Early Help Team Manager

West Sussex County Council is a diverse organisation that provides services to more than 850,000 residents' every day. Through our Early Help Service, we will work with children, families, and young people to help ensure that every person is supported to achieve his or her potential. The foundations for mental health, emotional control, doing well in education and parenting ability are all set in place in the early years; the home surroundings, family life and parenting are all important factors in determining positive outcomes for children as they grow and develop.

For more information about Children's Services, please visit our Education, Children and Familiespage and our WSCC Health and Social Care section of our website.

For more information about working for West Sussex County Council (WSCC), please visit our WSCC About Us page on our West Sussex County Council website.

About the Jobs

Salary: £48,226 to £51,356 per annum

Working Pattern: Full Time (37 hours)

Contract Length: Fixed Term until 31st March 2027

Location: Mid Sussex and Horsham area

Interviews arranged for 7th September 2026

Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please can you therefore discuss and agree this with your manager before applying for this position.

Early Help ensures that children and families receive accessible and co-ordinated support when they need it. This support ranges across a continuum from early identification and preventative approaches through to more targeted help where families are experiencing more complex or multiple difficulties. At every level support is designed to address and reduce the problems or challenges and prevent them getting worse.

As an experienced Manager, you will lead, supervise and provide strategic oversight to a team delivering direct targeted interventions and support to children, young people and families. You will be expected to demonstrate a proven track record in managing teams, including oversight of complex caseloads, multi-agency working, and delivering measurable outcomes for families.

Flexibility is essential, as you may be required to lead across service areas in response to business needs, ensuring consistent, high-quality practice and performance across all teams, this includes supporting the Early Help Hubs.

You will play a key role in the Early Help leadership team in bringing your knowledge and expertise into the development of services. You will be responsible for ensuring policies and practice are adhered to through a number of quality assurance processes. You will work alongside peers across the directorate to work collaboratively to ensure the needs of children are met.

Experience and skills

• Ability to anticipate problems, plan solutions and make sound pragmatic problem-solving decisions which will have a wider service impact, particularly in relation to providing a varied service, resource issues, partnership building (internally or externally) and the day-to-day management and direction of the team.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to influence the actions of others and communicate information which may be complex and contentious. Including the ability to negotiate solutions across wide areas of the business, manage conflict and successfully convince others of the need to take a specific course of action with a child first approach.
• Effective people and performance management skills and the ability to provide direction and motivate and inspire the team to deliver quality professional practice.
• Able to manage self, is self-aware and understands impact of work on self and others and responds constructively to situations. Understanding the need for emotional intelligence/resilience. Ability to respond calmly and appropriately to situations where others are in a stressful or anxious situation. Thorough understanding of the range of needs presented by children and families.
• Ability to organise/prioritise work, co-ordinate a variety of tasks in a clear and logical way and meet agreed deadlines and outcomes without supervision.
• Analytically minded with the ability to judge, analyse and interpret varied and highly complex situations to produce strategies over the long term e.g. interpret and solve issues by coordinating with multiple agencies across the county, such as schools, CAMHS, Adult Services, Social Care, Police, etc.

• Post graduate professional qualification relevant either to management or to a professional service specialism (e.g. Social Work, Health, Early Education and Childcare, Community Development, Family Support); or equivalent level of significant experience demonstrating comprehensive application of the above levels of knowledge in a relevant setting.
• Relevant chartered status of a professional body or equivalent high-level experience of involved practices.
• Advanced theoretical knowledge of systems, procedures and policies in specialist areas e.g. child protection, data protection, relevant law, national guidance, risk management, health and safety, safeguarding, evidence-based practice of what works within family support.
• Valid and full driving licence and access to a vehicle/ability to travel around the county independently.

Reward and benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do.

In addition to working within a great team and a brilliant opportunity you will receive:

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our Rewards and Benefits page.

The reference number for this role is CAFHE06518.

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the roles, please contact Natalie Howe or Corina Gibson , or for issues or queries regarding your application please contact .

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and cover letter. In your cover letter outline your motivations for applying and explain how you meet the key skills listed in full and the experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application please contact .

For information regarding your eligibility to apply for this role under our Disability, Veteran's or WSCC Care Leaver's Guaranteed Interview Scheme, this can be found on our application help page.