Practice Development Lead

Due to retirement and promotion, we are currently recruiting 2 Practice Development Leads to our Practice Development Service. Medway is highly committed to staff care and development to enable our staff to provide high quality, relationship-based work within the Signs of Safety practice framework with our children, young people, families, and carers. Children matter in Medway and so do you.

We are proud to be ‘Good’ in Medway and are determined to build on the great work that has been done so far to improve the services for our children, young people and families.

It’s an exciting time to join us as we offer competitive pay and conditions and hybrid working. We are committed to helping you to grow and develop throughout your career and reach your full potential

Are you passionate about supporting practitioners and managers to develop their practice so they can do their best to support children, young people, family, and carers? Are you an experienced, knowledgeable, and compassionate practitioner? Do you skilled at helping others reflect and learn? Do you work with an ethos of high expectations, high support, and high challenge?

You will be part of a service of 7 Practice Development Leads lead by the Practice Development Manager and the Principal Social Worker. The service provides quality assurance activity; supports students, apprentices, and practice educators; coordinates/facilitates the learning and development offer (including in-house delivery of 75% of learning opportunities); Signs of Safety practice development (and training); NQSW recruitment and support; amplifying the voices of children, young people, and families via our participation strategy and plan; workforce recruitment and retention; 1:1 and team support around practice development; staff care and wellbeing and so much more!

Each Practice Development Lead is responsible for a particular area of practice and all are involved in facilitating training, undertaking quality assurance activity, 1:1 practice support, and are linked to different services for support and development.

**Applications without a personal statement linked to the person spec will not be considered**

Interviews will be held on 12th & 13th February 2026

Our offer

We offer an excellent recruitment package, manageable workloads, and opportunities to access a range of professional development and support including -

• A basic salary of £51,131 to £55,607 per annum
• An annual market allowance of £7,000 per annum (payable in monthly payments)
• A retention payment of £3,000. This is a fixed sum payable in April each year, following one years’ service in Medway.
• Casual Car user allowance with option to apply for a lease car after six months.
• Hybrid working - enabling you to work from home/office (a minimum of 2 days per week will be required in the office)
• Relocation package of up to £8,000

About you

• You will hold a degree in Social Work - CQSW, DipSW, or equivalent and be registered with Social Work England
• You will have substantial post qualifying experience working with children and families in the statutory sector
• You will hold the PEPS level 2 qualification or equivalent (desirable)
• You will have experience of working with ‘Signs of Safety’ or a similar relationship and strengths-based practice framework (desirable)
• You will hold a full driving licence and have access to a vehicle for work purposes

To Apply

If you are looking for a new challenge, then we would love to hear from you.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Lori Goossen lori.goossen@medway.gov.uk

To apply please click on the ‘Apply Online’ button at the bottom of this advert.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interviewed via Microsoft Teams.

This post is subject to an enhanced Children’s DBS check.

For more information on our roles within Children’s Services please visit https://www.medway.gov.uk/childrenservicesjobs

Important Information

Please note that all recruitment correspondence, including interview letters and contracts of employment will usually be sent out via email, if you require documentation/correspondence in hard copy format, please contact the Children's Services Recruitment Team on 01634 332211 or email cscrecruitment@medway.gov.uk

Please visit http://www.mindfulemployer.net/ for information on how Medway Council put good practices in place to ensure employees and job applicants who declare mental health issues receive the right level of support.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy at any time prior to the closing date.