Job Description

Reunification Team Manager | 10796 | Secondment Opportunity / Temporary Fixed Term Contract for 2 years | 37 hours per week | £50,166 to £54,277 per annum | Grade L | County Hall, Norwich

Hi, I am Michelle Jones, Service Manager for In Care at Norfolk County Council. Norfolk, with a recent Ofsted grading of ‘Outstanding’ and recognition of ‘aspirational senior leadership’, is a service we are proud of. We value our Social Work Teams and the impactful work they do with children, young people and families.

This is an exciting time to join our Management Team at Norfolk as we develop and launch an innovative Reunification Service. This is initially a 2-year opportunity focused on strengthening our support to children and families to enable safe, sustainable returns home.

Our service is child-centred, with a clear culture that children and care leavers come first. This new team will build on our strong foundations, providing targeted, intensive support to improve outcomes and ensure children experience stability, permanence and positive family relationships.

We are looking for a Team Manager who holds a Social Work qualification and brings experience of working with children in care and those returning home. You will demonstrate strong leadership, excellent people management and mentoring skills, and be able to support and develop practitioners to deliver high-quality, purposeful direct work with children and families.

The Reunification Team will work alongside existing Social Work Teams, offering additional capacity and specialist focus to support children and families through the reunification journey. As Team Manager, you will oversee the day-to-day running of the service, ensuring that practitioners are effectively supporting risk reduction, building family resilience, and enabling safe, successful and timely returns home.

You will play a key role in shaping and developing this evolving service, working closely with partner agencies to deliver a coordinated, multi-agency approach. You will also contribute to workforce development, recruitment, and budget management, while maintaining a strong focus on quality practice and outcomes.

You will be joining a committed, supportive and energetic local management team, supervising a skilled group of practitioners and helping to embed this new offer across the service. This is a unique opportunity to influence practice, test new approaches and make a measurable difference to children and families.

Norfolk is a fantastic place to live and work. The role will be based within our locality teams, operating within a hybrid working model, with an expectation of regular in-office presence to support team development and collaboration. A driving licence and access to a vehicle is essential.

Before you apply, we recommend reading the full and Person Specification to help you demonstrate you meet the criteria.

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: 1 July 2026 at 23:55

All other applicants closing date: 22 July 2026 at 23:55