Do you believe every child deserves to grow up surrounded by love, family, and a sense of belonging? Are you ready to be part of a leadership team that makes this vision a reality? If so, we want to hear from you! We’re on an exciting journey to expand our Connected Carers Service, doubling in size over the next 12 months, from two teams to four. This growth means more children staying within their family networks, more stability, and more opportunities for lifelong connections. As a Social Work Consultant, you’ll play a key role in shaping the future of our service. You will work hand-in-hand with the Team Manager, combining your expertise to shape outstanding support for children and carers. Together, you’ll champion family-based care, inspire best practice, and lead innovation that makes a lasting difference across County Durham. WHAT’S INVOLVED? As Social Work Consultant, you will: Collaborate with the Team Manager to ensure the team delivers high-quality services for children and carers, aligned with legislation and guidance. Drive best practice by applying research, evidence and your professional expertise. Challenge and improve practice, policies, and procedures; promote innovation and adopt proven approaches. Model and facilitate reflective, evidence-based decision-making. You will be joining us at a fantastic time. Inspectors have judged our Children’s Services as outstanding. You can read the full report here. HOW WILL WE SUPPORT YOU? We are passionate about social work in County Durham. We are committed to providing a culture where good practice can flourish. We will ensure you are highly supported. You will benefit from high quality professional supervision, a great induction, and access to our strong learning and development offer. When you are ready to take your next step our aspiring managers programme “rising stars” will be there for you. You can find out more about social work in Durham here. WHAT WILL YOU NEED? To apply for this role you will: Be a social worker with significant experience of work with children, young people and families. Have experience of championing and commending high quality practice, managing risk and building respectful partnerships. Be a wonderful communicator with experience of building positive relationships with children, young people and families and nurturing other professionals. You can read more about the experience, skills and personal qualities we are looking for in the attached person specification. If successful, you will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure. INTERVIEWS Interviews will be held on 13th February 2026, but we may be able to consider alternative dates if required. We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that can show they meet all the essential criteria and have indicated they have a disability, are a looked after young person, care leaver or a veteran. OUR OFFER TO YOU We offer a competitive rewards package that includes attractive salaries, a generous annual leave entitlement of 27 days (rising to 32 after five years’ continuous local government service), membership of the excellent contributory career average Local Government Pension Scheme, and a range of flexible working arrangements including hybrid working (home and office) where applicable. Explore the full range of rewards and benefits on our website Rewards and benefits are subject to individual terms and conditions. Removal, lodging and separation expenses may be available to you if at the time of application for appointment your place of residence is outside the administrative area of County Durham and more than 30 miles in a straight line from our administrative centre, along with a number of other criteria for eligibility. INTERESTED? Contact Angela Wright or Clare Bromham the Team Managers of our 2 current Connected Carers teams for an informal discussion. Contact Angela by e-mail at angela.wright@durham.gov.uk and Clare at clare.bromham@durham.gov.uk EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION We are a proud equal opportunities employer and believe a diverse workforce brings fresh ideas and drives service improvement. We welcome applications from everyone and make employment decisions based on skills and ability. As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively encourage applications from disabled people and offer support throughout the recruitment process HOW TO APPLY We welcome applications from disabled people and those who are or consider themselves to be neurodivergent. Please note, we do not accept CVs. All applications must be submitted online via the Northeast Jobs portal. Use the ‘Person Specification’ section of the form to clearly demonstrate how you meet the essential (and where possible, desirable) criteria. Applications that do not evidence the essential requirements will not be shortlisted. For guidance on completing your application, visit our website If you require assistance when applying for this role, please contact our Recruitment Helpdesk on 03000 26 27 27, or via email RecruitmentCYPS@durham.gov.uk All correspondence relating to your application will be sent from donotreply@northeastjobs.org.uk. Kindly check your spam/junk folder regularly to ensure you don’t miss any updates. CONNECT WITH US Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook Visit our website VPRS/161