Job Introduction
Our Children and Families services and our vision here in Staffordshire is rooted in four core principles that underpin everything we do:
- Families first – network and community always
- Right help, right time – proportionate, timely and co-produced with children and families
- Whole-system responsibility for supporting children and families to be happy, healthy and safe
- Permanence as belonging from day one
To achieve our ambition, we have taken a bold decision to transform our service structure and we’re looking for talented, values-driven leaders who can champion these principles, inspire others and help shape the future of Children and Families services in Staffordshire.
We want to create a more resilient, child-centred and future-focused system that enables children, young people and families to receive the right help at the right time.
Through this redesign, we are strengthening leadership, increasing capacity and creating clearer lines of accountability across our services. These changes will support high-quality practice, stronger partnerships and better outcomes for children and families, while ensuring we are well positioned to respond to national reforms and future challenges.
Main Responsibility
The MACPT Service Manager role is a brand new exciting role with the opportunity to influence, shape and lead the introduction of MACPT’s across Staffordshire. As a Service Manager you will:
- Develop and then lead the strategic and operational delivery of the Multi-Agency Child Protection Team (MACPT), ensuring high-quality, child-centred safeguarding practice and compliance with statutory responsibilities.
- Provide leadership, supervision and support to Team Managers and multi-agency staff, promoting reflective practice, professional curiosity, accountability and continuous workforce development.
- Develop and maintain effective partnerships with social care, police, health, education, legal services, Family Help, Cafcass and other stakeholders to ensure coordinated and robust safeguarding interventions.
- Oversee statutory child protection processes, including strategy discussions, Section 47 enquiries, joint assessments, safety planning, Child Protection Conferences and case progression.
- Monitor service performance, quality assurance activity and safeguarding outcomes, using audits, reviews, inspection findings and feedback to drive continuous improvement.
- Lead service development, transformation and change initiatives, ensuring the MACPT model remains effective, evidence-based and aligned with national reforms and local priorities.
- Ensure effective management of resources, budgets, risks and operational performance to deliver safe, timely and efficient safeguarding services.
- Champion the voice, lived experience and rights of children and young people, ensuring they influence assessment, planning, decision-making and service development.
- Promote consistent safeguarding thresholds, effective step-up and step-down arrangements, and strong multi-agency decision-making across the children's safeguarding system.
- Lead on learning and improvement arising from audits, litigation claims, Rapid Reviews, Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs) and serious incidents, supporting the embedding of lessons across services.
The Ideal Candidate
The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:
- Qualified and registered Social Worker with a degree-level qualification and significant leadership/management experience within Children's Social Care.
- Substantial experience leading teams in a multi-agency safeguarding environment, with responsibility for child protection, risk management and statutory interventions.
- In-depth knowledge of relevant legislation, statutory frameworks and safeguarding practice, including child protection processes, partnership working, Public Law Outline, Rapid Reviews and Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs).
- Proven ability to lead service development, change management and continuous improvement, using performance data, quality assurance and learning reviews to improve services.
- Strong leadership, communication, influencing and partnership skills, with the ability to build effective relationships and secure commitment from a wide range of stakeholders.
- Experience managing performance, resources and budgets, with the ability to analyse complex information, make sound decisions, manage risk appropriately and deliver high-quality outcomes for children and families.
Need more information? If you’re unsure whether your skills and experience meet the needs for the role, please get in touch with us, we’d love to chat to you! You can reach Gemma Gerrish, Assistant Director Family Safeguarding - gemma.gerrish@staffodshire.gov.uk
Interview date is TBC
“We’re happy to talk flexible working”
Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role. Please note: The minimum essential criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes detailed below.
About Staffordshire County Council
We are no ordinary county council:
Our Values:
The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.
Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:
We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.
We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.
Our benefits:
We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.
In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire
Our recruitment process:
As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities
As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.
As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.
Attached documents
