Organisation:  Leicestershire County Council

Work Location:  Various locations across Leicestershire

Worker Category: Field Based Worker

Salary: Level 2 Social Worker – £38,734 - £45,982 per annum (pro-rata for part-time) (inclusive of market premia at £3,283)

Working Hours:  37 hours per week

Contract Type:  Permanent

Closing Date: 8th February 2026

Interview Date(s):  5th March 2026

Come and be part of our Outstanding Family Safeguarding Service.

It’s an exciting time to be a part of Children and Family Services at Leicestershire County Council, our staff are at the heart of delivering excellent services to children and families across Leicestershire. Come and join us and make a difference in the lives of children and families in Leicestershire.

Our recent Ofsted inspection praised Leicestershire’s work to build “strong and long-lasting relationships” with children and families which lead to many families achieving “positive changes” in their lives.​ ​They highlighted an “ambitious and child-focused senior leadership that has successfully created a culture where the experiences and progress of children are at the heart of social work practice”. ​

You can read more about our Outstanding Ofsted rating  here 

About the Role

Our Family Safeguarding Service specialises in delivering high-quality Child Protection Services to children and families across Leicestershire. In this role, as an experienced social worker, you will have a focus on overseeing children subject to child protection plans, alongside pre-proceedings and care proceedings, and therefore experience in this area is essential. 

About You

To apply for this post, you must respond to and evidence the following 7 essential criteria within your personal statement. This should be no more than 1,000 words.

PLEASE NOTE: Previous applicants need not re-apply as all prior submissions have been reviewed.

• Have a social work degree or equivalent, e.g., CQSW or DipSW (with a specialism in children’s services) with a number of years’ post qualifying experience. You must also be registered with Social Work England.
• You MUST hold a full, valid, UK driving licence (or be able to convert your current licence) and have access to a vehicle.
• Be confident and experienced in statutory child protection services, including the completion of Care Proceedings, possessing strong assessment skills demonstrating the ability to make sound decisions that offer support and that are impactful. This would need to be demonstrated through clear and evidenced examples.
• Knowledge of UK childcare legislation and Local Safeguarding Children Partnership procedures, particularly in relation to child protection and Care proceedings. Be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the theoretical underpinning of social work practice and models used.
• You must also understand, and have a commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Be able to evidence your skills and knowledge of creative, innovative, and relationship-based social work, working in collaboration with families and professionals. Ideally, you will already be confident in the application of the Signs of Safety methodology.
• Have excellent prioritisation and time management skills to ensure the successful delivery of competing and changing work demands and be able to demonstrate this via examples.

Please note that an Enhanced DBS check is required for this post. Please ensure your application includes a full career history and provides reasons for any gaps.

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

About Leicestershire County Council 

In Leicestershire, we have a fantastic package to provide our workers. This includes the option as a full-time worker to do a 9-day working fortnight, hybrid working, celebrating diversity with a range of events throughout the year, recognition of our staff in annual Pride In Practice events, fantastic learning and training opportunities – enabling our staff to develop and progress within their roles and committed wellbeing support. 

We are proud of our continuous improvement plan - ‘Achieving Excellence through Purposeful Practice which sets out our key values, behaviours and ambitions. We have embedded the Signs of Safety approach throughout our services and this approach mirrors our values of Aspiration, Being Curious and Collaboration. We are focused on working with families and the networks of family, friends and professionals around children, to work in collaboration to achieve shared goals. 

We are committed to our vision of becoming a trauma-informed responsive department where we believe we are “stronger together”. Our culture is one of partnership, where we look for solutions and recognise the potential impact of trauma on the children and families we work with and on our staff. We will strive to create a safe, compassionate, healing environment demonstrated through relationships based on trust, respect, hope and empathy. We will achieve this through a spirit of curiosity, by nurturing connections through relationships, making a deliberate effort to know and understand people, and by providing hope for growth and recovery.

Learn more about how we are responding to trauma, taking pride in practice and celebrating our achievements in social work here.

We support and empower our staff to be the best that they can be. We will give you the support and resources that you need to work in collaboration with children and families.

For further information on what it’s like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please visit :

Children and Family Social Worker recruitment

Social Worker benefits

Social Worker job profile

Working in Children and Family Services 

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Resourcing Co-ordinator: Jennifer Neville

Tel: 0116 305 7690

To contact us by email please click here

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBT Plus communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible. 

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.org.uk/support. 

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.

About Leicestershire County Council

Leicestershire County Council is a Disability Confident, Menopause Friendly, Mindful Employer, Fostering Friendly, Forces Friendly, and Cycle Friendly organisation. In August 2021, we also signed up to the Race at Work Charter. We are strongly committed to promoting equality and opportunity, championing employee wellbeing and investing in staff training and development.

Our aim is to work with communities and partners to deliver public services that make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone. Our employees play a key role in supporting this goal and helping us deliver the vital services we provide to the people of Leicestershire.

For further information on what it’s like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please refer to the following:

Our Recruitment Process
Our Organisational Values
Our Employee Benefits
Working for Us