Principal Social Worker and Head of Practice

Principal Social Worker and Head of Practice

Job Description

Permanent contract (or Secondment for 12 months for internal applications) full-time 37 hours per week £64,089 to £71,512 per annum (Grade N) Norwich

This role will be mostly onsite in one of our Countywide offices.

Head of Practice - Independent Services, Assurance and Practice

Excellent practice is at the heart of Children's Services transformation and quality assurance.

We are currently looking to recruit a Head of Practice who will become a member of the management team within Independent Services, Assurance & Practice to drive forward high-quality practice and ensure excellent outcomes for children and young people in Norfolk.

You will be required to lead the development of the vision and core principles for practice in Norfolk, overseeing the design and delivery of the practice development offer to teams across Children's Services, ensuring that practice models are developed with children's feedback at their heart.

As Head of Practice, you will be integral to ensuring the development and maintenance of an effective learning culture across Children's Services, creating the conditions for learning and practice development to thrive.

Within this role you will also act as the Principal Social Worker for Children's Services providing professional leadership, guidance and development for social work and social care across the children's system.

As a registered Social Worker with significant post-qualification management experience, you will provide line management to a number of teams.

Should you wish to have an informal discussion about the role please email Tania Fulcher (Assistant Director Independent Statutory Services, Assurance and Practice) at

Before you apply, we recommend reading the full Job Description and Person Specification to help you demonstrate you meet the criteria we are looking for.

These are some benefits you can enjoy by working for Norfolk County Council:

• Competitive salary
• Generous holiday entitlement with the ability to buy and sell leave
• Health and Wellbeing services including fast-track physiotherapy and a free counselling service
• Flexible working opportunities including flexi-time, part time, remote and hybrid working - dependent on your job role and business need.
• Financial benefits such as:
  • ' Norfolk Rewards' our employee discount programme which helps you save money on almost anything, from everyday groceries and clothes, to holidays, new technology, gym membership, trips to the cinema and days out.
  • A Blue Light card for Fire Service and Social Care Workers
  • Relocation expenses (where applicable)
  • An advance of your expenses if you travel for work
  • Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contribution, life assurance, death in service payments and dependants' pensions.
  • A payment if you refer someone you know to a hard to fill job.
  • Tax efficient ways of getting extra pension, new bikes and electric cars.

You can find information on our Terms and Conditions here.

Already a Norfolk County Council employee? please apply using email.

Closing date for redeployees to receive priority consideration: 22 December 2024

Closing date: 6th January 2025

About Us

We have miles of beautiful coastline and our unique Broads, thriving market towns and a city with a proud cultural heritage. Our economy is growing and driven by innovation in a number of sectors, including energy and food. We also have ambitious plans for new housing and a building programme for schools across Norfolk. Our county a great place to live, work and visit, and is an excellent environment for businesses to start, grow and innovate.

We are the main local authority for Norfolk providing services countywide to more than 850,000 Norfolk residents. We take the lead in critical policy areas, working with 84 elected Members responsible for the strategic local government services in the county.

We provide a high quality service through involving people who use our services to shape and comment on them and by promoting efficiency and innovation.

We work in partnership with local businesses, voluntary organisations and other local authorities such as District and Parish Councils to provide the people of Norfolk with excellent services.