City of York are excited to be seeking a skilled and motivated Practice Supervisor to join our Family Help service – a key leadership role offering an excellent route for progression for experienced social workers looking to develop their management and leadership expertise.

As a Practice Supervisor, you will play a vital role in driving high-quality practice across Family Help, supporting practitioners to deliver meaningful, strengths-based interventions that improve outcomes for children and families. This work sits at the heart of the national Families First Programme, and you will contribute to strengthening early help and safeguarding responses through effective, relationship-based practice.

We are looking for a committed and experienced social worker who:

• Has strong experience working with children and families
• Demonstrates excellent practice knowledge and leadership potential
• Is passionate about developing others and improving practice
• Has a strong understanding of safeguarding, risk, and multi-agency working
• Embraces a relational and strengths-based approach

As part of your role as Practice Supervisor, you will provide day-to-day oversight of cases and offer guidance and support to Family Help Lead Practitioners, both social workers and those alternatively qualified.

You will also lead on practice quality, performance, and decision-making, ensuring consistently high standards, and champion reflective supervision and learning, enabling staff to grow and thrive.

We are keen that Practice Supervisors model excellent direct practice, support complex case work, and work collaboratively with partners to deliver a coordinated, whole-family response, in line with our ambition to further develop our Family Help offer as part of Families First reforms.

This role offers a fantastic opportunity to step into leadership, with clear pathways into more senior management roles.

At the heart of our work in York is our practice model, Building Brighter Futures, which promotes a relational, strengths-based, systemic and restorative approach. This includes systemic practice, a focus on family group decision making, and developing expertise in working with families where there is domestic abuse, including through our Safe and Together approach.

Our practice model is underpinned by Signs of Safety, a collaborative and solution-focused framework where we work in partnership with families to identify strengths and build safety, with the goal of keeping children safely within their families and networks wherever possible.

We have a strong commitment to staff development in York, offering regular, high-quality training and development opportunities, alongside a clear focus on staff wellbeing and nurturing a highly supportive environment for everyone.

This role forms part of the implementation of the Families First reforms, which will come into effect on 1 October 2026. Should you be successful in securing an offer of employment, your start date will be on or after this date, subject to the completion of all required pre‑employment checks, including DBS clearance.

We can offer flexible working practices, community engagement and volunteer activities and, as part of our commitment to you, promote continuous Learning & Development. In addition we also offer a growing range of discounts, rewards and savings.

For further information or an informal discussion please contact Cat Middleton at: cat.middleton@york.gov.uk or on 01904551456

Closing date: 15 November 2026 at 12 midnight

Interview date: TBC