Qualified Children's Social Worker - Pathfinder
Location Leeds
Closing Date 11th May 2025
The Vacancy
The Vacancy
At Cafcass, we are always keen to hear from qualified, Social Work England registered Children’s Social Workers who share our ambitions for children - exceptional experiences, for every child, everywhere and every time.
Have you heard about Pathfinder?
It's an innovative approach to improving family justice, supporting us to keep children at the heart of decisions.
At Cafcass, we're committed to creating an environment where social workers can achieve exceptional outcomes for children, giving you the chance of a more fulfilling and effective way of working, that enables you to do your best work for children and families.
Make sure you check the vacancy documents for more details about the Pathfinder model (fact sheet).
Who we’re looking for
Candidates who possess the following qualifications and skills:
* A valid Social Work England membership is required.
* You should have a previous experience working with children and families in a social work capacity, ideally in child protection and assessment context.
* Familiarity Family Court proceedings and an understanding of Private and/or Public Law would be advantageous.
* You should be organised and resilient, with the ability to work independently while effectively managing your workload.
* Strong report writing skills are essential.
Location
Our teams work flexibly, your proximity to the Leeds office doesn’t always have to be a critical consideration. This hopefully will allow you to work in a way that suits you best.
We provide the resources, equipment, and support, so that individually and collectively, we can be the voice of children and young people when the family court makes critical decisions about their futures.
We deliver extensive wellbeing support for colleagues, as well as excellent benefits, all of which we hope encourages you to work within our dedicated team.
Next steps / Timelines
Below we have given you an indication of a timetable we are hoping to work towards, although dates are subject to change.
11th May 2025
As and when suitable candidate is shortlisted
Final Interview:
Vacancy Contact - smita.haried@cafcass.gov.uk
Successful applicants will undergo various pre-engagement checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). In line with theDBS code of practice and our policy, if a criminal offence is declared, an individual assessment will be conducted. For further details regarding this assessment, please refer to theCafcass DBS policy .
We look forward to receiving your application!
Be Their Voice
We are Cafcass – the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service – and we represent children in family court cases in England.
Independently advising the family courts about what is safe for children and in their best interests, we speak up for over 140,0000 children every year when the family court makes critical decisions about their futures, ensuring their needs, wishes and feelings are heard.
Watch our video to find out we don’t just listen to children’s voices but we can be their voice.
If our purpose resonates with you, and you share our ambitions for children - exceptional experiences, for every child, everywhere and every time - then if you join us, you will work alongside like-minded people in a diverse, inclusive and supportive organisation.
You will be trusted to work flexibly and independently using outstanding technology (e.g. touchscreen laptops, iPhone, all with first class support, including IT Trainers) with access to substantial resources (e.g. Cafcass Library has over 27,000 resources on social work, child protection and related topics). You will also have opportunities to develop, whatever team you join, wherever you are in the country and at whatever stage you are at in your career.
Whether you join us in one of our social work roles that work directly with children and families or our corporate and business services teams who provide technology, support and expertise, you will have the chance to make a difference for children and families. You can also find out more at www.cafcass.gov.uk/careers .
The wellbeing of our colleagues is something we are truly passionate about, as demonstrated by everyone having four dedicated, additional days per year when they are encouraged to spend time focusing on their health and wellbeing.
Colleagues can also have a health and wellbeing cash plan, for which Cafcass pays the basic premium (you can upgrade to include family members), which allows them to claim back some costs of routine health expenses, including dental check-ups, eye tests, physiotherapy sessions and more.
Overall, we foster a holistic approach to supporting our colleagues, benefitting physical, mental and financial health. This is led by a dedicated in-house team, the benefits of which include meaning support is targeted and specific to what colleagues need. Our team can also offer support and guidance when it comes to specific health conditions, such as neuro-diverse conditions, cancer and the menopause.
Our wellbeing offer is further strengthened by an external Employee Assistance Provider (EAP) which provides a free confidential support service 24 hours a day. This means access to clinical and professional expertise which gives you a chance to talk about all kinds of work and personal issues.
If this wasn’t enough, we are especially proud that over 125 colleagues have completed training and receive ongoing support to act as Health and Wellbeing Champions. Furthermore, we have nearly 100 people that have trained to be Mental Health Allies.
Diversity
We represent children and families from diverse backgrounds and having a diverse workforce helps us to fulfil this responsibility authentically.
It also helps us to grow, evolve and innovate, so we particularly welcome applications from individuals from diverse backgrounds as we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with.
We are also a Disability Confident Leader, which further underlines our commitment to employ, train, retain and develop the careers of colleagues with disabilities.
Our Diversity Networks provide a safe space for colleagues with shared aspects of identity and lived experience – supported by allies across the organisation. The networks help ensure we provide an inclusive working environment and a service which promotes the diversity and uniqueness of children and families from all backgrounds.
For more information watch our video here .
Colleagues from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.
Mental Health Network
Colleagues who experience, or have an interest in, Mental Health issues.
Pride
Network
Colleagues who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans – LGBT+.
Neurodiversity Network
Colleagues who are neurodivergent, or support someone who is
Together
‘Together with Children and Families’ (which we just call ‘Together’) is the name of our relationship-based practice framework. It applies to the work of every individual in Cafcass, from Social Workers to Leaders and includes our Corporate and Business Support teams.
It is at the heart of what we do and is made up of our values, how these values work in practice, the tools to use to incorporate these values in our work and the impact this will have on the children and families we serve.
This framework encourages us to be pro-active and to look for the strengths in ourselves and others. It also enables us to build positive relationships with our colleagues, our partners and most importantly, with the children and families with whom we work.
We look forward to telling helping you learn more about Together should you join us.
We know if you join us you want to be rewarded in a variety of ways, including time away from work to spend time with those important to you, manage your financial present and future, whilst also be trusted to manage your work/life balance.
Therefore, in addition to our unique, holistic approach to supporting your health and wellbeing we also provide:
This list is just a selection of main benefits and we have a range of policies and processes that allow us to support our colleagues - and their families – and we look forward to providing you with further information about these in due course.
#J-18808-Ljbffr