Senior Practitioner (Child Exploitation)

Stand with children. Challenge exploitation. Change futures.

At Staffordshire County Council, we are deeply committed to protecting children from exploitation and creating systems that respond early, intelligently and compassionately. Within our Futures Matter service, we bring together specialist practice, multi‑agency partnership working and contextualised safeguarding to ensure children are seen, heard and protected wherever risk exists.

We are now seeking an experienced and passionate Senior Practitioner – Child Exploitation to play a pivotal role in strengthening practice across the county. This is an opportunity to influence how professionals identify, respond to and prevent exploitation and to lead with confidence, curiosity and integrity in some of the most complex and sensitive safeguarding work.

You will work alongside dedicated colleagues across social care, education, health, police and voluntary partners to shape high‑quality responses that keep children safe and enable them to thrive within their families and communities.

This is a permanent, full‑time post, primarily office‑based with hybrid working arrangements. The role requires regular travel across Staffordshire.

As a CE Senior Practitioner, you will:

• Support the Child Exploitation Team Manager in supervising, mentoring and developing Futures Matter Support Workers.
• Provide expert advice, guidance and challenge to practitioners, team managers and social work colleagues on complex exploitation cases, Police operations, CSPR's and other relevant meetings
• Lead on contextualised safeguarding, supporting risk mitigation strategies across districts
• Contribute to, Coordinate and support MACE Panels, ensuring effective multi-agency responses
• Deliver training, briefings and awareness-raising across the Children’s System to support early identification and intervention
• Represent the Local Authority at regional and partnership forums, including West Midlands networks
• Use research, data and learning to inform evidence-based practice and service development

This role carries a portfolio for child exploitation, trafficking and Missing Children and plays a vital part in shaping practice and improving outcomes county-wide.

You will cover the Stafford and South Staffordshire Districts of the County but will contribute to county wide review and support as necessary.

We are looking for someone who:

• Holds a relevant Social Work qualification
• Has substantial post-qualification experience in safeguarding and child exploitation
• Demonstrates strong knowledge of legislation, guidance and statutory processes, including Working Together to Safeguard Children
• Has a confident understanding of contextual safeguarding and diversionary approaches
• Is an effective communicator with the ability to influence, challenge and support others
• Can work collaboratively with partners and across services
• Is committed to high-quality, child-centred and anti-discriminatory practice

A full driving licence is required, as this is an essential car user post (reasonable adjustments will be made in line with legislation).

Interviews will be held in-person in Stafford on the 28th and 29th April 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:

Stacey Black (CE Team Manager) at Stacey.black1@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.