Team Manager - Children’s Care Services

Liquid Personnel is recruiting an experienced Team Manager for its client’s Children’s Care Services, based in Wirral, to lead a team of 6–8 practitioners. This is a senior leadership role focused on driving consistent, high‑quality social work practice and ensuring the voice of the child is central to all interventions.

What will your responsibilities be?

In this role, you will:

• Team Leadership: Lead and manage a team to deliver effective social work, ensuring all referrals are signposted or allocated swiftly and professionally.
• Practice Oversight: Oversee and scrutinise practice through case audits, supervision, and direct observations to ensure decisions are made in the child’s best interests.
• Supervision & Accountability: Provide high-quality reflective supervision, holding practitioners to account for performance while providing support and guidance.
• Collaborative Working: Build and maintain influential multi-agency relationships to drive service quality and shape future direction.
• Financial Management: Manage team budgets efficiently, ensuring value for money and identifying financial opportunities/risks.
• Professional Development: Mentor and coach staff, including newly appointed or aspiring Team Managers, to nurture talent and support career progression.
• Strategic Contribution: Contribute to service plans, keep abreast of legislative changes, and champion the development of children's services locally and regionally.

Qualifications & Experience

To be successful in this role, you must have:

• Social Work Qualification: Degree in Social Work, DipSW, or equivalent.
• Registration: Must be registered with Social Work England (formerly HCPC as per JD).
• Management Experience: Extensive experience managing a team within a statutory Social Care environment, including performance management.
• Complex Case Expertise: Significant experience handling complex cases involving high levels of risk and harm.
• Regulatory Knowledge: Sound knowledge of legislation relating to children, young people, and care leavers, alongside the DfE Knowledge and Skills Statements for Practice Supervisors.
• Desirable: An ILM Level 5 Management qualification or equivalent.

Skills & Requirements

• Analytical Ability: Capable of analysing performance data to implement improvement plans and ensure high-quality recording and report writing.
• Communication: Excellent professionalism and the ability to converse fluently with the public and stakeholders in accurate spoken English.
• Resilience: High level of emotional intelligence and resilience to work within a challenging and testing environment.
• Travel: Ability to travel within and outside the Borough as required for service needs.

Working Environment

• Direct Impact: You will report to a Service Manager and play a key role in the Wirral Plan to improve outcomes for the region's most vulnerable children.
• Culture: You will be expected to foster an environment of openness, transparency, and empowerment where employees feel valued and listened to.
• Hours: Standard 37-hour week, with a requirement to work outside core hours when necessary.

Why Liquid Personnel?

• Free DBS and compliance service
• Twice weekly payroll and ‘Faster Pay’ service, getting you paid more quickly
• Access to exclusive roles that aren’t available from other agencies
• Free access to Liquid’s exclusive social work training and CPD portal
• Your own dedicated consultant with extensive social work knowledge
• Access to a wide selection of social work positions across the UK
• “Refer a Friend” bonus – get £500 for each social worker you refer who we successfully place*
• “Find your own job” bonus – get £250 for bringing your own position to us *

Liquid Personnel is an equal opportunities employer. Liquid Personnel Ltd is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy. * Terms and conditions apply to our bonus schemes.

Reasonable Adjustments

If you consider yourself to have a disability or require any reasonable adjustment during the recruitment process or within the workplace, please highlight this at the earliest opportunity by contacting our team. With this information, we will provide appropriate support to you throughout the process and into your work placement.

We are unable to support or accept applications from candidates who are residents within the Red or Amber list of the Code of practice for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel in England, based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) Workforce Support and Safeguard List.

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