Senior Practitioner

Job number

LBC04062

Contract Type

Permanent

Posting End Date

23 November 2025

Job Area

Children's Social Care

Salary: £42,839 - £46,142 a year plus £963 essential car user allowance plus £5,500 market supplement allowance

Hours per week: 37

Contract type: Permanent

Our CWD Specialist Intervention Team is a team working with children and young people with Mental ill health/emotional wellbeing issues and a diagnosis of learning difficulties such as Autism /ADHD or associated behaviours. The team carry small caseloads and work intensively with families and other professionals – especially colleagues in CAMH. We are passionate, innovative and creative in our approach.

Often these young people have disengaged with education and we work very closely with colleagues in education to ensure that they have an EHCP if needed – and the right educational placement for them.

As a Senior Practitioner within our Specialist Intervention team, you'll be responsible for a caseload of complex cases providing assessment, care management and other social work services relevant to the needs of the most vulnerable/ at risk children and families.

Under the direction of the Team Manager, you'll use professional skills and experience to provide practice management to team members.

If you have a good working knowledge of young people with autism, mental health and want the opportunity to make a real difference to young people's lives, then please get in touch

Please note this role does not attract sponsorship.

You are a qualified and experienced social worker, registered with Social Work England (DipSW, CSS, CQSW or equivalent), with a strong background in child and family social work. You bring a commitment to delivering high-quality, child-centred practice and supporting others to do the same.

You will have:

• Substantial post-qualifying experience, including in-depth work with children and families
• Experience supporting children with learning difficulties and mental health conditions
• A solid understanding of current legislation, statutory guidance, and best practice in children's social care
• The ability to manage complex and conflicting demands effectively
• Experience of coaching, mentoring, and practice teaching
• A commitment to continuous professional development—both your own and that of others

You are passionate about supporting high standards of practice across your team. Through co-working, mentoring and offering advice and guidance, you help to develop others' professional skills and confidence. You thrive in a collaborative environment and are driven to ensure the best possible outcomes for children and families.

Luton Council has been selected to deliver the government's Families First for Children Pathfinder programme.

Luton is one of seven new areas in the second wave to be chosen with the aim of protecting vulnerable children from harm and improving services to help more children stay with their families in safe and loving homes.

The programme is an amazing opportunity for Luton to shape future social care practice, which includes closer working relationships with our health, police, education and voluntary sector partners.

Children are at the heart of everything we do in Luton, and we are very proud of the tremendous work that is already taking place together with our partners, including the development of our Family Hubs and working towards making Luton a child-friendly town where our children and young people can grow up feeling happy, healthy and secure.

Our ambitious Luton 2040 Vision – that no-one in Luton will have to live in poverty – is at the heart of everything we do. We recognise that our people are remarkable, talented, committed and passionate about serving our residents.

The people of Luton depend heavily on this council – and that means our workforce Are you ready to realise the remarkable and help us deliver our vision?

We welcome applications from all sections of the community and are committed to developing a workforce that reflects the diversity of our borough

Because of the nature of this job, it will be necessary for the appropriate level of criminal record disclosure to be undertaken. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare all unspent cautions and convictions; and also any adult cautions (simple or conditional), and spent convictions that are not protected as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in A person's criminal record will not in itself prevent a person from being appointed to this post. Applicants will not be refused posts because of offences which are not relevant to, and do not place them at or make them a risk in, the role for which they are applying. However in the event of the employment being taken up, any failure to disclose such offence, as detailed above, will result in dismissal or disciplinary action by the Authority.

We offer a range of excellent staff benefits which include:

• From 25 to 32 days' annual leave: linked to length of service and grade
• Buying annual leave scheme:buy up to 20 days additional annual leave
• Career Pathways: step up in your career or move into a specialist area
• Pension scheme:with generous employer contributions of up to 20.2 per cent (at July 2023) and 3x salary death in service grant
• Generous relocation package:up to £8,000 (subject to eligibility)
• Employee Assistance Programme: a free, 24/7 confidential counselling and wellbeing support service available to all employees, their partner or spouse and dependent children over 16 still living at home
• Work/life balance: flexible working options including working from home where possible. We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements including part-time hours and alternative working patterns
• Training and support:unlimited access to development courses, mentoring and support and clear career pathways
• Staff offers: includes discounts on your MOT, gym and fitness, restaurants and salons
• Arriva Travel Club: great value savings on local bus travel
• Friday Funday Socials - One Friday every 2 months where we encourage our staff to get together to socialise after work