Head of Practice for Learning and Development

Job description

The Vacancy

Head of Practice for Learning and Development

Location: Flexible base with regular travel to London and other Cafcass locations across England as required
Closing Date (TBC)

Salary £76,539 + London weighting of £5,951 if relevant

Reporting to: Assistant Director (Principal Social Worker)

The Vacancy

Our work supports children and families at some of the most important and difficult moments in their lives. The learning we offer colleagues needs to help them make a difference when it matters.

We are looking for a Head of Practice for Learning and Development to join our National Improvement Service. This is an opportunity for an experienced social work leader to shape learning across Cafcass, bring people and ideas together, and turn evidence into practical support for colleagues working with children and families.

About the role

As part of our Operational Management Team (OMT), you will lead a team with expertise in learning, development, coaching and improvement. You will give their work clear direction and help create learning that colleagues can use in their day-to-day practice.

Working closely with the Assistant Director (Principal Social Worker), you will lead national learning and development across public and private law. You will bring research, learning from practice and children's and families' feedback into the programme, asking not just who took part, but what changed as a result.

You will manage the Together and Family Forum leads and work with colleagues, including the Social Work Academy, to deliver agreed learning priorities.

You will move between the bigger picture and the practical detail: identifying priorities, shaping learning and working with operational leaders to understand its impact. The focus is on helping colleagues apply what they learn to improve children's experiences.

What you will be doing

You will bring the leadership, judgement and curiosity to:

• A highly effective leader, able to motivate and influence colleagues and lead change by providing assurance and inspiring confidence.
• Confident in public and private law practice and safeguarding, able to quality assure learning and draw on incidents, reviews, audits and complaints to identify learning needs.
• Able to support the Principal Social Worker in developing and quality assuring practice guidance, aids and alerts.
• Have excellent report writing skills.
• Be able to analyse large amounts of information and data and make sound judgments and recommendations to senior managers based on this.
• Someone who thrives on developing a service and ensuring the performance and productivity of staff is optimum.

About you

As you would expect, for such a key leadership role we have some specific requirements:

• A recognised social work qualification and current registration with Social Work England.
• Significant post qualifying experience in a social work setting of working with children and families.
• Experience of leading national or organisation-wide learning programmes and evaluating their impact on practice and children's experiences.
• Evidence of professional development to support your progression into a managerial role.
• A collaborative team worker who can build positive relationships and work effectively across boundaries and achieve results through others.
• Proven experience of managing staff, services and budgets at a senior level across a wide range of functions, including supervisory and/or practice management experience.

We are flexible on your location, and it is reasonable to assume you will predominantly work remotely. However, as a senior leader you should expect to attend relevant offices for key meetings, which may include some overnight stays in different parts of the country.

If you join us, you will be well-supported through induction, supervision, learning and performance review, whether you are already at this level of leadership or are taking your next career step.

We offer an attractive reward package, flexible working to achieve that important work/life balance. In addition to a generous annual leave entitlement. You may also be able to bring your 'continuous service' with you, bringing further benefits.

We are an organisation valuing, promoting and prioritising equality, diversity and inclusion and we especially welcome applications from people with diverse backgrounds. The Chief Executive and Corporate Directors sponsor our objectives in this regard, listening to and encouraging feedback from families, children, our staff, and partners about how well we are doing in terms of understanding and celebrating uniqueness.

Next steps/timelines

Below we have given you an indication of a timetable we are hoping to work towards, although dates are subject to change.

Closing date:

17th November 2026

Initial interview:

w.c. 30th November 2026

Final/Assessment Interview:

16th December 2026

Safeguarding and inclusion

Cafcass is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff to share this commitment.

We are also committed to creating an inclusive and diverse working environment where colleagues feel valued, respected and able to do their best work. We welcome applications from people with a range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.

Apply now

If you are an experienced social work leader with substantial leadership experience and a strong track record of improving outcomes for children and families, we would welcome your application. For more information contact Dawn Goodwin, Assistant Director (Principal Social Worker) at [email protected]

Finally, in anticipation of your application being successful, you might want to read about the offer and pre-employment checks process. As part of your application, you can highlight any concerns or questions about the pre-employment checks and we encourage all applicants to do so, safe in the knowledge such information will not be shared with individuals involved in the selection process.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Be Their Voice

We are Cafcass - the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service - and we represent children in family court cases in England.

Independently advising the family courts about what is safe for children and in their best interests, we speak up for over 130,0000 children every year when the family court makes critical decisions about their futures, ensuring their needs, wishes and feelings are heard.

Watch our video to find out we don't just listen to children's voices but we can be their voice.

If our purpose resonates with you, and you share our ambitions for children - exceptional experiences, for every child, everywhere and every time - then if you join us, you will work alongside like-minded people in a diverse, inclusive and supportive organisation.

You will be trusted to work flexibly and independently using outstanding technology (e.g. touchscreen laptops, iPhone, all with first class support, including IT Trainers) with access to substantial resources (e.g. Cafcass Library has over 27,000 resources on social work, child protection and related topics). You will also have opportunities to develop, whatever team you join, wherever you are in the country and at whatever stage you are at in your career.

Whether you join us in one of our social work roles that work directly with children and families or our corporate and business services teams who provide technology, support and expertise, you will have the chance to make a difference for children and families. You can also find out more at www.cafcass.gov.uk/careers.

Wellbeing

The wellbeing of our colleagues is something we are truly passionate about, as demonstrated by everyone having four dedicated, additional days per year when they are encouraged to spend time focusing on their health and wellbeing.

Colleagues can also have a health and wellbeing cash plan, for which Cafcass pays the basic premium (you can upgrade to include family members), which allows them to claim back some costs of routine health expenses, including dental check-ups, eye tests, physiotherapy sessions and more.

Overall, we foster a holistic approach to supporting our colleagues, benefitting physical, mental and financial health. This is led by a dedicated in-house team, the benefits of which include meaning support is targeted and specific to what colleagues need. Our team can also offer support and guidance when it comes to specific health conditions, such as neuro-diverse conditions, cancer and the menopause.

Our wellbeing offer is further strengthened by an external Employee Assistance Provider (EAP) which provides a free confidential support service 24 hours a day. This means access to clinical and professional expertise which gives you a chance to talk about all kinds of work and personal issues.

If this wasn't enough, we are especially proud that over 125 colleagues have completed training and receive ongoing support to act as Health and Wellbeing Champions. Furthermore, we have nearly 100 people that have trained to be Mental Health Allies.

Diversity

We represent children and families from diverse backgrounds and having a diverse workforce helps us to fulfil this responsibility authentically.

It also helps us to grow, evolve and innovate, so we particularly welcome applications from individuals from diverse backgrounds as we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with.

We are proud to be a disability confident leader, we invite you to join our team, we are committed to actively attract and recruit individuals with disabilities including "non-visible" disabilities and mental health conditions. Our inclusive and accessible recruitment process means we aim to accommodate reasonable adjustments as needed. This commitment highlights our dedication to employing, training, retaining, and developing the careers of our colleagues with disabilities.

Our Diversity Networks provide a safe space for colleagues with shared aspects of identity and lived experience - supported by allies across the organisation. The networks help ensure we provide an inclusive working environment and a service which promotes the diversity and uniqueness of children and families from all backgrounds.

For more information watch our video here.

Our current networks include:

Ability Matters

Colleagues with disabilities and long-term health conditions.

Carers Network

Colleagues with additional caring responsibilities for someone close to them who has a disability or long-term health condition.

Faith Network

Colleagues who are part of, or have an interest in, religious or spiritual faith communities.

Kaleidoscope Network

Colleagues from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.

Mental Health Network

Colleagues who experience, or have an interest in, Mental Health issues.

Pride
Network

Colleagues who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans - LGBT+.

Neurodiversity Network

Colleagues who are neurodivergent, or support someone who is.

Together

'Together with Children and Families' (which we just call 'Together') is the name of our relationship-based practice framework. It applies to the work of every individual in Cafcass, from Social Workers to Leaders and includes our Corporate and Business Support teams.

It is at the heart of what we do and is made up of our values, how these values work in practice, the tools to use to incorporate these values in our work and the impact this will have on the children and families we serve.

This framework encourages us to be pro-active and to look for the strengths in ourselves and others. It also enables us to build positive relationships with our colleagues, our partners and most importantly, with the children and families with whom we work.

We look forward to telling helping you learn more about Together should you join us.

Benefits

We know if you join us you want to be rewarded in a variety of ways, including time away from work to spend time with those important to you, manage your financial present and future, whilst also be trusted to manage your work/life balance.

Therefore, in addition to our unique, holistic approach to supporting your health and wellbeing we also provide:

Generous holidays

28 days holiday (including three for Christmas) rising to 33 days with five years continuous service, which could include your current employment. You can also sell any you do not need.

Excellent pension

13.7% employer contribution to Local Government Pension scheme, potentially building on your current pension.

Flexible working

Most colleagues work in a hybrid way, having the benefits of working both from the office and home, we also accommodate flexible working requests (e.g. 9-day fortnights).

Exclusive discounts

Generous discounts with wide range of companies covering leisure, technology, travel, personal finance, fashion and supermarkets.

Professional fees

Social work colleagues have their annual Social Work England membership fees reimbursed.

Car leasing schemes

We offer a personal car leasing scheme which provides vehicles at competitive rates through a third party.

This list is just a selection of main benefits and we have a range of policies and processes that allow us to support our colleagues - and their families - and we look forward to providing you with further information about these in due course.