Senior Practitioner (2 posts)
Newcastle City CouncilNewcastle Upon Tyne, North East
Overview
This is a local council role (permanent, full time) with Newcastle City Council based in Newcastle Upon Tyne. The advertised salary is £47,665 - £50,908 per annum, pro rota. Applications close on 11 September 2026. GovJobs has indexed this vacancy from its official source — use the apply button to view the full advert and apply directly.
Job description
This is your moment. Shape the Future. Feel Supported. Belong in Newcastle.
Newcastle is more than a workplace - it’s a community. A vibrant, multicultural city where creativity, kindness, and resilience run deep. From the Quayside to Jesmond Dene, from Ouseburn’s indie cafés to our world class universities, this is a city that welcomes you and your ideas with open arms.
We are seeking an exceptional practitioner and leader to join us as?a Senior Social Work Practitioner within our New Reunification Team.
Are you passionate about helping children and young people successfully return home from care?
Newcastle City Council is committed to providing the right support at the right time to enable children and young people to thrive within their families and communities. As part of our continued investment in evidence-based services, we are establishing a new Reunification Team to strengthen our commitment to helping children return safely, successfully and sustainably to the care of their families, where this is in their best interests.
The new team is being developed to provide specialist assessment, intervention and support throughout the reunification journey, ensuring children and families receive focused help before, during and after a return home. The team forms part of a wider strategic investment in reunification practice across the city.
Alongside the new Reunification Team, Newcastle is also introducing an MST Return Home Team, creating a unique partnership between specialist social work and intensive therapeutic family intervention. Together, these services will provide a comprehensive reunification pathway, combining robust assessment, planning and permanence work with evidence-based support designed to strengthen family relationships, build resilience and reduce the risk of children re-entering care.
As a Senior Social Work Practitioner, you will play a key role in shaping this innovative service from the outset. Working alongside experienced colleagues, you will lead on complex assessments, support social workers with specialist reunification planning, contribute to practice development and help embed a culture of high-quality, evidence-informed practice. You will work closely with children, families, partner agencies and therapeutic services to ensure that when children return home, they do so safely and with the right support around them.
We are looking for ambitious and skilled practitioners who are passionate about permanence, relationship-based practice and achieving better outcomes for children and families. If you want to be part of a new service that will help shape the future of reunification practice in Newcastle and make a lasting difference to children's lives, we would love to hear from you.
- A unique opportunity to establish and shape an innovative new service.
- Regular professional supervision and development opportunities.
- Generous annual leave entitlement.
- Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.
- Flexible and supportive working arrangements.
- A strong organisational commitment to workforce wellbeing.
This is a rare opportunity to play a role in establishing an innovative and evidence-based service that will help children safely return home and remain with their families. If you want to be part of a new service that will help shape the future of reunification practice in Newcastle and make a lasting difference to children's lives, we would love to hear from you.
Apply online at www.northeastjobs.org.uk, select 'Apply Now' and complete our online application form. Before completing the form please ensure you read the supporting documents. Any communication sent to you regarding your application will be sent to the email address you have set up on your Northeast Jobs account, so you will need to ensure that you check your inbox.
For an information conversation about the role, please email Angela Jacobson, Team Manager at Angela.Jacobson@newcastle.gov.uk
We are committed to protecting and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expect all staff to share this commitment. This post is working in regulated activity. If you are successful we will undertake additional recruitment checks which will include a check to see if you have had any criminal convictions, a check of police information and we will check the barred list(s). It is a criminal offence for a barred individual to apply for a job in regulated activity.
How this role compares
We hold 350 council vacancies in North East that publish a salary, and their median advertised starting figure is £33,699. This role pays more than about 86% of them.
There are 4,945 council roles open across the UK on GovJobs right now, 555 of them in North East.
You have 12 days left to apply. Council adverts we hold typically run for around 26 days, so this is a shorter window than usual.
Newcastle City Council has 55 other vacancies open on GovJobs, with a breakdown of what they pay and the kinds of roles they recruit for.
These figures are calculated from the vacancies GovJobs currently holds, not from official pay statistics. They are a guide to the market, not a valuation of this post.
How to apply
GovJobs does not take applications or send your details to the employer. Use the apply button to open the official Northeast Jobs advert, then check the employer's instructions, attachments, person specification and closing time before applying.
This listing was last checked on 28 Aug 2026, 15:09. If the official advert has changed or closed, report it and we will review the listing.
Why this listing is on GovJobs
GovJobs indexes public-sector vacancies from official sources, normalises the title, employer, location, salary and deadline, and links back to the source so you can verify the advert yourself.
The source for this role is Northeast Jobs. Applications stay on the official employer or source website, not on GovJobs.