We are an ambitious Local Authority who are committed to continued improvement activity in driving strength based, relational and collaborative practice in our work with children, young people, and their family networks.  We want to make sure that we make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people.

Creativity, ambition and a focus on people. That’s what matters at Barnsley Council. Our award-winning council is on an exciting journey of change. It’s all about putting local people at the heart of everything, listening to and doing good for our communities. We’re now more innovative, more efficient and provide better value for money. The changes are clear to see - from new businesses and jobs, to improving school results and to museums being recognised for their community engagement. 

Your role in our journey

As service manager, you will have oversight of the integrated front door into families and children’s services which includes the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH), early help support and the emergency duty service which is currently subject to review.

The integrated front door provides an integrated pathway for all concerns about child safety or welfare. It is the Front Door for referrals into our Early Help Service and Children’s Social Care. We are a co-located service with partners from the Police, Health, Education, Domestic Abuse Services, Early Help and Probation.

Our Front door is dynamic, has excellent partnership relationships that we continue to build upon as well as building our links with community-based resources. We work closely with our Early Help Service and a range of Targeted Services within in the borough.

Reporting to the Head of Service you will be part of the management team. Our services are based on timely intervention and providing quality services to improve outcomes for our children and their families. A key aspect of the role is developing critical partnerships across the Council and with key partners, e.g. health, schools and the police, to deliver seamless services across boundaries.

What you’ll need

You will be a dynamic, forward thinking inclusive manager, with a key understanding and proven experience in operational management of statutory front door children’s safeguarding services. You will be confident in driving forward good social work practice delivery across all teams, as well as implement continued improvements and positive changes.

A key pre-requisite for this role is being able to demonstrate being a strong inclusive manager, who can influence, build and maintain strong internal and external relationships, particularly with our multi-agency partnerships to ensure effective communication and working together.

You will have creative, innovative strategic and operational skills particularly around immediate safe planning and clear decision making, to reduce risk and achieve the best possible outcomes for our children and young people.  You will be incredibly passionate about the challenges and ambitions in consistently safeguarding children, young people and families in Barnsley to thrive.

Shape a better future with us

By working together, with each other and with our communities, we can take pride in improving lives. Let’s make a better Barnsley for everyone.

A lot to look forward to

Here at Barnsley, we live and work by four important values: honesty, teamwork, excellent service, and taking pride in what we do. As part of our team, you can be sure we’ll do all we can to support you in being truly excellent. Our dedicated Practice Development Hub will support you to prioritise learning and enabling you to achieve your potential. We’ve created a development process that lets you grow in the way that suits you - whether that’s training to be a leader or learning flexibly online. If you feel that you have the skills, knowledge and experience which will help us to achieve positive outcomes for our children, young people and families in Barnsley then we would like to hear from you.

If you would like to know more, please contact our Practice Development Hub on practicedevelopmentteam@barnsley.gov.uk

If you would like an informal discussion about this vacancy, please contact Kevin Stevens  07825371443  kevinstevens@Barnsley.gov.uk

Please note interviews will take place on 20/12/2023.