Overview
Social Worker - Children and Families Hub, North Essex. Permanent, Full Time. Location: Colchester. Working Style: Fixed-base worker. Salary: £38,487 to £51,834 per annum. Closing Date: 10 May 2026.
The Children and Families Hub is the single point of access for Children’s Social Care. Its primary purpose is to ensure that children and young people and their families receive early help, advice and support to assist in protecting them from significant harm, promoting their development and wellbeing. The Hub identifies the lowest appropriate level of support needed to bring about change, support good parenting and promote children’s emotional wellbeing. It engages parents and professionals in interventions that can bring about change in families and aspires to deliver an outstanding service to children and families in Essex.
The role reports directly to a Senior Practitioner and will be a member of a large team of social workers and alternatively qualified staff. The role focuses on delivering excellent social work practice, providing advice to professionals with safeguarding concerns for children, and undertaking triage to establish whether there is an ongoing role for children’s social care to assist parents in ensuring their child’s safety. The postholder is responsible for upholding high standards in social work practice, ability and skills, and working in accordance with defined legal frameworks, policy and procedures.
Responsibilities
* Deliver social work practice to safeguard children and support families through triage and assessment to determine ongoing involvement by children’s social care.
* Provide advice to professionals who have safeguarding concerns for children.
* Collaborate with a multi-disciplinary team to plan and deliver appropriate interventions.
* Maintain high standards of case recording and professional accountability.
* Work flexibly as required, including evenings and weekends if necessary, and be mobilised into fieldwork teams in emergency or contingency circumstances.
Qualifications
* Diploma or degree in Social Work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent.
* Registration with Social Work England as a registered Social Worker.
* Demonstrable capability of practice in accordance with current professional standards (e.g., PCF, KSS).
* Experience in case recording and information technology use (e.g., Word, social work case recording systems).
* Ability to apply social work knowledge with emotional intelligence and analytical skills in challenging social and family situations.
* Flexibility to work evenings and weekends if necessary and to be mobilised into fieldwork teams in emergency circumstances.
Additional Information
Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. If a DBS check is required for the role, you will be registered with the DBS update service; this is an annual subscription and you will be responsible for ensuring it is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service, please visit the official government site.
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