Family Practitioner - Adopt South West

Internal Secondment Opportunity

An exciting secondment opportunity has arisen within the adoption support service of Adopt South West.

This secondment is to provide cover for maternity leave with an immediate start (subject to agreement with current Team/Service manager). It is expected to end on 2 July 2027.

About the Role

Family practitioners in the adoption support service are responsible for a varied caseload which includes completing holistic and analytical adoption needs assessments, providing support to birth families and arranging and supporting direct and indirect contact between birth families and adopted children. Alongside this, Family Practitioners contribute to the duty service for one day every 4 to 6 weeks.

The team consists of both Family Practitioners and Social Worker from a variety of backgrounds and is an environment where team members are valued for their individual skills and experience.

The team and management structures within Adopt South West are very established and stable, so you can expect consistency of supervision and support from both the team manager and other team members.

For this role, the job will be based within the adoption support area of Adopt South West.

The role holder will report to the team manager who will delegate appropriate casework tasks to the Family Practitioners including case holding responsibility and shared casework.

About You

You will be experienced in engaging with families and you will have a genuine passion for meaningful engagement with young people and children, ensuring that their views, wishes and feelings remain central to all assessment and planning. You will be organised, motivated and be able to work autonomously with a solid support network and accessible and approachable management behind you.

The role holder is expected to provide targeted work to children and their families, birth and adoptive families. Family Practitioners will contribute towards, as well as complete assessments of need whilst supporting the identification of an appropriate plan to meet the assessed needs and outcomes. This will require a level of autonomy and a basic understanding of the adoption and legal process.

This role requires the ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence and fluency in English.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Family Practitioners have a crucial role in establishing and maintaining high quality relationships with service users across the region. The quality of professional relationships and skilful intervention can impact fundamentally on the lives of children, young people and families affecting their safety, wellbeing, and future permanency outcomes.

As a Family Practitioner you will:

• Establish and effectively maintain a network of contacts to support their work.
• Build relationships with children and families, providing practical hands-on help, support and challenge to support the family to enable positive outcomes. This includes supporting families with appropriate skilled interventions and practical support, both in response to crisis and for some families, as part of a long-term support package.
• Be persistent, tenacious and assertive, working with families who may be in crisis and present as resistant to interventions. Relationship building will be essential in many aspects of the role.
• Consider the needs of the family as a whole, including absent parents and wider family members who may provide alternative care and support for children and young people. Building honest and productive relationships with children and family members to enable positive change and stability for children and young people.
• Provide practical ‘hands on’ support to the family so that they can provide a safe and risk-free environment for children and young people to live.
• Listen to families in crisis. They will need to be skilful in building a relationship but ensuring they are assertive and provide a level of challenge to families to seek positive outcomes for e.g., Therapeutic parenting and making them aware of different parenting approaches and how to access these.
• Work with families to gain an understanding of past experiences and understand patterns of behaviour.
• Use an evidenced based set of tools that are known to be effective working with children and families with multiple and complex needs, resistant families and families in crises.
• Keep up to date and accurate electronic records of their case work with individual families and liaise with the Advanced Practitioner/Team manager and other staff and agencies as required.
• Be potentially required to support the facilitation of the letterbox service.
• Attend family finding events and support the facilitation of groups and learning events for staff and service users.
• Be expected to attend and participate in meetings as appropriate including statutory reviews.
• Potentially be required to provide support and guidance to volunteers.

The Job Description outlines duties to indicate the level of responsibility of this role. It is not a comprehensive or exclusive list. In line with the Council's strategy to have an agile workforce you may be asked to work in other areas of the Council, based on your skills and the priorities of the organisation.

Applications close on 18 October 2026 and shortlisted applicants will be contacted to arrange interview dates promptly. Please be advised that if a sufficient number of applications are received then this vacancy may close early, therefore please apply early to avoid disappointment.

For an informal discussion about this role, please contact Team Manager Phil Duffy – philip.duffy@devon.gov.uk

Additional Information

• This role requires a DBS disclosure
• This role requires the ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence and fluency in English
• DCC embraces the positive benefits of a diverse workforce and is committed to providing an environment that is inclusive and safe. We welcome applications from people who share our commitment to stop discrimination, challenge inequality and promote diversity across Devon. More information can be found on our Equality and Diversity webpages
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment
• Personal data we collect from you will be processed in accordance with the Applicant privacy notice

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