Team Manager - Family Help (fixed term)

We have a wonderful opportunity for a colleague who wishes to gain more experience in a Team Manager role on a secondment basis for 8 months. 

You will lead a close-knit and supportive team that strives for excellence and adopts a strengths-based approach in their work. Collaborating with fellow team members, children, their families, and other professionals, you will be responsible for managing a multidisciplinary team and ensuring the quality of all statutory work for families supported with children in need plans and families within Early Help.

The post holder will:

• Directly line manage a team with a range of specialisms.
• Facilitate collaboration across the system.
• Coordinate the delivery of locality priorities at a team level.
• Ensure that statutory duties are fulfilled.
• Demonstrate a good understanding of the relevant legislation
• Ensure that statutory data collected is used to effectively inform planning, both short and long term in order to facilitate improvement.
• Work across the county, taking responsibility for a key area of practice and or function delivery and provide matrix leadership in this space.
• Hold the strategic responsibility in ensuring that officers and other members of the team are advised of the functioning of the team and its remit.

About you:

To succeed in this role, you will be a qualified social worker, youth worker, teacher or hold another equivalent professional qualification at diploma level and ideally have experience managing or playing a lead role in a dynamic team from various disciplines; that may have included but not limited to Family workers, Social Workers, Parenting Workers and Social Work Students, with a strong emphasis on reflective supervision.

As the ideal candidate, you demonstrate:

• A child-focused approach: Prioritising the well-being and interests of children, ensuring their needs guide decision-making.
• Effective communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills enabling successful collaboration with diverse individuals and agencies.
• Relationship-building expertise: Proficiency in establishing and nurturing relationships, fostering collaboration among multiple agencies.
• Advocate for reflective and strengths-based practice: Actively engaging in reflective practice, encouraging others to identify and develop their strengths.
• Skill in managing risk and uncertainty: Capable of assessing and managing risks confidently, navigating uncertain situations effectively.
• Strong reflective abilities: Proficiency in critical self-reflection, continuous learning, and refining professional approaches.
• Supervisory experience: Previous role as a supervisor, providing guidance, support, and feedback to a team.
• Use of performance data: Skilled at leveraging performance data to inform and improve practice, driving positive outcomes for children and families.
• Passion for development and improvement: Genuine enthusiasm for professional growth, actively seeking opportunities to enhance skills and contribute to practice enhancement.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact [email protected]  

You must be able to fulfil the travel requirements as this post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

Dorset Council: A great place to work

We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

• provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
• have ambitious aspirations
• are excited about our future
• care about Dorset and all the people who live here
• know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success

You will:

• have access to a range of employee benefits 
• be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
• have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.

Find out more about how to apply.