Family Court Adviser (Social Worker)- Chelmsford Covering Essex,

The Cafcass Chelmsford team will be holding a free online Live Event. This will be held over Teams on Thursday 4th April, starting at 17:00 and lasting roughly an hour. This is a great opportunity to learn about Cafcass and the work we do, and also a chance meet the hiring manager, as well as some of our current Family Court Advisers. To register your interest, please sign up via the vacancy link.

We are recruiting for the role of Family Court Adviser (Social Worker) for our Public and PrivateLaw team in Chelmsford coveringEssex (North or South) or Thurrock or Southend area.

We are a large team that covers Essex, Thurrock, and Southend Local Authority areas - there are three smaller geographical teams within the larger team:

• Team 1 covering Southend/Thurrock
• Team 2 covering South Chelmsford, Basildon, Grays, Harlow, Epping, and North London Boroughs
• Team 3 North Essex (Clacton, Colchester, north Chelmsford, Braintree, Harwich)

Primarily, the families allocated to you will live within these individual areas, however you may be expected to travel throughout the county depending on demand and capacity within teams.

We trust and empower colleagues to work in a hybrid way, providing the resources, equipment, and support, so that individually and collectively, we can be the voice of children and young people when the Family Court makes critical decisions about their futures.

Whilst this role is part of a team based from our office in Chelmsford, our teams work flexibly and remotely, your proximity to the office doesn't always have to be a critical consideration.

We are a diverse, inclusive organisation that is a safe space for colleagues with shared aspects of identity and lived experience, which helps ensure we provide a service which promotes the diversity and uniqueness of children and families from all backgrounds. We especially welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds as we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with.

We provide extensive wellbeing support for colleagues, as well as excellent benefits, all of which we hope encourages you to join us.

Let us tell you a bit more about the role

Working in the Public and Private Law team, Family Court Advisers are involved in a combination of cases where either the families require the assistance to agree on the best arrangements for the welfare and safety of the child(ren) involved or the local authority has serious concerns and requests the involvement of Cafcass in the case. Family Court Advisers are typically involved in undertaking direct work with children, gaining their views and wishes and representing these to the court via written reports and giving evidence and advocating for arrangements that are in the best interests of the child(ren) involved.

and what we're looking for.

Being a Family Court Adviser is very rewarding - but it's not for everyone. You must be a Social Work England registered Social Worker who's organised, resilient and able to work independently. Confident in your abilities, you've worked with children and families for three years or longer.

You can find out more about the above - and much more - before you apply, and we also recommend you read the job description.

Next steps / timelines

If and when you are ready to apply, our application process is straightforward and quick to complete. You don't need to complete your application in a single visit, you can start it and come back and amend your responses / update your CV, just make sure you come back before the closing date to submit.

Below we have given you an indication of a timetable we are hoping to work towards, although dates are subject to change.

Closing date:

Sunday 14th April 2024

Initial interview:

W.C. 22nd April 2024

Final Interview:

W.C. 29th April 2024

We understand that starting a new role is a big decision, and you may require further information before applying. You can find out more about the role in the Job Description and there is a wealth of information about Cafcass on our Cafcass Careers page.

If you wish to speak with a member of the team for more specific information you can either contact Narinder Kaur at from our HR Resourcing team if your query is HR related or to do with the recruitment process, or Aimee Burch at if your questions relate more to the role, providing your contact information and best times / methods to get hold of you.

Whilst we will always try and respond a.s.a.p. we wouldn't want you to miss the closing date before we are able to. If this is the case, we recommend you apply and as part of your application you can ask questions, and this may allow us to contact you and provide you with the required information that will help you decide if you still wish to be considered.

Finally, in anticipation of your application being successful, you might want to read about the offer and pre-employment checks process. As part of your application you can highlight any concerns or questions about the pre-employment checks and we encourage all applicants to do so, safe in the knowledge such information will not be shared with individuals involved in the selection process.