Head of Family Help - Protection West and Breckland

Head of Family Help – West and Breckland | 9046 | Permanent Contract | 37 hours per week | £66,140 to £73,800 per annum | Grade N | Norwich 

Hello, I’m Jen Dewar, Assistant Director for Family Help & Child Protection, and I am delighted to announce an important senior leadership opportunity as Head of Family Help for West and Breckland. 

Over recent years, we have successfully embedded Family Help as well as multidisciplinary ways of working throughout our services. This approach ensures that children, families, and practitioners benefit from truly collaborative support, delivered by teams with a diverse range of expertise. 

Our approach brings together multi-disciplinary teams who work collaboratively to meet the needs of children and families, placing relationships, direct work, and extended family support at the heart of what we do. 

Our practice aligns with the ambitions of the National Children’s Social Care Review (2022) and government policy that has followed on from that. We are proud that Norfolk’s pioneering model has helped inform and enhance the development and implementation of these reforms. This new way of working has demonstrated sustained and improved outcomes for our children, families and practitioners alike. 

We are incredibly ambitious for our children in the county, and our approach is designed to ensure that the right help is wrapped around at the earliest possible point and families are not passed around, referred on or transferred, but maintain a continuity of relationships we know make a real difference. 

We place a strong emphasis on parity of esteem, valuing all roles and skillsets within our multidisciplinary teams. This enables us to celebrate the benefits of collaborative working and maintain shared accountability for delivering the very best outcomes for those we support. 

As Head of Family Help for West and Breckland, you will play a crucial role in providing strategic leadership, shaping the service, and ensuring a joined-up, multi-agency approach to supporting families. You will work collaboratively with your partner Head of Family Help, with each area overseen by two Heads of Service, capitalising on the potential of joint decision-making to support both staff and families. 

Your passion, values and leadership will be key to delivering high-quality, inclusive services that make a lasting difference. You will work closely with colleagues and partners across the system, championing integration with our early help offer and driving forward continuous improvement. 

We welcome applications from both social work qualified and non-social work qualified individuals who demonstrate strong leadership and commitment to supporting children and families. If you are motivated by the opportunity to make a real impact and share our commitment to outstanding support for children and families, we invite you to apply. 

Further details about the role, including eligibility criteria, we recommend reading the full Job Description and Person Specification to help you demonstrate you meet the criteria. 

For an informal discussion, please contact me, Jen Dewar, Assistant Director for Family Help & Child Protection, at jenifer.dewar@norfolk.gov.uk to arrange a conversation. 

Please submit your CV and a supporting letter detailing how you meet the person specification. 

We are committed to equality and inclusion, and welcome applications from all backgrounds. We are proud to have achieved Carer Friendly Employer Status, Disability Confident Leader Status, the Employer Recognition Scheme award for the Armed Forces Covenant, and to be a pilot authority for the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES). 

These are some benefits you can enjoy by working for Norfolk County Council: 

• Competitive Salary

• Generous Holiday Entitlement

• Health and Wellbeing services including fast-track physiotherapy and a free counselling service 
• Flexible working opportunities including flexi-time, part time, remote and hybrid working – dependant on your job role and business need.   

• Financial Benefits Such As:

• ‘Norfolk Rewards’ our employee discounts programme which helps you save money on almost anything, from everyday groceries and clothes, to holidays, new technology, gym membership, trips to the cinema and days out.    
• A Blue Light card for Fire Service and Social Care Workers 
• Relocation expenses (where applicable) 
• An advance of your expenses if you travel for work 
• Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contribution, life assurance, death in service payments and dependants’ pensions. 
• Tax efficient ways of getting extra pension and new bikes 
• Access to our tax efficient car lease scheme for greener travel enabling you to lease a brand new, ultra-low emission vehicle (subject to eligibility) 
• A payment if you refer someone you know to a hard to fill job 

You can also find information on our Terms and Conditions here. 

Already a Norfolk County Council employee? See and apply for internal and external vacancies in myOracle using your @norfolk.gov.uk or @nccal.ac.uk email. 

We would like to make you aware that priority consideration for this post may be given to current employees who are at risk due to restructure within the organisation or are in a redeployment position.   

Redeployment closing date: 08 October 2025 at 23:59

All other applicants closing date: 16 October 2025 at 23:55

Interviews will take place week commencing 20th October 2025 at County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich, NR1 2DH.