Team Leader Brighter Futures

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall Glenfield LE3 8RA

Salary: 43860 - 47829 per annum (pro-rata for part-time)

Working Hours:37 Hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 15th February 2026

Interview Date(s): 24th February 2026

About the Role

Team Leader Brighter Futures Project (Recurrent Removals)

For the last 12 months we have been piloting a model of support for parents designed to break the cycle of recurrent child removals by supporting parents following care proceedings. This project has provided intensive relationship-based support to parents who have experienced the removal of a child helping them stabilise their lives and make sustainable change to prevent future removals.

Recurrent removals create cycles of trauma and instability for families and place significant strain on our social care system. National research shows that one in four women who has had a child removed is likely to return to court within 10 years with the highest risk in the first two Leicestershire 27% of mothers experiencing child removal have previously lost a child with newborns most affected. This pattern drives high placement and legal costs increases demand on services and perpetuates poor outcomes for families.

Since its launch Brighter Futures has supported 54 parents with strong engagement and positive feedback. Whilst the pilot remains ongoing until the end of March 2026 early indicators are showing improved parental wellbeing reduced crisis service use and increased uptake of contraception helping parents pause and plan for future pregnancies. The pilot has also led to improved parental engagement with other professionals including health housing and substance misuse services and is contributing to reunification. Parent voice and professional feedback is positive and confirms the value of this dedicated support.

Brighter Futures is becoming a permanent service from April 2026 expanding the capacity and remit of the team to link in pre-birth support which is identified as a second critical intervention point. This will strengthen service resilience reduce wait times and enable tailored support for high-risk parents including fathers and care-experienced young people. Costs are expected to be offset by significant cost avoidance associated with care placements.

Brighter Futures supports departmental aims to keep families together deliver timely interventions and embed trauma-informed practice. It aligns with national drivers for systemic change and prevention contributing to improved outcomes for children and families while reducing long-term demand on services.

We are looking for a Team Leader to manage the project team as the work grows and develops as a permanent service offer.

Who we are looking for:

• You will be an energetic and enthusiastic manager with extensive experience working with children and families and with our partner agencies where you are able to share your enthusiasm and passion for practice with those you manage.
• Your leadership will reflect your vision of a service that delivers in a trauma informed way. Your understanding of the experience for this very unique group of parents who have experienced loss and trauma will shape the service offer how and where it is provided and enable the voice of parents to shape it.
• You will be able to evidence your skills and knowledge of creative innovative and relationship-based practice and demonstrate your ability to lead and manage a skilled team of proactive practitioners.
• You will have knowledge and experience of Performance management and the importance of this in the teams you manage.
• You will have a thorough understanding of Anti Discriminatory practice and the impact of discrimination on those you manage and the families we serve.
• Ideally you will already be confident in the application of the Signs of Safety methodology but certainly in the value of relationship-based family work.
• We want people with energy who have a can- do attitude; we want people who will help us to build a real culture of reflection and learning and who can support our workforce to be the best that they can be. We want team players!
• We want managers who already see themselves as practice leaders and understand the role they have in nurturing good practice and who are going to contribute to the next phase of our collective development.

We hope this sounds like you!

An enhanced with barred list DBS check is required for this post.

For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders please see our policy statement.

About You

To apply for this post you must be able to evidence in your application how you meet the following criteria:

• Level 4 qualification in a relevant subject e.g. /NVQ4 childcare youth justice social work qualification teaching qualification child nursing qualification Or Significant and demonstrable and relevant knowledge and experience evidenced against the headings below including significant experience of working within children and family services in a multi-agency environment. Evidence of continuing professional development including management/supervisory skills/leadership.
• Demonstrable experience of managing a team which includes recruitment supervision training performance and development reviews attendancemanagementand disciplinary processes. This will also include experience of providing management oversight of work undertaken by staff to maintainhigh quality case recordingin a timely mannerwhile ensuring all paperwork relating to families aremaintained taking responsibility for managing thresholds and dialogue with key partners.
• Experience of leading on the management of referrals ensuring they are prioritised and appropriatelyallocatedaccording to need and that parents are offered the right service at the right time with measurable outcomes.
• A successful track record of creating andmaintainingeffective working relationships with key partners to support co-ordinated delivery of services for parents at risk of poor outcomes.
• The ability toengage in opportunities for services to collaborate and support the development of creative and innovative ways of working and engaging with children youngpeopleand families
• Experience of working within an integrated framework to support vulnerable children youngpeopleand families to improve their socialphysicaland emotional well-being. Developingprovidingand evaluating safe high-quality provision that responds to the age gender ability and cultural needs parents and is in line with early intervention and prevention agendasservicesand council priorities
• Demonstrable experience of supporting staff to work with families and partner agencies to develop plans that work A passion for and experience of ensuring that the voices of children young people and their families are heard and are used help to shape service delivery

About Us

At Leicestershire County Council we are committed to doing our very best for vulnerable children and families; working to make a positive impact on their lives so they can achieve their potential and flourish.

If you are interested in joining a strong and ambitious service within an Ofsted graded Outstanding Childrens Services then this could be the new role you have been waiting for!

We are on a journey to be an inclusive Service where a culture to celebrate Equity Diversity and Inclusion is embedded and Discrimination challenged at every level together as a Service. We warmly welcome those from all cultures ethnicities and beliefs - this diversity is vital to our journey and is fundamental to our values and enriches the service we offer our Children and Families.

We want all our staff to be inspired to go the extra mile. We are doing our best to create the sort of culture where practice excellence can flourish. We want to learn from what works as much if not more than from when things go badly we are ambitious to create a true learning organisation. So

• Every year we run two annual conferences for all staff to motivate and encourage them to be the best they can be.
• Our bottom line is that every month each team sets aside time together as a team for sharing practice developing work and collaborative.
• Each quarter all Family Help Managers come together for learning planning and peer support.
• We encourage reflective supervision and group supervision skills
• Twice a year our senior leaders take a week out spending time with workers observing practice and talking to young people and parents and carers about their experience of services.
• We have a dedicated offer supporting practice excellence quality assurance and learning and development these workers work alongside practitioners to build practitioner confidence
• In 2024 our Family Help model was launched which brought together work across Childrens Social Care and Early Help to provide a more robust timely preventative offer for children in need (section 17 CA). Families are receiving intensive help and support using a Trauma informed approach and we have seen the positive impact of this approach.
• We have embedded the Signs of Safety approach and all our teams are trained in this methodology.

If Leicestershire sounds like an interesting place to work we would welcome your application.

Our salaries are competitive (42498 to 46344) but we know from our own staff that there are other reasons to come to Leicestershire. We hope you agree. We look forward to hearing from you.

This is a permanent Team Leader which will sit within Targeted Family Help. There is ongoing commitment for the continuation of the Brighter Futures work. However should the funding come to an end the post holder would retain a permanent Team Leader post but would be required to move to a vacant Team Leader post elsewhere within Children and Family Services.

For more about working in Leicestershire go to:

further information about our services areas:

Few More Benefits of working In Leicestershire.

• Childcare vouchers
• Well regardedemployee counselling services
• Free car parking
• Cycle to work scheme
• Lease car scheme
• Option to purchase of additional leave
• Discounts at high-street stores and supermarket shopping
• Special offers on leisure activities and gym memberships

In addition we also expect you to shareour commitment to our valuesand will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a are a Disability Confident Employer.

Interested in Flexible Working

We are open to discussions about flexible working which may include part time working job sharing term-time working flexible start and finish times and hybrid working depending on the requirements of the role and the service. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role please contact the person named below.

For more information or an informal discussionplease contact:

Katie Herbert Service Manager or Rebecca Woollock Service Manager

Telephone: 0or 0

To contact us by email please click here(Katie)

or

here(Rebecca)

How to Apply

At Leicestershire County Council were looking for top talent from all walks of life. Whoever you are wherever youre from and whatever your background - we care about what you bring to our organisation not just whats on your CV. Thats why weve designed a recruitment process thats fair accessible and focused on potential. And with benefits that support people at every age and stage of life we make sure you can thrive - both personally and professionally.

If you share our passion to make a difference for the people of Leicestershire wed love to hear from you. Click the apply button to submit your application ensuring that you upload a supporting statement that explains how you meet the criteria listed in the About You section above. Without this information we wont be able to assess your suitability for the role and your application will be rejected. For tips on how to write your statement see the How to Applysection on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore if you are interested please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning0(select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: applying for this post you agree to ourTerms and Conditions.