Assistant Team Manager - Children with Disabilities

The salary range for this full-time permanent position is £49,464 - £52,864 per annum. Plus a start up/retention payment of up to £6,000 payable across your first 18 months subject to eligibility.

Make a difference for children with disabilities and their families.

We're excited to be hiring an Assistant Team Manager to join our Children with Disabilities (CWD) Service. This is an opportunity to play a key role in supporting children with disabilities and their families, leading practice that is relationship-based, collaborative and focused on delivering meaningful, lasting change.

This position will be part of our CWD Team supporting children and families in East Surrey.

Our Offer to You

• We pay your Social Worker England Registration fee
• Access to bespoke learning programmes via our dedicated Children’s Services Academy to empower and enrich your practice
• 28 days annual leave, rising to 31 days after 5 years' service (plus bank holidays)
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Up to 5 days of carer’s leave and 2 paid volunteering days per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources
• Wellbeing and lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, and shopping
• A chance to make a real difference to the lives of our residents
• Refer a friend payment of £1,000 as a thank you for finding the right Social Worker

The Surrey Context

The national Families First Partnership Programme (FFPP) represents one of the most significant changes to children's services in recent years. Placing earlier intervention, stronger partnerships and better outcomes for children and families at the heart of practice, FFPP aims to create a more joined-up system that strengthens relationships and ensures families can access help before challenges escalate. Our newly shaped services will officially go live on the 1st of November 2026.

At Surrey, we are ambitious for children and families. We are committed to ensuring children with disabilities receive high-quality support that enables them to thrive within their families, communities and local networks wherever possible.

About the Role

As an Assistant Team Manager within our Children with Disabilities Service, you'll play a key leadership role in supporting children with complex and additional needs, ensuring they receive coordinated, strengths-based support that improves outcomes and enhances family resilience. You'll help shape practice, support and develop practitioners, and work alongside families and partners to deliver meaningful change.

Working under the guidance of the Team Manager, you'll provide practice leadership and line management to Family Support Workers, Practitioners and Newly Qualified Social Workers, helping to ensure that children and families receive timely, proportionate and effective support.

A key focus of the role is supporting high-quality practice at Targeted Early Help and Section 17 level, alongside providing oversight of Children in Need planning and services designed to meet the needs of children with disabilities. You'll promote reflective practice, support professional development and contribute to a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

You'll also work closely with health, education and specialist partners, including contributing to Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) processes, ensuring children and families benefit from coordinated, holistic support that reflects their individual strengths, needs and aspirations.

Key areas of responsibility:

• Providing practice leadership and support to practitioners; delivering reflective supervision and management oversight to line-managed staff
• Supporting high-quality Children in Need planning and review processes for children with disabilities
• Overseeing interventions including short breaks, commissioned support packages and longer-term family support arrangements
• Promoting strengths-based and relationship-focused practice in line with Surrey's approach and FFPP principles
• Working collaboratively with health, education, commissioned providers and other partners to ensure coordinated support
• Supporting effective decision-making and progression of plans, identifying when children's needs require escalation to safeguarding services
• Contributing to quality assurance activity, audits and service improvement initiatives
• Chairing Child in Need and Team Around the Family meetings where appropriate
• Supporting the Team Manager with service delivery, workflow oversight and operational decision-making

You'll join a supportive leadership team that values collaboration, professional curiosity and continuous improvement, with access to excellent learning and development opportunities to help you grow your career.

About You

We're looking for a qualified and experienced social worker with a passion for improving outcomes for children with disabilities and their families.

You'll bring substantial experience of working with children, young people and families within a statutory setting, alongside a strong understanding of child development, safeguarding, strengths-based practice and multi-agency working.

In order to be considered for shortlisting, your application will clearly evidence the following skills and align with our behaviours:

• A recognised social work qualification and registration with Social Work England
• Knowledge and understanding of the needs of children with disabilities and their families
• Experience engaging families where there may be complexity, resistance or heightened levels of need
• Experience of providing reflective supervision, practice oversight, or demonstrable readiness to take on a leadership role
• Up-to-date knowledge of relevant legislation, statutory guidance and practice frameworks
• Strong partnership-working skills and the ability to build effective relationships across agencies
• A commitment to developing others and maintaining high standards of practice

To apply, we request that you submit a CV and answer the following 4 questions:

1. Please tell us what has motivated you to apply for the Assistant Team Manager position in Surrey's Children with Disabilities Service. How do your skills, experience and values equip you to support children with disabilities, their families and the ongoing development of the service?
2. Please describe a piece of work you have undertaken with a child or young person and their family. How did you assess their needs, build positive relationships, and ensure support was tailored to achieve meaningful outcomes?
3. Please give an example of how you have supported, supervised or developed the practice of a colleague, student or other practitioner. How did you provide guidance and challenge, and what was the impact on their development?
4. Please tell us about a time when you worked collaboratively with families and partner agencies to coordinate support for a child with complex needs. How did you build effective relationships, and what difference did this collaborative approach make?

An enhanced DBS ‘Disclosure and Barring Service’ check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) and the Children’s Barred List checks will be required for this role.

Surrey has both urban and rural areas and candidates will be expected to have a valid driving licence to drive in the UK, access to a vehicle and be willing to travel across a wide geographical area. Reasonable adjustments where needed will be made for successful applicants who have a disability or long-term health condition to enable them to fulfil the requirements of the job.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on the 18th of October with interviews planned to follow.

Before submitting your application, we recommend you read the job description and our Life at Surrey Handbook to get an insight into working at Surrey.

Contact Us

Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment. In the first instance please contact our dedicated Workforce Team via email at cfllworkforceteam@surreycc.gov.uk and they will be happy to support with any questions you have.

Local Government Reorganisation (LGR)

Surrey County Council is undergoing Local Government Reorganisation and will move to new authorities in April 2027. This role is currently employed by Surrey County Council and will remain so until then. If you are employed by Surrey County Council on 1 April 2027, your employment will transfer under TUPE arrangements to one of the new councils, with your current terms and conditions protected. The provisional allocation for this post is East Surrey, subject to final confirmation through the wider transition process later this year. Please see more information here: Information for applicants on Local Government Reorganisation - Surrey County Council.

Our Commitment

We are a disability confident employer which means if you have shared a disability on your application form and have evidenced you meet the minimum shortlisting criteria as displayed on the advert, we guarantee you an interview.

Your skills and experience truly matter to us. From application to your first day, we’re committed to supporting you with any adjustments you need, we value inclusion and warmly welcome you to join and help build a workplace where everyone belongs.