Team Manager – Children’s Services (Pre-Birth Team)

Our client is offering an exciting opportunity for an experienced Team Manager to lead their well‑established Pre‑Birth Team within Children’s Services based in Durham.

Following a service redesign that began in 2022, Durham’s Pre‑Birth Team works intensively with at‑risk families to support children to remain safely within their birth families wherever possible. The service works closely with care leavers, young parents, and parents with experience of care proceedings, with a clear focus on breaking cycles of repeated social work involvement.

The team has recently redesigned its assessment pathways to deliver bespoke pre‑birth assessments prior to a child’s birth, with these pathways now being launched county‑wide. Caseloads are capped to enable meaningful, relationship‑based work with families.

About the Role

As Team Manager, you will be responsible for the day‑to‑day leadership and management of a team of passionate and nurturing Pre‑Birth Social Workers. You will work closely with a Social Work Consultant to ensure high‑quality practice, effective interventions, and strong outcomes for children and families.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a professional who is passionate about early intervention, leadership, and making a lasting impact on children’s lives.

You will be supported by:

A strong network of Team Managers across East Durham

Social Work Consultants

An engaged and supportive senior management team

A comprehensive in‑house leadership and development programme

What will your responsibilities be?

In this role, you will:

Provide operational leadership and oversight of the Pre‑Birth Team’s work

Support social workers to deliver high‑quality assessments and interventions that promote sustainable change

Ensure practice is safe, child‑focused, and meets statutory and quality standards

Embed and champion the Signs of Safety model of practice across the team

Monitor performance, quality, and outcomes, ensuring work is completed to a high standard

Provide reflective supervision and professional support to social workers

Build and maintain strong working relationships with families, partner agencies, and other professionals

Be visible, accessible, and engaged as a manager to staff and families

Contribute as a key member of the wider Children’s Services management team

Qualifications & Experience:

To be successful in this role, you must have:

Degree level qualification in Social Work (or equivalent).

Registered with Social Work England.

Significant post-qualified experience within Children’s Services.

Proven experience managing or supervising social workers.

Strong understanding of pre-birth work, safeguarding, and early intervention.

Experience embedding Signs of Safety in practice.

Excellent leadership, decision-making, and relationship-building skills.

Desirable: Parent Assessment qualification.

Eligible to work in the UK.

Benefits:

Competitive agency rate of £37.66 per hour.

Capped caseloads allowing quality, relationship-based practice.

Strong senior leadership support.

Comprehensive training and leadership development offer.

Opportunity to influence practice and outcomes at a service level.

Why Liquid Personnel?

Free DBS and compliance service

Twice weekly payroll and ‘Faster Pay’ service, getting you paid more quickly

Access to exclusive roles that aren’t available from other agencies

Free access to Liquid’s exclusive social work training and CPD portal

Your own dedicated consultant with extensive social work knowledge

Access to a wide selection of social work positions across the UK

“Refer a Friend” bonus – get £500 for each social worker you refer who we successfully place

“Find your own job” bonus – get £250 for bringing your own position to us

Liquid Personnel is an equal opportunities employer. Liquid Personnel Ltd is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy. * Terms and conditions apply to our bonus schemes.

Reasonable Adjustments:

If you consider yourself to have a disability or require any reasonable adjustment during the recruitment process or within the workplace, please highlight this at the earliest opportunity by contacting our team. With this information, we will provide appropriate support to you throughout the process and into your work placement.

We are unable to support or accept applications from candidates who are residents within the Red or Amber list of the Code of practice for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel in England, based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) Workforce Support and Safeguard List.

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