Service Manager - Work After First Hearing - Exeter

The Vacancy

We are recruiting for the role of Service Manager in our Work After First Hearing team covering the Exeterarea.

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 Exeter, 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

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

The role is within our Private Law team, where Family Court Advisers are involved when 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.

and what we're looking for.

We also think you for you to succeed and truly make a difference you should be someone who has;

• 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

Benefits

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, 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, including excellent holidays and a generous Local Government Pension Scheme to name just two things.

We also understand that you will want to work for an organisation that is both passionate and 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 a multitude of ways in which we do this.

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:

Friday 24 May 2024 at 23:59

Initial Interview:

Friday 31 May 2024

Final Interview:

Monday 10 June 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 contact our HR Resourcing team (), 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.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Please be advised successful applicants will be subject to a range of pre-engagement checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). In accordance with the DBS code of practice and our own policy, should an individual have a declared criminal offence an individual assessment will be completed. Further information on what the assessment covers can be found by viewing the Cafcass DBS poli