Advanced Practitioner - Practice Educator

Overview

Are you passionate about improving social work practice and making a lasting difference to the lives of children and families? This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced social work professional to help shape and drive excellent practice across Children's Services, supporting Newly Qualified Social Workers in their first year of Social Work practice, influencing service improvement, and championing innovative approaches that deliver better outcomes.

As an Advanced Practitioner, you will work closely with the Principal Children & Families Social Worker, supporting the development of high-quality practice across teams – from Newly Qualified Social Workers, promoting the Strengthening Families approach, and playing a key role in the ongoing improvement journey of Children's Services.

Take a look at our Children's Social Care Candidate Pack to find out more.

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 highly rewarding and influential role for an experienced social worker who is motivated by developing and supporting Newly Qualified Social Workers, driving quality improvement, and ensuring children and families receive the best possible support. Working across Children's Services on a countywide basis, you will help embed best practice, support professional development, and contribute to service-wide improvement initiatives.

As an Advanced Practitioner, you will work directly with practitioners, managers, and partner agencies to identify areas of strength and improvement. Through auditing, direct observation of Newly Qualified Social Workers practice, training delivery, action learning sets, and practice forums, you will support teams – Newly Qualified Social Workers to continuously enhance their practice and achieve positive outcomes for children, young people, and their families. A key focus of the role will be championing the Strengthening Families approach, ensuring that the voice of the child remains central to service delivery and decision making.

You will also have the opportunity to contribute to service innovation, develop practice guidance and training programmes, support newly qualified social workers through their first year in practice, and influence strategic improvements across the service. This is an ideal opportunity for someone who enjoys combining frontline social work expertise with coaching, mentoring, and organisational development.

Key Responsibilities

• Support and promote best practice across Children's Services through coaching, mentoring, and professional development activities for Newly Qualified Social Workers.
• Lead and contribute to auditing activities completing monthly audits
• Undertake direct observation of Newly Qualified Social Workers practice and provide developmental feedback.
• Deliver engaging practice-based training workshops to a cohort of Newly Qualified Social Workers on a monthly basis.
• Provide one -to-one Reflective supervision to Newly Qualified Social Workers.
• Champion and embed the Strengthening Families approach across teams and service areas.
• Support newly qualified social workers during their ASYE including completing all ASYE portfolio documentation and hold their ASYE reviews at 3, 6, 9 and 12-months.
• Review and quality assure all ASYE portfolio evidence and documentation provided by Newly Qualified Social Workers.
• Work alongside the Team Manager for the Newly Qualified Social Worker in supporting and developing their skills, practice and knowledge.
• Contribute to workforce development initiatives.
• Gather feedback from families to support the Newly Qualified Social Worker’s practice and development.
• Work collaboratively with practice champions and colleagues to share expertise and improve outcomes for children and families.

For a full list of responsibilities and duties, please refer to the Job Description.

Mobile:

A ‘mobile’ role gives you the flexibility to schedule your own diary, so you can meet with colleagues and clients in a variety of locations. You’ll access digital folders and resources on your laptop and be able to use the network wherever you are based. Working from home will be common, as well as meeting your team in the office where necessary.

About you

We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic social work professional who is passionate about improving practice and supporting others to achieve their full potential. You will be a confident communicator, relationship builder, and role model, with the ability to inspire, motivate, and influence practitioners, managers, and partners across Children's Services.

You will bring substantial experience working with children and families, alongside a strong understanding of child protection, looked after children services, child development, attachment theory, and evidence-based social work practice. You will be comfortable presenting complex information in an accessible way, delivering training, facilitating learning opportunities, and supporting practice improvement through reflective and analytical approaches.

To be successful in this role, you will need excellent organisational skills, the ability to work collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams, and a commitment to ensuring children's voices remain at the heart of service delivery. You will also share our organisational values, being proud, ambitious, collaborative and trustworthy in everything you do.

Essential Skills, Experience and Qualifications

• Degree in Social Work (CQSW, DipSW or equivalent qualification).
• Professional registration with the relevant social work regulator.
• Minimum of 3 years post-qualification social work experience.
• Practice Educator Qualification Stage 2 / PEPS 2 (or equivalent)
• Extensive knowledge of child protection processes, legislation, guidance, and best practice.
• Strong understanding of the needs of children and families, including areas such as mental health, domestic abuse, and substance misuse.
• Experience of mentoring, supervising, coaching, or supporting the development of practitioners.
• Ability to develop and deliver training, presentations, and learning materials.
• Strong report writing, analytical, and communication skills.
• Ability to travel across the county as required by the role.

Other information

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

Closing date: 23:59 Sunday 6th December2026

Interview date: 11th December TBC

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.

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

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 Service Area

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 and shops, a generous employer pension contribution in line with the Local Government Pension Scheme, discounts on gym memberships and more - https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/

Social Workers are also entitled to a generous enhanced reward package, as follows:

• Competitive salary with a market increment
• A ‘Golden Hello’ lump sum payment upon successful completion of probation
• Annual leave up to 30 days per year, as well as other types of leave and the opportunity to buy further leave
• Up to 15 days per year training, learning and development offer
• Free parking across all of our office sites 

If you are interested in relocating to Buckinghamshire and working with us, relocation packages are also available.