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.

As a Practice Supervisor, you will be central to embedding this approach in everyday practice, ensuring consistency, confidence and impact across the service, and supporting the continued development of an effective Family Help model in line with Families First principles.

We are proud to be rated Outstanding by Ofsted, recognising our strong leadership, relational approach, and commitment to achieving the best outcomes for children and families. We are committed to growing our own leaders, and this role is designed as a development opportunity for practitioners ready to take the next step in their career.

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.

City of York Council is committed to investing in the talent and wellbeing of our staff and can offer a generous annual leave allowance, access to the Local Government Pension Scheme, comprehensive Health & Wellbeing initiatives and a reward package which recognises your contribution. 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. 

This post is suitable as a job sharing position. 

Hybrid working arrangements are available for this role. Each role at CYC is different and your working arrangements will be determined based on the requirements of the role and in collaboration with you and your needs as part of the recruitment process. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team.

City of York Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. We require the successful candidate to undertake an enhanced Criminal Record check via the Disclosure and Barring Service.

As this role is public facing, applicants will need to demonstrate, at interview, their competency to converse and provide advice and guidance to members of the public, in spoken English to CEFR level C1: Can express themselves fluently and spontaneously, almost effortlessly. Only a conceptually difficult subject can hinder a natural, smooth flow of language.

For further information or an informal discussion please contact Cat Middleton at:

cat.middleton@york.gov.uk  or on 01904551456

Closing date: 19 July 2026 at 12 midnight

Interview date: w/c 3 August 2026