Do you believe every child deserves to grow up surrounded by love, family, and a sense of belonging? Are you ready to lead a 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 Team Manager, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our service, inspiring your team to deliver exceptional support to kinship and connected carers. This is your chance to drive innovation, champion family-based care, and make a lasting difference for children across County Durham. WHAT’S INVOLVED? As Team Manager, you will: Lead a skilled team of social workers, supporting Connected Carers from initial viability through to long-term fostering and post-panel support. Provide reflective, high-quality supervision and promote a culture of learning, accountability, and trauma-informed practice. Oversee the quality of assessments, reports, and reviews, ensuring compliance with fostering regulations and standards. Monitor and manage team performance, meeting statutory timescales and delivering excellent outcomes for children. You’ll be supported by: A Social Work Consultant – driving evidence-based practice, innovation, and improved outcomes. An Enhanced Practitioner – guiding Newly Qualified Social Workers, managing caseloads, and overseeing their ASYE journey. 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” is there for you. You can find out more about social work in Durham here. WHAT WILL YOU NEED? A Degree in Social Work (or equivalent) and Social Work England registration Proven experience in fostering, safeguarding, or permanence planning Excellent leadership, communication, and analytical skills Strong knowledge of fostering regulations and national minimum standards A commitment to trauma-informed, strengths-based practice Please refer to the attached person specification for full criteria. If successful, you will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service Enhanced Disclosure. INTERVIEWS Interviews will be held 6th February 2026. 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. If you are looking to relocate to join us removal, lodging and separation expenses of up to £8,000 may be available to you if you live outside of County Durham and in excess of 30 miles in a straight line from your new base, along with a number of other criteria for eligibility. INTERESTED? Contact Rachael Riley, Service Manager at Rachael.Riley@durham.gov.uk for an informal discussion. 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