Practice Assurance Lead - Children's Services

Posted 14th Aug, 2025
Location
Wandsworth
Salary/rate
£51,540 – £62,451
Working pattern
Full-time – 36 hours per week
Working arrangements
Blended
Contract type
Permanent
Closing date
3rd Aug, 2025
About the role

Are you passionate about improving outcomes for children and do you see yourself as a leader of relationship-based practice? This role will be key within our Practice & Learning Service facilitating and co-ordinating the continuous improvement of practice quality in line with our Outstanding Practice Framework.

Working across all Children's Services teams, you will contribute to developing, embedding and leading the quality assurance framework and developing practice through learning episodes. You will bring rigour to analysing key themes and learning arising from practice assurance activity and share these messages with practitioners, managers, senior leaders and multi-agency partners in creative and engaging ways.

Reporting to the Service Manager for Practice Assurance, you will be working alongside colleagues in safeguarding, policy and performance, inspection readiness and workforce and learning. You will be an experienced social work leader, who is child and family focused and able to thrive in a complex environment while responding in an agile way to service demands. Key responsibilities include:

  • Leading and developing quality assurance frameworks across Place and Partnership (Early Help) and Children's Social Care
  • Completing regular practice assurance activity including audit programmes, dip-sampling, thematic practice reviews and multi-agency audits
  • Understanding practice and hearing directly from those who experience practice, privileging their voice in understanding the difference practice is making
  • Supporting practice both at individual and organisational level whilst maintaining sight across the whole practice system
  • Contributing to inspection readiness and continuous improvement initiatives

For an informal conversation about the role, please contact Lindsey Birtles at lindsey.birtles@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk.

Shortlisting will take place w/c 25th August 2025 with interviews scheduled for 5th September 2025.

About you

We are looking for an experienced social work leader who is child and family focused and passionate about delivering the very best outcomes for children and families. You will be someone who wants to stay close to practice whilst having sight across the whole practice system. The ideal candidate will:

  • Be a qualified Social Worker, registered with Social Work England
  • Have experience of leading and managing social work practice
  • Have experience of leading effective quality assurance of practice
  • Possess strong analytical skills with an eye for detail, being able to make meaning out of complex information
  • Be able to share findings in written form and easy to digest messages about practice
  • Be able to build collaborative and effective relationships with teams, services and senior leaders
  • Demonstrate understanding and application of anti-discriminatory and anti-racist practice to social work practice

Richmond & Wandsworth Better Service Partnership are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment and selection process, please let us know. 

We are also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Some posts may be exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to these posts will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

We offer a wide range of benefits designed to attract, develop, and reward our employees such as 40 days annual leave (including Bank Holidays), flexible working and a generous pension plan.  

About Wandsworth

Our social workers are at the heart of our success, and we’re looking for Social Workers who share and are excited by our vision. Come and be part of our success.

All children and families deserve an outstanding level of practice, let’s work together to provide them with the very best.

Our shared vision and values to improve outcomes for children and families will drive practice. Our outstanding practice framework will support us collectively to do that. We want to apply solutions to complex problems in the simplest way. Having a robust practice framework will enable a shared language, understanding and value base from which we can all work creatively with children and families to achieve the best outcomes for them.

We know that to recruit passionate, dedicated social workers - where there’s simply more demand than the available resource - we must show our appreciation in more tangible ways. That's why we have put together an attractive package for all our social workers.

In return for your skills, knowledge and experience, you will receive an appropriate starting salary and a friendly, kind, positive and supportive working culture.

We also offer:

  • Performance related salary progression scheme

  • 32 days annual leave to all employees plus bank holidays

  • Relocation package for experienced social workers moving to London

  • Manageable caseloads

  • Agile and flexible working arrangements

  • Professional development and CPD opportunities

  • Regular reflective supervision and peer group supervision

  • Refer a friend scheme

  • Welcome payments and retention bonuses for harder to recruit to areas of our services

  • Social Work Career Pathway Framework

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services. 

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment and selection process, please let us know. 

We are also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Some posts may be exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to these posts will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

If you have any questions about applying for this role, please get in touch with Simi Sabo on simi.sabo@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk