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Team Manager – Looked After Children (LAC) | Herefordshire Council

Up to £60,915 + £4,000 retention bonus + £10,000 relocation package + £10,000 welcome bonus (paid in two increments)

Hybrid working | ASAP start | UK experience required | Driver required

Herefordshire Council are recruiting a Team Manager into their Looked After Children service. This is a high-impact leadership post for someone who can demonstrate genuine management grip: strong oversight, confident decision-making, and the ability to drive permanence and stability for children in care.

Herefordshire’s Children’s Services have been on a clear improvement trajectory, with recent Ofsted messaging highlighting strong leadership. The council has also been strengthening its recruitment and retention offer across Children’s Services to attract and keep high-quality practitioners and managers.

Salary and incentives

Salary up to £60,915

£4,000 retention bonus (added onto salary)

£10,000 relocation bonus/package (subject to eligibility)

£10,000 welcome bonus (paid in two increments)

Hybrid working (balanced office/home set-up)

Key responsibilities (detailed)

As Team Manager in LAC, you will be responsible for the quality, pace and impact of practice across the team, ensuring children experience stable care and timely permanence planning.

Leadership, supervision and performance

Lead and manage a team of Social Workers/Senior Social Workers (and associated staff), ensuring safe, high-quality casework and clear professional standards.

Provide regular reflective supervision, case direction and oversight, with a consistent focus on:

risk management

permanence planning

timeliness and avoidance of drift

quality of analysis and recording

Manage allocation of work, caseload balance, capacity and workflow, ensuring statutory requirements are met (visits, reviews, care planning and key deadlines).

Set expectations, monitor performance, address underperformance appropriately, and build team culture that balances support with accountability.

Practice quality and decision-making grip

Maintain oversight of practice through:

case audits / dip sampling

management oversight and sign-off

performance tracking against statutory timescales

learning from complaints, feedback and internal QA

Ensure high-quality:

Care Plans and permanence plans

pathway planning where relevant

preparation for and engagement with IRO processes

direct work that is purposeful and evidenced

Chair or contribute to key decision-making forums as required (e.g., permanence planning discussions, complex case reviews, escalation around placement stability).

Permanence, placement stability and outcomes

Drive and quality assure permanence pathways including:

reunification

long-term fostering

Special Guardianship Orders (SGO)

adoption (where applicable)

Provide active oversight of placement stability, escalation and problem-solving where placements are at risk of disruption.

Ensure children’s lived experience is central to planning: participation, identity, education, health and emotional wellbeing are consistently addressed.

Multi-agency working and corporate parenting

Lead effective partnership working with IROs, education, health, CAMHS, providers, commissioning, legal services and other partners.

Represent the service confidently in complex professional arenas and support the team to maintain strong thresholds and defensible decision-making.

Legal literacy (minimum threshold for this post)

Provide management oversight on cases with court proceedings / legal planning / safeguarding history, ensuring the team’s work is evidence-led, analytical and timely.

Quality assure court-related documentation where required (statements, care plans, chronologies, analysis) and ensure professionals are well-prepared for hearings.

Systems, compliance and recording

Ensure timely, high-quality recording and management oversight on the council’s electronic case management system.

Advantageous if you have worked on mainstream children’s systems such as Liquidlogic (LCS) or Mosaic, with the ability to use dashboards/workflows for performance oversight. (If you tell me your current system, I’ll tailor the wording to match it precisely.)

Non-negotiable requirements

Current/recent Team Manager experience in UK Children’s Services (this is essential).

UK local authority experience (statutory environment).

Strong background in Looked After Children or (as an absolute minimum) demonstrable experience across court work and safeguarding/assessment at a level that translates into managing LAC practice and permanence.

Social Work England registration.

Must be a driver (full UK driving licence).

Strong written and analytical standards; able to quality assure complex work and coach others to improve.

What makes a strong applicant for Herefordshire

Evidence of improved outcomes (timeliness, drift reduction, placement stability, permanence progression).

Clear management style: confident, consistent oversight and the ability to bring practitioners with you.

Comfortable operating in a service with performance expectations and improvement focus.

Apply or Refer Someone Now

If you’re a proven Team Manager and can start quickly (or have a clear notice period), get in touch today. We offer up to £1,000 for a Manager referral if you know someone.

Josh Da Costa

(phone number removed) | (phone number removed)