Assistant Team Manager

Overview

Fixed Term Until 9th October 2027

Ready to take the next step in your social work leadership career? This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced and passionate social work professional to join our Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) as an Assistant Team Manager, helping to make a real difference to the lives of children and families.

As an Assistant Team Manager, you will play a pivotal role in leading high-quality safeguarding practice, supporting staff development, and ensuring children receive the right help, at the right time. Working within a fast-paced, collaborative multi-agency environment, you will help drive positive outcomes for children while supporting a culture of continuous improvement and excellence.

About us

Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally.  

Buckinghamshire is an ambitious, rapidly growing county, and our economy is one of the strongest in the country. It is an area of outstanding natural beauty and ranks as one of the top rural areas to live in the UK and yet it is incredibly well connected– only an hour from London on the train. The county has a rich history and heritage and is the birthplace of the international Paralympic movement.

We are looking for motivated, ambitious and inspiring people to join us on our journey. You will be entitled to a range of different benefits to make sure you are happy both at work and at home.

About the role

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a well-established and forward-thinking local authority where safeguarding children is at the heart of everything we do. As part of a supportive management team, you will work closely with the Team Manager to provide leadership, oversight, and professional guidance across the service, ensuring that children and families receive timely and effective interventions.

The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub is the front door to Children's Services, bringing together key partners to share information, assess risk, and make informed decisions that protect vulnerable children. As Assistant Team Manager, you will have the opportunity to influence practice, lead decision-making, and support a team of Social Workers and Contact & Referral Officers to deliver consistently high standards of service.

This role offers the perfect balance of operational leadership and practice development. You will oversee the screening and triage of referrals, support complex safeguarding decisions, chair strategy discussions, and work collaboratively with partner agencies to ensure risks are identified and responded to effectively. Alongside this, you will help develop staff, improve performance, contribute to service improvements, and champion a child-centred approach across the team.

Key responsibilities include:

• Supervising, mentoring and supporting a pod of Social Workers and Contact & Referral Officers through high-quality reflective supervision.
• Providing oversight of referrals, risk assessments and decision-making to ensure statutory timescales are met.
• Leading on child protection decision-making and safeguarding interventions.
• Chairing strategy discussions and working closely with multi-agency partners.
• Providing professional advice, guidance and support to colleagues, partners and families.
• Supporting the effective transfer of cases to Assessment Teams, ensuring clear analysis and recommendations.
• Driving practice excellence, quality assurance activity and performance improvement.
• Assisting the Team Manager with service development, staff induction and workforce learning initiatives.

For a full breakdown of responsibilities and requirements, please refer to the Job Description.

Any-Desk:

As an ‘any-desk’ worker, you’ll need to be connected to our network to access digital folders and resources, but this can either be from home or an office location when required. You will be required to work from the office a couple of times a week, depending on your role and team requirements.

About you

We are looking for an experienced and motivated social work professional who is passionate about safeguarding children and achieving the best possible outcomes for families. You will be a confident practitioner and emerging leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment, can balance competing priorities, and has the ability to make sound decisions in complex situations.

You will bring strong safeguarding knowledge, excellent risk assessment skills, and a commitment to high-quality practice. Equally important is your ability to support, motivate and develop others, creating a positive team culture where staff feel empowered to achieve their best.

To be successful in this role, you will demonstrate:

• Substantial experience within statutory children's social care.
• Supervisory experience within a MASH setting, or significant frontline MASH experience with responsibility for complex safeguarding decision-making.
• Strong knowledge of safeguarding legislation, child protection processes and statutory guidance.
• Experience of leading on risk assessment, screening and triage of referrals.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with the confidence to engage effectively with families, professionals and partner agencies.
• The ability to analyse complex information and make timely, evidence-based decisions.
• A collaborative and solution-focused approach to achieving positive outcomes.
• Resilience, organisation and the ability to perform effectively within a demanding environment.
• A commitment to developing others through coaching, supervision and performance management.

You will also hold a recognised Social Work qualification and be registered with Social Work England.

Above all, you will be passionate about improving the lives of children and young people, championing excellent safeguarding practice, and ensuring that children's lived experiences remain at the centre of every decision you make.

We understand that candidates may use AI tools to assist with their applications. While we welcome innovation, we expect all submissions to reflect your own experience, skills, and achievements accurately. Please ensure your application is truthful and demonstrates your personal capabilities, as this will be assessed during the selection process.

Other information

If you would like to find out more about this role, please contact Louise Collins at [email protected]

Closing date: 26/10/2026

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Buckinghamshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk.

For roles that require Basic DBS check or no check please start using wording below:

This post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent cautions and/or unspent convictions

For further information on how long it takes for cautions and convictions cautions to become spent, please refer to our guide on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (updated 2023) | Nacro

For roles that require Standard or Enhanced DBS checks please use wording below:

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020 and 2023).

For further information on filtering please refer to Nacro guidance and the guidance published by the Ministry of Justice (see, in particular, the section titled ‘Exceptions Order’).

 

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Buckinghamshire is a successful, growing place with fantastic natural assets, a highly productive economy and many resourceful and thriving communities. However, we are far from complacent and our new and ambitious unitary authority is well placed to tackle the challenges associated with growth, an aging population, climate change and inequalities in both opportunities and outcomes – particularly for our children and young people.

Children’s Services is on an improvement journey and as our very recent Ofsted report shows, we have continued to improve despite the pressures of the pandemic and have built solid foundations for future success. Relationships with partners are strong and our collective response to the pandemic has strengthened and deepened our work together.

We have a big, ambitious agenda for Buckinghamshire, and our teams work collaboratively and at pace to make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people across the county.

We are looking for talented and driven individuals to help us achieve the best outcomes for our children, young people and families in Buckinghamshire. Our key priorities include continuing to protect vulnerable children and young people from harm, whilst sustaining an environment where social work practice can thrive. Through our vital work with our partners, including The Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Childrens Partnership, we continue to improve our collective response to children and young people who have been exposed to domestic abuse, exploitation, substance misuse and mental health issues.

No matter what role you take on in our Children’s services, you will be part of a team who is dedicated to supporting children and their families to achieve their full potential.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.

https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/