Our children's social care team

Liverpool's children's social care team is like a close-knit family. We support each other when times get tough, help each other out and celebrate our successes.

Liverpool city is rich in diversity and as a children’s social worker this will be reflected in the families that you support. You will benefit from having a range of experiences that will enable you to develop your skills further if you are an experienced social worker or develop new skills if you have recently joined the social work profession.

You will be joining Liverpool at an exciting time as we are introducing the highly acclaimed Family Safeguarding practice model. All social workers will be trained in motivational interviewing and there will be other training opportunities linked to this new way of working. 

Assessment Service

Based in the city centre's Cunard Building with fantastic views, we work together with our MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub) colleagues with the ethos of getting it right first time and keeping children at the centre of what we do.

The Assessment Service is a dynamic city-wide service and as a social worker you will be working in a fast-paced environment. Social workers receive a high level of support from a very stable management team who are visible and provide regular supervision. The team enjoys agile working which allows greater flexibility in the way we work.

As an assessment social worker your focus will be completing single assessments for child in need and child protection and providing time-limited help and support to enable families to prevent or overcome crisis and no longer have the need for a social worker. Family support workers provide immediate intensive support to families and are integral members of the assessment service.      

Safeguarding Service

The work of the safeguarding teams spans child in need, child protection, and court work, and through a varied caseload you will be actively encouraged and supported to develop your professional skills. Social workers receive a high level of support from a very stable management team who are visible and provide regular supervision. The team enjoys agile working which allows greater flexibility in the way we work. Family Support workers provide support and tailored interventions with families and are integral in helping the teams make a real difference to the lives of our vulnerable children and young people.      

The Family Safeguarding practice model is to be introduced within the safeguarding service and 16 Family Safeguarding Teams are to be created. These will be multi-disciplinary teams with children’s workers and specialist adult workers – domestic abuse, mental health, and substance misuse. There will be collective responsibility for each case and group supervision. This new way of working will enable many more children and young people to remain at home and will promote and achieve improved outcomes for children and their parents/carers.      

Permanence and Leaving Care Service

The permanence and leaving care service is a city-wide service where we support our children in care and care leavers to thrive. Social workers receive a high level of support from a very stable management team who are visible and provide regular supervision.  The permanence service is based in South Liverpool and the Leaving Care Service is based in Toxteth.  The teams enjoy agile working which allows greater flexibility in the way we work.

As a permanence social worker your work will be varied as you will be supporting and working with children and young people who live at home with their parents, who live with kinship carers or foster carers and a few who are in residential care. The aim for many of these children is for them to no longer need a social worker and to achieve permanence through the discharge of the Care Order. Some of our children and young people will need support as they transition into adulthood and that is where our personal advisors take up the reins.   

As a corporate parent you will be actively working with many professionals to ensure that our children and young people reach their full potential and lead active, fulfilling, and healthy lives. Family Support workers provide support and tailored interventions with children and young people and are integral in helping the teams make a real difference. Participation Workers involve children in the Children in Care Council or young people in the Leaving Care Council.

Due to the high numbers of children and young people who come to the city from a range of war-torn countries, Liverpool has a specialist Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) Team within the permanence service. Social workers and personal advisors provide help and support to ensure that these vulnerable children and young people settle in a new country and are able to overcome the past trauma that they have experienced.     

Our Leaving Care Service provides support to care leavers until they are 25 years of age. To assist with their transition, we allocate a personal advisor at the earliest opportunity and have a Transitions Panel so that there is robust planning prior to the young person leaving care.        

Fostering Service

The fostering service is based alongside the permanence service which is beneficial as it promotes joined-up working. Despite having three specialisms the fostering service is one big happy family and function as one team. This allows you to access a wide range of support from your colleagues and management team and really make a difference.

The service has three specialist teams: the fostering recruitment team, the fostering team that supports our approved foster carers and our connected carers team that assesses potential kinship/connected carers.

As a fostering social worker, you will specialise in the work of the team that you are based in but will interact and work with the social work teams across children’s social care to support robust and high-quality care planning for children and young people that will promote and ensure stability.

The fostering service has a strong recruitment strategy with the aim of significantly increasing the number of our foster carers. Kinship care is promoted in Liverpool, and we offer a high level of support to these foster carers but in order for children to achieve permanence, when it is clear that they no longer need a social worker, we encourage Special Guardianship.  As a fostering social worker, you will work closely with the child’s social worker to ensure that care planning enables these children to achieve permanence and celebrate this achievement with the family.    

Adoption and Special Guardianship Team

We are a small team that coordinates care planning for children once it has been agreed that a plan of adoption is in their best interests or offer support to children and their Special Guardians. As a small and supportive team, with excellent management support, we are able to consistently deliver outstanding care plans for children. The team enjoys agile working which allows greater flexibility in the way we work

Liverpool is part of the Regional Adoption Agency – Adoption in Merseyside (AiM). As an adoption social worker, you will work with AiM social workers to find adoptive families for our children. Once a family has been found you will work together to progress the plan, support the child being introduced to their adoptive parent/s and help with the child moving into their forever home.

As we know this is also a difficult time for the child’s birth parents and you will offer support to ensure that they are reassured that their child will be well cared for and ensure that any future contact arrangements are put in place.

As a Special Guardianship social worker, you will provide support to both the child and the Special Guardians with the ultimate aim of them remaining together as a family unit.