This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.
1. Job Title: Advanced Practitioner (Children in Care)
2. Job Location: Gloucester
3. Salary: £48,226 - £51,356 per annum
4. Hours per Week: 37.00
5. Contract Type: Permanent
6. Closing Date: 11/01/2026
7. Job Requisition Number: 11004
8. This post is open to job share
We are currently recruiting for an Advanced Practitioner to join our Children in Care team based in Gloucester.
Reward and support
For all your hard work, you will receive the following:
9. between £48,226 - £51,356 per annum subject to experience
10. welcome payment of £4,000*
11. annual retention payment of £2,000*
12. up to £8,000 relocation package**
13. flexible and agile working opportunities
14. 25.5 days annual leave rising to 30.5 days after 5 years continuous service
15. an option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part-time staff)
16. family friendly policies and benefits to help support you and your family
17. supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
18. local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
19. access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone.
20. an in-house Occupational Health service
21. employee discount scheme
22. cycle to work scheme
23. salary sacrifice green car scheme (T&Cs apply)
24. links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) and the Young Employees Network
25. career development and qualification opportunities
26. access to our Social Work Academy
27. paid SWE registration renewal
Our vision
Right child, right support, right time, every time
In our recent inspection in June 2025, our Children’s Services have been officially judged as ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ elements. Ofsted also said ‘Leaders have set out a clear vision for delivering success for children, by modelling values and creating a culture where the workforce, children and families feel valued and heard; risk is managed confidently with bottom lines clearly set out.’
This marks an important step in our journey to improve outcomes for our children and young people, and we remain focused on our mission: to continue building on this success and ensure that every child and young person in our county has the opportunity to thrive.
Gloucestershire offers a range of opportunities to develop your career, supported by a phenomenal Social Work Academy offer, a developing systemic practice methodology, an ambitious leadership team and an award-winning workforce.
We are a local authority adopting, and training all colleagues in, systemic social work practice. If you would like to be part of an authority that takes a relational approach to working with families and focuses on what needs to change in the system around a child and family to enable children to thrive, then consider a role with GCC.
About you
As an Advanced Practitioner, you will be instrumental in delivering a first-class service which will deliver the best outcomes for the children and young people of Gloucestershire. You will be a resilient, driven individual who can play your part in making our vision for children’s services a reality. Taking on a protected case load, you will work to create the best outcomes for children and young people with complex and challenging needs, risks and circumstances.
You will take a lead in promoting and supporting quality control and improvement activities within the team and across the service and support performance activities within the team. Your role will also include providing for the practice and development of Trainee Social Workers on placement and NQSW within the team. You will also provide support when needed to the team manager in supporting the 5 Social Workers within the team.
As well as your experience as a frontline senior social worker, there are some things we require of you to be successfully appointed to this post:
28. Social Work England registration
29. a recognised qualification in Social Work
30. to have passed your Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE)
31. a full driving licence and willingness to drive
32. DBS clearance
How to apply
*Interview is scheduled to take place 22nd January 2025
*Interviews will take place in person at Shire Hall Gloucester
*Welcome payments and retention payments are subject to normal tax and national insurance deductions
**Terms and conditions apply
We reserve the right to close an advertisement earlier than the stated closing date if we receive a suitable number of applications.
Additional Information
To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-
This position is subject to a DBS check.
Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.
It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.
Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.