Assistant Team Manager, Children's Specialist Support Team

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Assistant Team Manager who is a registered social worker with Social Work England and with post qualifying experience working with children and families in the statutory sector to join our Children’s Specialist Support Team and make a difference to the lives of children and young people.

About you…

You will have significant post-qualifying experience in statutory work with children and families, and a strong understanding of assessment, planning, and intervention to ensure the right plans are in place and needs lead services and interventions are provided for children and families.

You will be a natural leader with the ability to build effective relationships, demonstrate strong analytical skills, and work collaboratively as part of a management team. You will have direct responsibility for social workers, including newly qualified social workers, and family workers.

You will also be comfortable deputising for the Team Manager, managing performance, chairing meetings, and supporting recruitment and retention efforts.

About the team…

The Children’s Specialist Support Team (CSST) is a highly skilled and supportive group of professionals dedicated to working with children who have disabilities and/or complex health needs. Our focus is on keeping children at the heart of everything we do. We deliver a range of services, including support for children with additional vulnerabilities, statutory responsibilities for disabled Children in Need, care packages, and short breaks.

Our team is diverse, covering a broad range of areas, including social work, occupational therapy and short breaks, such as Larchwood, our respite unit. We embrace a "child-first" and social model approach, valuing partnership and collaboration as key to our success.

As a small and welcoming Local Authority, we pride ourselves on our inclusive culture and strong sense of community. We prioritise staff wellbeing and foster a supportive environment where everyone feels connected and valued.

Key responsibilities

• To support the Team Manager to manage the delivery and performance of the Children’s Specialist Support Team, including recruitment/retention, workload allocation and management, induction, supervision and development of staff, disciplinary/capability performance management and succession planning.
• To promote and support the Council’s policies and procedures for safeguarding, ensuring children are at the centre of all decisions, and the social model of disability is respected in all work.
• To ensure arrangements for regular engagement/participation with children and young people, parents and carers by all staff within the service and to lead on investigations and response to complaints from service users/relatives/carers.
• To lead on strategy discussions, child in need meetings, professional meetings and other forums, working together with partner agencies to conclude with safe and proportionate threshold decision and planning.
• To undertake regular reviews of, and track, performance data alongside the Team Manager.
• Completing audits and contributing to audit programmes and frameworks.
• To develop and maintain effective internal and external working relationships, ensuring a positive working culture within the team, and working collaboratively with multi-agency partners, including chairing reviews, planning meetings, strategy discussions and other professional/network meetings.
• Providing high quality, reflective supervision (in line with the supervision policy) including providing feedback and analysis of performance.
• To develop and maintain accurate case records and comply with the department's policies, procedures and guidelines including data protection and GDPR.
• To contribute to service development and learning of others.

Our benefits…

• 28 days* increasing to 33 days* after 3 years’ continuous service.
• The opportunity to buy up to 10 additional days* annual leave per year and sell 5 days.
• Hybrid working opportunities to support your wellbeing and work-life balance. 
• An inclusive and social working environment with a variety of staff networks. 
• Local government pension scheme.
• Life insurance cover (linked to the pension scheme)
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and fostering leave. 
• Recognition of continuous service attained within the NHS and UKHSA when calculating some benefits such as annual leave entitlements, occupational maternity/paternity leave, and more. (Terms and Conditions apply – please refer to candidate pack for more information.)
• Career development through internal and external training opportunities. 
• A great office location next to travel links and Bracknell Forest’s thriving town centre. 
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support your health and wellbeing. 
• Sports and Social Club.
• Staff dental and health plans. 
• Discounted leisure centre and gym membership. 
• Supermarket discount. 

*(pro rata for part time)

Our values

At Bracknell Forest Council our values define who we are and what is important to us. Our core values are inclusive, ambitious, and always learning. These values influence the way we work with each other and the way we serve our residents and engage with our communities. We make our values real by demonstrating them in how we behave every day. If you are excited about joining a diverse team that celebrates learning and strives for excellence, we would love to hear from you. 

We are committed to ensuring an inclusive recruitment process for all applicants. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application or interview, please let us know by contacting recruitment@bracknell-forest.gov.uk. We will work with you to support you throughout the process. 

Interview date

Interviews will be held on Wednesday 30^th April 2025

Interviews will be conducted in person, providing candidates with the chance to personally meet the team and experience our work environment.

We will be reviewing applications regularly and reserve the right to close the advert early if suitable candidates are identified. To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible.

Please note AI is prohibited during the interview, any candidate using AI will be withdrawn from consideration.

Want to ask us a question?

For an informal discussion or to ask any questions about this role, please contact:

Catherine Lloyd, Team Manager: 01344 351680

 

At Bracknell Forest we champion equality, diversity and inclusion. At Bracknell Forest Council, we are always learning, ambition and inclusive. Please see our candidate pack for more details.

Bracknell Forest Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect everyone employed with us to share this commitment. All successful candidates for this role will be subject to a DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service) check as part of our pre-employment checks process.

Candidates should be able to demonstrate experience of working within the current Social Care System and Framework.

Work England registration fees can be claimed back from the Council. 

We can only accept applications from candidates currently residing in the UK.

Candidates currently residing in the UK who require sponsorship to work are encouraged to assess their eligibility for a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) based on the relevant criteria. Please be aware that sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.

No agencies please.