Community Social Worker

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.

• Job Title: Community Social Worker
• Job Location: Shire Hall, Block 4, 1st Floor
• Salary: £40,444 - £48,738 per annum
• Hours per Week: 37.00
• Contract Type: Permanent
• Closing Date: 22/11/2026
• Job Requisition Number: 15125
• This post is open to job share

We are currently recruiting for a Community Social Worker to join our team based in the Forest of Dean on a permanent basis.

Reward and Support

For all your hard work, you will receive the following:

• between £40,444 - £48,738 per annum subject to experience (pro rata for part-time staff)
• £3,600 welcome payment*
• £2,000 retention payment*
• up to £8,000 relocation package**
• flexible and agile working opportunities
• 25.5 days annual leave rising to 30.5 days after 5 years continuous service (pro rata for part-time staff)
• option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part-time staff)
• family friendly policies and benefits to help support you and your family
• supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
• Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone
• an in-house Occupational Health service
• employee discount scheme
• links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) and the Young Employees Network
• career development and qualification opportunities
• access to our Social Work Academy
• Cycle to Work scheme (eligibility criteria and t&cs apply)
• Green Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme (eligibility criteria and t&cs apply)
• our frontline staff have access to Magic Notes to support their work as well as all staff having Copilot licences

*Please note that all our welcome and retention payments are subject to terms and conditions as well as tax and national insurance deductions. The payments are non-contractual and are pro-rata for part-time staff.

*Please note that our relocation policy is subject to terms and conditions.

Right child, right support, right time, every time

In our recent inspection in June 2025, our Children’s Services have been officially judged as ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ elements. Ofsted also said ‘Leaders have set out a clear vision for delivering success for children, by modelling values and creating a culture where the workforce, children and families feel valued and heard; risk is managed confidently with bottom lines clearly set out.’

This marks an important step in our journey to improve outcomes for our children and young people, and we remain focused on our mission: to continue building on this success and ensure that every child and young person in our county has the opportunity to thrive.

Gloucestershire offers a range of opportunities to develop your career, supported by a phenomenal Social Work Academy offer, a developing systemic practice methodology, an ambitious leadership team and an award-winning workforce.

We are a local authority adopting, and training all colleagues in, systemic social work practice. If you would like to be part of an authority that takes a relational approach to working with families and focuses on what needs to change in the system around a child and family to enable children to thrive, then consider a role with GCC.

About the team

The Community Social Work Team are qualified Social Workers who support Practitioners in the community who work directly with children and families. Social Workers within the team are not case-holding and support Community Practitioners to reflect on worries for children and their families, identify next steps and follow-up to ensure Practitioners are confident in completing agreed actions, providing or signposting to support required.

Community Social Workers also work alongside Community Practitioners who are part of a Team Around the Family where there are concerns that the risk is increasing, where there are multiple needs which are not being met or there is a particularly complex situation to address. In summary, the primary purpose of the Community Social Worker is to respond to emerging risk and manage de-escalating risk held in the Community.

The Community Social Work Team develop and deliver Practitioner training in partnership with the Gloucestershire Children’s Safeguarding Partnership and Health Professionals and upskill Practitioners utilising a ‘project approach’, identifying and disseminating best practice which demonstrates impact, resulting in sustained improvements for children and families.

The team is part of Gloucestershire County Council’s Early Intervention & Community Team and is integral to the early help advice, guidance and support provided to Community Practitioners and partners to ensure Practitioners are confident in implementing the earliest support approach to respond to emerging and escalating need.

About You

You will provide the vital link between our Social Care teams and the Early Intervention & Community Team. You will support Practitioners who are working with vulnerable children, young people, and their families to understand risk and harm and promote clarity where the level of risk is unclear. Part of the role will include improving outcomes for children and young people not currently open to Children’s Social Care and prevent their needs from escalating unnecessarily.

You will also be well supported within our experienced team to deliver training on different aspects of safeguarding and so much more!

This role could be the perfect next step in your career, offering opportunities to undertake CPD to progress to GCC Endorsed Senior Social Worker, complete Train the Trainer to enable you to develop and deliver training and where available, complete the PEPs training to become a qualified Practice Supervisor/Educator. For the right candidate, this is a real development opportunity within a supportive team.

As well as your experience, there are some things we require of you to be successfully appointed to this post:

• a full driving licence and willingness to drive
• DBS clearance (Enhanced Adults and Children’s)
• to have completed your ASYE year (if you qualified after 2012)

How to apply

For an informal chat about this role, please contact Carrie-Anne.Panting2@gloucestershire.gov.uk

We reserve the right to close an advertisement earlier than the stated closing date if we receive a suitable number of applications.

Interviews are due to take place in person on Friday 4th December 2026.

If you would like to find out more about our Children's Service please take a look here: Children's Social Care Careers | Careers hub

We welcome applications from newly qualified and social workers in the early years of their career. Depending on your qualification date and previous experience, you will be invited to either join our accredited ASYE programme or to complete an alternative early‑career development in-house pathway. The appropriate option will be explored and confirmed as part of the interview and offer process.

We may be able to offer sponsorship for this role, in line with Home Office guidance and subject to pre-employment checks. Applicants must already hold a valid right to work in the UK that Gloucestershire County Council can transfer.

Under the terms of our Safer Recruitment Policy, if you are invited to interview, we will take up safeguarding references prior to your interview to understand your suitability to work with vulnerable children. These references will then be discussed in your interview. Please give details of at least two referees, one of whom must be your present and/or last employer and the other from a previous employer(s). These will need to cover the last three years of employment/education. In the case of applicants leaving full time education or not having worked since doing so, the Head of School, College or University should be one of the named referees. We do not accept references from friends or family members or workplace colleagues (who are not more senior). To ensure we process your application in a speedy and efficient way, we will contact your referees by DocuSign. Where appropriate, please inform them of your application.

Additional Information

To access the job profile for this role, please follow the link below:-

Community Social Worker job profile

Applications from any Gloucestershire County Council's employees who are currently on the redeployment register or at risk of redundancy will be considered first at shortlisting stage.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.