Service Manager - Public And Private Law - Stevenage

After Ofsted Inspectors spoke to over 300 staff earlier this year, they shared some amazing quotes - visit What colleagues said about working with us Cafcass to find out more and details of our event where you can hear from some of our social workers and managers.

We are Cafcass - the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service - and we represent children in family court cases in England. Independently advising the family courts about what is safe for children and in their best interests, we speak up for over 140,0000 children and young people every year ensuring their needs, wishes and feelings are heard. In short, our role is to be their voice.

While we are proud that Ofsted judged us to be 'outstanding' when they inspected us in early 2024, we haven't come this far only to come this far. This outcome has energised us to just keep getting better at what we do for children and families.

If our purpose resonates with you, we are recruiting for the role of Service Manager - Public and Private Law Team.

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

Let us tell you a bit more about the role

Being a Service Manager is very rewarding but as you would expect, challenging too. As well as being registered with Social Work England, you'll be organised, resilient, empathetic, supportive and able to work independently.

In Public and Private Law teams, Family Court Advisers - which is what we call our Social Workers - typically have a mixed Public and Private Law caseload.

In Public Law this will include them telling the court about the child's journey and experiences and explain their wishes and feelings, while also carrying out independent enquiries, scrutinising the work of the Local Authority and representing the child in court, alongside their appointed solicitor.

In Private Law, Family Court Advisers are involved where families require the assistance of the court to agree on the best child arrangements for the child(ren) involved. Family Court Advisers are typically involved with children for a period of assessment for the court, 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 their best interests. This will draw on robust risk assessment and mediation skills.

As Service Manageryou will have:

• Expert knowledge of children's social work, including safeguarding, statutory and assessment frameworks
• A track record of highly effective practice management or supervisory experience
• Demonstrable experience of being a practice educator with the skills to continuously monitor, manage, develop and improve team and individual performance
• Proven ability to establish strong and effective networks with other agencies
• Experience of leading individuals and teams through change

The above is just a flavour of what the role entails and if you're thinking of applying, we encourage you to read the full job description (which you can access when you click through) to gain a better understanding.

Should you join us, you will be trusted to work flexibly and independently using outstanding technology (e.g. touchscreen laptops, iPhone, all with first class support, including IT Trainers) and have access to substantial resources (e.g. Cafcass Library has over 27,000 resources on social work, child protection and related topics). You will also have opportunities to develop, whatever team you join, wherever you are in the country and at whatever stage you are at in your career.

We also know that to join us you want to be rewarded in a variety of ways, including quality time away from work to spend time with those important to you and support to manage your financial present and future, whilst also being trusted to manage your work/life balance. We have an extensive package of benefits that you can find out more about when you click through.

We also understand you will want to work for an organisation committed to supporting your wellbeing. As you will find out when you visit our vacancy page, the four dedicated, additional days per year when colleagues are encouraged to spend time focusing on their health and wellbeing is just one of the many ways in which we do this.

We know it is important for everyone to work in a diverse, inclusive organisation that is a safe space for colleagues with shared aspects of identity and lived experience. Given we work with children and families from all backgrounds, we especially welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds as this helps ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with and provide a service that reflects their uniqueness.

Ready to find out more?

What we've shared with you here is just a fraction of what we think you may like to know and might help you decide to apply. We would also like you to be able to access the job description for this role and also find out about the timelines we are working towards, all of which you can find by clicking through to our vacancy page.

We look forward to hearing from you.