Location
Romford, London Borough of Havering

Hours
The post holder will be required to work out of normal office hours, on a shift rota from Monday to Saturday, including evenings and early mornings as required. In emergencies, there may be a requirement to volunteer to work on Sundays.

Salary
Grade 10 - £59,511 to £63,966 per annum

About the Role
The Team Manager is responsible for managing the operational day-to-day delivery of the Early Help Family Intervention Service and Universal Plus services. This role works in strong collaboration with MASH Team Managers to ensure children and families receive timely and appropriate support to prevent statutory escalation. The Team Manager deputises for their line manager when required, ensuring decisions are made at the appropriate level.

Key responsibilities include managing and overseeing staff to deliver high quality social work in line with legislation, guidance, and good practice standards. The role requires robust recording of information on relevant systems and databases, managing sickness absence, and ensuring consistency in threshold application.

The Team Manager supports service planning and development, identifying needs and challenges, and escalating issues as appropriate. They lead efforts to raise awareness and promote the Early Help offer, working effectively with the safeguarding partnership to identify service gaps.

Budget management is essential, ensuring cost-effective service delivery and adherence to s.17 budget principles, including maximising charity provisions. The role promotes quality assurance pathways, contributes to audits, produces summary reports, and chairs multi-disciplinary meetings including complex TAF meetings. The Team Manager acts as the designated SPOC for the Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) Programme, promoting training for families.

Additional duties include acting as the first point of contact for service complaints, evaluating staff performance through visits, supervision, and assessments, and providing supervision and appraisal to encourage professional development. The role promotes systemic, face-to-face practice to improve outcomes for children, young people, and families.

The Team Manager also provides cover for other managers within the Early Help and Partnership Service at the equivalent grade and is expected to travel to meetings across the borough and occasionally nationally.

The duties outlined are indicative and may be subject to change. Other reasonable duties may be assigned by the manager as required.

Experience
- Relevant Social Work Qualification and registration with Social Work England.
- Operational management experience of diverse statutory teams in complex or multi-agency environments.
- Significant knowledge of relevant legislation, guidance, and child social care practice.
- Proven ability to manage and influence the quality of social work practice to achieve good outcomes.
- Experience influencing partner agencies without direct line management.
- Demonstrated success in promoting and implementing equal opportunity policies and anti-discriminatory services.
- Desirable: Experience working within a systemic model of practice and using systemic supervision.
- Experience setting clear priorities, objectives, and standards, and delivering against service performance targets.

About You
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to collaborate effectively with professionals, agencies, and stakeholders.
- Excellent communication skills, including report writing and presentations.
- Ability to plan and manage own time and team workload, balancing competing demands.
- Advocacy skills to represent team interests, identify service gaps, and promote resource and policy improvements.
- High resilience to cope with a demanding and fast-paced environment while maintaining a positive team atmosphere.

Qualifications
- Relevant Social Work Qualification registered with Social Work England is essential.