Team Manager – Service Improvement Team -18 month Fixed Term Contract Are you passionate about best practice for children and families? Are you someone who knows what good looks like and wants to inspire others to aspire to outstanding practice? If this is you, we need you. We are looking for an experienced and passionate team manager to join our Centre for professional practice (CPP) to continue to drive change and best practice across Dudley children’s services. Working alongside the Service Improvement lead, you will work across children’s services to drive good and outstanding practice for the children and families of Dudley. You will work closely with the CPP unit to lead on practice development and quality, working in frontline teams, with practitioners to drive development and services. As a team manager, In the role you will be responsible for the leadership and management of 2 social work Advanced Practitioners ensuring the development of Dudley’s workforce to improve the quality of practice. You will be ensuring that the team provide guidance and support to the social care workforce so that vulnerable children and their families receive responsive services that safeguard and promote their welfare. You will be available to provide operational leadership, vision and direction by delivering service improvement within the Centre for Professional Practice, reporting directly to the Service Improvement Lead. You will actively promote and contribute to the strategic developments for children and their families in Dudley. Being accountable for ensuring the team achieves its operational plan: by promoting an appropriate culture: empowering others and setting and maintaining high and measurable standards of practice. A typical day will include: You will Promote effective internal and external communication- sharing practice development and local celebrations of practice and learning to practitioners, managers, leaders and partners. You will support with the development and review of practice guidance, policy and protocols to ensure practitioners, managers and leaders have the frameworks to work effectively and robustly. You will also support with Quality assurance and Audit across children’s services overseeing and engaging in quality assurance activities including audits, critical reviews and dip sampling You will contribute to OFSTED and inspection readiness and preparation and organisation and support to inspection activities You will also be included in the planning and support children and families and coproduce and delivery within children’s services to ensure that participation is meaningful and impactful to our practice system. Supervision of 2 Social Work APs who are supporting you in service improvement work across children’s services. We are keen to talk to any experienced managers with extensive frontline experience. We are looking for committed and ambitious managers who will be able to continue to innovative work we have begun in CPP. Start date: MARCH 2026 Interviews will be offered on a rolling basis alongside shortlisting. For further information or an informal conversation, please contact Charlotte Mancey @ charlotte.mancey@dudley.gov.uk or call Charlotte on 01384 815819 Workplace Attendance: Working in the office 3 days a week (pro-rata) or Onsite full time So that we can demonstrate Dudley’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and to improve bias in the recruitment process that could create barriers for candidates. Your personal data will be anonymised when you apply, to ensure that you comply with our anonymisation process, please ensure you have removed your name and date of birth from any attachments prior to uploading them to your application. Online application forms will only be accepted for this vacancy, online facilities for jobs are available at public libraries within the Dudley Borough. All applicants must be able to provide documentation to prove their right to work in the UK. Please note: Dudley MBC does not currently offer sponsorship for candidates without the Right to Work in the UK. If you require support completing an online or paper application form and or interview techniques, please contact Dudley Adult and Community Learning on 01384 818 143 or acl@dudley.gov.uk who can support with Digital Skills and Job Applications. If you have a disability and require assistance in making an application please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk If you are experiencing a problem whilst applying for a position, please follow the link below to the WM Jobs Help Page in the first instance https://help.wmjobs.co.uk/ If the WM Jobs Help Page does not resolve your issue then please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk Dudley Council will check the information that you have provided against any details already held for accuracy and completeness. The Council will check, share and cross match your information both internally within the council and with external organisations to protect public funds and prevent or detect crime, only where the law allows us to do so. The Council’s full Privacy and Disclaimer Statement can be accessed on the website at https://www.dudley.gov.uk/privacy-disclaimer-statement/ N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications LI-DMBC2019 Attached documents JD/PS Employee Benefits List.pdf