Head of Service for Practice, Deputy Principal Social Worker (Starting Well)

Grade 12- £75,144  - £84,384 pa with an additional Market Supplement (MS) of £10,000 subject to final confirmation.

Head of Service for Practice, Deputy Principal Social Worker (Starting Well) Havering

Working Arrangements: Hybrid (minimum 3 days in office per week)

Contract: Permanent

Message from the Director

Are you passionate about making a positive impact on the lives of children, young people, and families? Do you have a strong desire to be part of a transformative journey that will shape the future of Havering’s community? If so, we invite you to join us in our mission to elevate our local authority's Children's Social Care Services, situated within our Starting Well Department.

Following our recent inadequate Ofsted inspection, we are embarking on an improvement journey where we aim to re-establish and reinvigorate great practice across all our services delivered in Havering. As part of this journey, we are seeking dedicated and enthusiastic social care practitioners ready to make a meaningful difference, driven by a genuine desire to advocate for children, promote their well-being, and who are not afraid to take on the challenge of working for a local authority who have been inspected by Ofsted as inadequate.

In return, we want to offer you the opportunity to develop your skills through our dedicated 10 days of learning a year offer and access to our very own Social Care Academy and Systemic offer. We are committed to creating an environment where every child receives the best possible support and care, and all staff are supported to thrive and excel in safe, supported, and nurturing environments.

Our Senior leaders have worked on an improvement plan, and if you are ready to embrace this challenge and play a pivotal role in shaping our journey, we encourage you to apply.

We look forward to welcoming individuals who share our vision and drive.

About the Role

The purpose of this role is to;

Provide operational and strategic leadership to the Systemic Family Therapy Team, the Quality Assurance Team and to the Independent Reviewing Service and Child Protection Case Conference Service.

To ensure the Practice Development Manager duties and activities are well targeted, impactful and contributing to practice improvement.

The post holder is responsible for ensuring practice is in line with current legislation and relevant guidance so that high quality assessments and interventions are delivered in time,  to meet children and family’s assessed needs and improve outcomes.
 

• Provide strategic leadership to improve outcomes for children through the delivery of service wide quality assurance and improvement activity. 
• Ensure effective quality assurance mechanisms and systems are in place in order to achieve positive outcomes for children and young people.  
• Responsible for the Quality Assurance Framework, the Practice Standards and Audit Service, the Independent Reviewing service, Child Protection Conference service and Child in Need reviewing function and Systemic Practice Team.
• Ensure key messages from quality assurance activity including: local, partnership and thematic audit findings’ are routinely shared across Children’s Services and learning is impactful, well evidenced and contributes to training and consistent service and practice improvement.
• Deliver a broad and sustained contribution to the achievement of the authority’s aims and objectives under the Starting Well plan. 
• The role should promote and govern excellent systemic, face to face practice across the service, ensuring purposeful work is undertaken with children, young people and families in conjunction with other social care teams and across multi-agency partners which safeguard, improve outcomes and adhere to timescales. 
• To lead and performance manage a social care and/or a multi-professional team(s) against local and national indicators and targets within statute and the relevant guidance to ensure that assessment and interventions are delivered in time and are of high quality to meet children and family’s needs and deliver the required outcome 

As one of the greenest boroughs in London, resourcefulness is in our nature. We don’t wait to be told, we take the initiative. We face the future head-on, embracing new challenges with open minds and fresh ideas. There’s lots of opportunities to progress here, and if you seize them we’ll support you all the way. Choose Havering and see the difference you’ll make to the people that live, work and learn here.

From caring for those who need it most, to ensuring our highways and streets are safe, providing a roof over the heads of our residents, providing excellent customer service or, enhancing our digital services for staff and residents, there are so many ways you can make a positive influence here. And, whether you’re outdoorsy, people-focused or analytical, we have a role that’s right for you.

Please view Job Profile here

For an informal discussion about the post, please contact Charmaine.Malcolm@havering.gov.uk 

The closing date for the receipt of applications is 2nd Aug 2025 at 23:59, however interest in this job may be high and we therefore reserve the right to close the vacancy early.

You will be notified if your application has been successful.  Interview dates to be confirmed

Additional Information

We want everyone to choose Havering. When you apply for a job with us, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. Our residents and service users come from all walks of life, and so do our employees. 

The London Borough of Havering has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Please attach your supporting statement, explaining in no more than x2 A4 sides why and how you meet the criteria for this role.

We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.