through targeted support, partnership working within the dedicated schools team, or lead a team that provides support to the Early Help Hub. There is an expectation for you to be flexible and can lead on any of the three teams dependent on business need.

You will play a key role in the Early Help leadership team in bringing your knowledge and expertise into the development of services. You will be responsible for ensuring policies and practice are adhered to through a number of quality assurance processes. You will work alongside peers across the directorate to work collaboratively to ensure the needs of children are met.

Experience and Skills

Key Skills:

• Ability to anticipate problems, plan solutions and make sound pragmatic problem-solving decisions which will have a wider service impact, particularly in relation to providing a varied service, resource issues, partnership building (internally or externally) and the day-to-day management and direction of the team.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to influence the actions of others and communicate information which may be complex and contentious.
• Effective people and performance management skills and the ability to provide direction and motivate and inspire the team to deliver quality professional practice.
• Able to manage self, is self-aware and understands impact of work on self and others and responds constructively to situations. Understanding the need for emotional intelligence/resilience. Ability to respond calmly and appropriately to situations where others are in a stressful or anxious situation.
• Analytically minded with the ability to judge, analyse and interpret varied and highly complex situations to produce strategies over the long term e.g. interpret and solve issues by coordinating with multiple agencies across the county, such as schools, CAMHS, Adult Services, Social Care, Police, etc.

• Post graduate professional qualification relevant either to management or to a professional service specialism (e.g. Social Work, Health, Early Education and Childcare, Community Development, Family Support); or equivalent level of significant experience demonstrating comprehensive application of the above levels of knowledge in a relevant setting.
• Relevant chartered status of a professional body or equivalent high-level experience of involved practices.
• Valid and full driving licence and access to a vehicle/ability to travel around the county independently.

For the full list of key skills and qualifications, please refer to the Job Description.

Rewards and Benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do.

In addition to working within a great team and a brilliant opportunity you will receive:

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further Information

The reference number for this role is CAFHE05917.

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Emma Parker at or for issues or queries regarding your application please contact .

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and cover letter. In your cover letter outline your motivations for applying and explain how you meet the key skills listed in full and the experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

For information regarding your eligibility to apply for this role under our Disability, Veteran's or WSCC Care Leaver's Guaranteed Interview Scheme, this can be found on our application help page.