Senior Social Worker

We are looking for an experienced and committed Senior Social Worker to join one of our new Family Help Pods as part of our Family First transformation programme.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a service that is committed to providing the right support at the right time, working alongside families earlier to build on strengths, prevent escalation, and improve outcomes for children and young people.

Contract type: permanent

Closing Date: 15 November 2026

Interviews to be held: 19th November 2026

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Julie Dreher, Head of Service, Family Help & Protection onemail julie.dreher@brighton-hove.gov.uk

About the role

As a Senior Social Worker, you will work directly with children, young people and their families, holding case responsibility and providing assessment, intervention and support across the continuum of need, including:

Targeted Early Help

Child in Need

Child Protection

Public Law Outline and Court Proceedings

Looked After Children

This unique role offers the opportunity to remain alongside families for longer, reducing the need for multiple transfers between teams and creating the conditions for strong, trusting relationships to develop.

You will manage a varied caseload and lead on more complex and high-risk cases, using professional curiosity, analysis and evidence-informed practice to achieve lasting change for children and families.

As a Senior Social Worker you will:

Hold and manage a complex caseload across the Family Help pathway.

Undertake high-quality assessments and create effective plans with families.

Deliver purposeful interventions that build on family strengths and promote sustainable change.

Lead on complex child protection, court and care planning work.

Develop and maintain strong relationships with children, families and partner agencies.

Support social work students, newly qualified social workers and less experienced colleagues.

Share expertise, modelling high-quality practice and contributing to a learning culture.

Deputise for the Pod Manager when required, supporting day-to-day operational oversight and decision making.

Contribute to service development and the continued implementation of Family First transformation.

About you

We are looking for a skilled and reflective practitioner who:

Is a qualified Social Worker registered with Social Work England.

Has substantial post-qualifying experience working with children and families.

Demonstrates strong assessment, intervention and analytical skills.

Has experience of working across Child in Need, Child Protection, court work and care planning.

Is confident managing complexity, risk and uncertainty.

Can support and mentor colleagues, students and newly qualified social workers.

Is committed to achieving excellent outcomes for children through relationship-based practice.

Most importantly, we are looking for someone who:

Works in a trauma-informed way, recognising the impact of adversity and helping families to build resilience.

Believes in the power of relationships to create positive change.

Is committed to anti-oppressive, anti-discriminatory and anti-racist practice.

Shares our ambition to provide support earlier and prevent children and families from requiring more intensive statutory intervention wherever possible.

What we offer

The opportunity to help shape an innovative Family Help Hub model.

Strong management support and reflective supervision.

Opportunities for professional development and career progression.

A collaborative, supportive and learning-focused culture.

The chance to make a lasting difference for children, young people and families.

If you are an experienced social worker who is passionate about relationship-based practice, committed to social justice, and excited by the opportunity to be part of a transformational approach to supporting families, we would love to hear from you.

Apply today and help us build a Family First service that keeps children safe, strengthens families, and creates lasting change.

Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

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