Head of Service

We are looking for permanent **Head of Service **to guide us through our improvement journey.

We currently have vacancies in the following areas:

- Corporate Parenting
- Child Protection and Court
- MASH & Assessment

Herefordshire is on a journey and we would like you to be lead in our next chapter. This is an exciting opportunity to have a genuine impact on the local authority and help improve and protect the children and young people within it.

You will be a qualified Social Worker with significant experience of managing a large team in a demanding environment. Throughout your career you will have applied Signs of Safety as a practice approach and helped develop practice standards.

With proven successes in using performance tools to measure quality outcomes for children as well as family feedback to improve service performance, you will dedicated to supporting your team and colleagues while ultimately improving the lives of children and families within Herefordshire.

We Offer

**A competitive salary, generous holiday entitlement, and access to our contributory pension and staff benefits scheme, which includes**:
Basic Salary of £57,503 - £62,320
Pension Scheme Enrolment in the Local Government (LGPS)
**Professional development: protected time and budget to support social workers develop themselves and their careers.**
**Generous Annual Leave: 25 days’ annual leave (pro rata) plus bank holidays. After five years’ continuous service, this increases to 30 days (pro rata) plus bank holidays. You can also purchase an additional 10 days per annum**
Flexible working: flexi-time, job-share, part-time hours and, in some instances, home working
**Employee Assistance Programme: 24/7 access to support and counselling**
Payment of professional membership fees
**Pick your perks - our benefits include access to a range of retail, leisure, holiday and health benefits. This includes savings, cash back and discounts.**
**About Us**

Herefordshire is a beautiful, historic county located in the heart of the Marches on the border with Wales. We are one of the most rural and sparsely populated counties in England with a wealth of unspoilt countryside, distinctive heritage, and lively and attractive market towns.

Our priority in Herefordshire is to keep children safe and give them a great start in life. It’s the priority for the council, our partners and for all of us who work with Children & Young People.

How do we do this? By having dynamic, dedicated, passionate and professional staff who work in a culture that focuses on what we can achieve with children, what they can achieve themselves, and the relationship we build with families and partners to enable this. We have invested heavily in training and developing staff in our single practice approach which is Signs of Safety and it's is an exciting time to join Herefordshire - we believe in investing in you so you can be the best you can be

Herefordshire has a really strong team ethos. Our teams are passionate about the work they do and the positive difference they and the teams they are in make to people’s lives. This is all underpinned by the focus and support from their managers and the council as a whole.

We’re realistic about the scale of the challenges ahead and understand what has held us back in the past. Inequalities in some of our neighbourhoods are stark and struggling communities need extra support. We will deliver better support to our most vulnerable children and their families, develop stronger relationships with partners across the region, and beyond, to help us tackle the challenges our county faces.

Come to Herefordshire and join the journey.

**Salary**: £57,500.00-£62,300.00 per year

**Benefits**:

- Company pension
- Flexitime
- On-site parking
- Relocation assistance
- Sick pay
- Work from home

Schedule:

- Monday to Friday

Ability to commute/relocate:

- Hereford, HR4 0LE: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (preferred)

**Experience**:

- social work: 2 years (preferred)

Licence/Certification:

- Social Work England registration (preferred)

Work authorisation:

- United Kingdom (preferred)