Family Solutions Practice Supervisor
Fixed Term, Full Time
£46,574 to £56,027 per annum
Location: Chelmsford
Working Style: Fixed-base worker
Closing Date: 18th February 2026
This is a 12 month Fixed Term Contract or Secondment Opportunity
We are a dynamic, passionate, supportive and vibrant team who provide intensive support to families, and we ensure that family empowerment is at the heart of our interventions. You will be joining a well-established and high performing team at a time when we are growing and evolving as a service.
We would love to hear from interested and suitably experienced applicants who are committed to working with whole families to help them achieve their outcomes and improve their family lives.
The Role
The postholder will work closely with the Team Manager to enable the Family Workers to continue to deliver positive outcomes for children, young people and the families we support as well as maintaining the effective working relationships that we have developed with partners. The role will involve you supervising staff from a range of professional backgrounds, supporting them to work creatively and innovatively. It also requires you to manage new referrals via a duty system making decisions about required actions and allocating work.
What you will need
- Professionally qualified in social work and registered with Social Work England. Ideally you will hold a practice educator qualification or be willing to work towards achieving one and have some supervisory experience.
- At least three years post qualified with evidence of post qualification development.
- Demonstrable skills in staff supervision and experience of developing good practice with staff through approaches such as coaching, joint working/observations, and reflective discussions.
- Experience of dealing with incoming referrals effectively, risk assessing and allocating tasks. Have an ability to problem solve in crisis.
- Experience of cases allocation, and safety planning.
- Ability to work effectively in partnership with a wide range of professionals, building relationships to promote safety of children and resolve differences.
- Commitment to practice improvement and able to utilise the principles of effective practice to improve outcomes for children and young people with a range of complex needs.
- Good presentation skills and be able to use these to represent the team (in the absence of the Team Manager) at locality strategic planning meetings.
- Working knowledge of children’s service legislation and guidance; including understanding of current changes to early help / family help / Families First Partnership Programme
To read more about us please visit: Children & Families
Please take a look at our ‘No Magic’ Children & Families video
Why Essex?
As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone’s Essex . With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.
In February 2025 , Greater Essex was accepted onto the Government’s devolution priority programme, which will see local authorities in Essex work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority by May 2026. You can read more about devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR ) on our careers site.
Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.
Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.
At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles , including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.
The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.
As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service
Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.
If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community
If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk
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