Head of Service for Quality, Practice & Innovation and Principal Social Worker

Following the promotion of our current Principal Social Worker, this dual role offers a rare and exciting opportunity to shape practice, quality and innovation at the heart of Children's Services in Redcar and Cleveland. This is a high-impact, influential leadership role at the centre of our service with a wide and interesting remit including responsibility for:

• Driving consistent, high quality social work practice
• Leading our quality assurance, audit and practice improvement programme
• Embedding a learning culture where practice continually evolves
• Leading our workforce learning academy, strong partnerships with universities, supporting our student social worker offer and our highly successful Newly Qualified Social Worker (NQSWs) programme
• Providing visible, credible and respected professional leadership across the workforce
Why join Redcar and Cleveland? We already do a great deal well, Ofsted recently recognised our practice as GOOD, and our workforce is proud of what we have achieved together We are now looking for our next Principal Social Worker to help us build on this strong foundation - ensuring good practice becomes consistently strong, and that innovation is purposeful, evidence-informed and improves outcomes for children and families. We are proud of our collective achievements, we have stable visible leadership, a committed workforce, a clear and strength-based practice model "Relationships First" and a culture where learning, reflection and professional curiosity are valued We know that sustained success depends on:
• A confident stable workforce that understands and applies our Relationships First practice model
• Effective help and support that prevents escalation and supports families at the right time
• Reflective supervision and strong management oversight
• A robust quality assurance framework that drives learning, not just compliance
• Accessible and visible leadership that listens and responds
• Genuine participation from children, young people and care leavers
We are ambitious to go further; it's a complex and exciting time to work in Children's Services as we embrace the Government's "Families First" reform agenda. Our new Principal Social Worker will play a crucial role in supporting our workforce through this period - maintaining practice consistency, measuring impact and ensuring innovation genuinely makes a difference. Our staff told Ofsted inspectors that Redcar and Cleveland is 'a canny place to work' and we hope you'll think about joining us so you can experience this for yourself. What we offer:
• The opportunity to lead practice excellence in a stable local authority children's services department
• A strong platform to shape the next phase of improvement and innovation
• Real Investment in people, learning and leadership development
• A culture that is ambitious but grounded, where relationships matter and good practice is recognised.
Staff Testimonials: "Very happy in Redcar & Cleveland and in every team, I have always had supportive managers". "We are very lucky here in Redcar to have these opportunities". "Excellent training and Practice Weeks, very helpful and informative" "I am part of a supportive team and proud". "Love the job and stay because of support". "Both managers and service managers are approachable". "Worked in a couple of Local Authorities and feel welcome here and supported by the team". "Love my job and want to progress and in Redcar and Cleveland".

We offer a range very attractive Employee Benefits and Rewards including
• Generous annual leave of up to 34 days per year
• Hybrid Working (where appropriate)
• Flexible working hours (where appropriate)
• Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme
• Access to numerous other salary sacrifice schemes
• Access to our employee health and wellbeing platform, which includes an exciting range of staff benefits, including, spreading the cost of home and electronics, bike shop, car scheme, gym membership, lifestyle savings
• A range of Staff Network groups
For more details: https://www.redcar-cleveland.gov.uk/jobs-and-careers/benefits-and-rewards Supporting documents Benefits and Rewards Brochure Jan 2026.pdf (1.38 MB) Head of Service Childrens Quality Practice and Innovation and PSW FINAL April 2026.pdf (245.23 KB)