Our children and young people are cared for, safe, supported, and are given equality of opportunity to thrive.
North Somerset Children’s Services
North Somerset Council is ambitious. Are you dynamic? Looking to make a difference? Do you have a background in social work? If you answered yes to those questions, our children’s services team is ready to welcome you.
Welcome to North Somerset
Here in North Somerset, we are passionate about building connections with families and working restoratively to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people.
We are a small organisation, characterised by warmth, and we are all hugely committed to supporting each other to do the best we can for the community we serve, with the strong political and corporate support we need for children’s services.
We welcome passion, creativity, and diversity in our people. If you are as committed to relational, restorative practice as we are, we would love to meet you! By joining us, you will have the opportunity to bring your unique skills to a team that is waiting to offer you a really warm welcome. We are ambitious in our drive to help all children in North Somerset to thrive, and we have a wide range of roles across our teams, as well as fantastic learning and career progression opportunities.
Take a moment to look at our roles, and the benefits we offer to our people in these pages.
Best wishes,
Claire Shiels (she/her) Director of Children’s Services North Somerset Council
Claire Shiels, Director of Children’s Services
Our offer
We know that working in children’s social care is so much more than just a job. That’s why we want to make sure that our people have everything they need to enjoy living and working in North Somerset. Whether that means you want to develop practice expertise in an area you’re passionate about, or need a flexible working arrangement to fit around family commitments, we will work with you to make sure you get the best from working here.
We offer a comprehensive training programme to ensure you are equipped with the skills and knowledge you need to deliver the right help at the right time for children, young people, and families in North Somerset. Our Passport to Practice training programme provides practitioners with learning opportunities specially tailored to their individual development needs, that are aligned with our Building Connections practice model.
You can find out more about our Passport to Practice Learning & Development Programme here.
What’s more, we launched our Children’s Services Academy in 2025, so newly qualified social workers, international social workers, and alternatively qualified practitioners have a secure and supportive base from which to grow and thrive, with dedicated Practice Educators to guide them along the way.
And to top it all, if you are a senior social worker aspiring to step into a management role, North Somerset can offer you a leadership programme that’s been co-created with Frontline for Children’s Services, and is available for all aspirant managers in social care and education roles! This is a first in the UK, and we are incredibly proud to be part of this amazing innovation.
You can find out more about our Leading Relationally Leadership Programme here.
Our pay is competitive; we recognise that what you do is hard work. Take a look at our salaries (based on 37 hours per week, pro rata if part time):
Social Workers and Senior Social Workers - up to £48,226 Team Managers - up to £61,604 Heads of Service – up to £71,838
We offer more than just great pay:
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Generous annual leave – up to 34 days per annum plus bank holidays
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Family-friendly policies and flexible working options, including term-time working, compressed hours, and 9-day fortnights
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Flexible working at home and agile working arrangements
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Reimbursement of 50% of Social Work England registration fees
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We are a Disability Confident employer
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Excellent Local Government Pension Scheme
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Option to purchase additional two weeks annual leave
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24/7 access to our Employee Assistance Programme
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Discounts on shopping, days out, travel and gym memberships
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Tax free sustainable travel schemes, including electric vehicles and cycle to work
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Free parking at your office base
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Relocation allowance – up to £8k to help with relocation and removal expenses
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Staff Forums for minoritised groups
You can find out more on our What we offer social workers page.
Our Practice Framework
In North Somerset we aspire to consistently deliver high quality services to children and their families. Our practice approach, Building Connections, ensures that we are strengths-based, restorative, and trauma-informed.
Using restorative approaches provides all our staff with a range of language, behaviours, and tools that strengthen relationships with children, young people and families, empowering them to share responsibility by using a solution-focused approach that supports positive change.
As a trauma-informed organisation, we recognise the impact of trauma and understand that children, young people, and families may be living with the legacy effects of trauma, which can influence how they approach current and future relationships. Being trauma-informed means we ensure the people who use our services feel safe in their relationships and we start by building trust to help people feel psychologically safe, and able to walk alongside us towards positive change.
We focus on family led decision-making, supporting families to identify what needs to change to provide children with safety, stability, and meaningful connections through relational continuity.
We use language and methods of communication which can be understood, and we strive to understand motivation and enable choices; we recognise that all families do some things well, so we build supportive relationships to enable families to see their strengths, and be the best that they can be.
Our Practice Approach
Our principles
Relationships
We build supportive and meaningful relationships with children and families.
Networks
We nurture connections to family, friends, and the community to give all children a sense of identity and belonging.
Communications
We use language that cares and is tailored to each family so they understand our role in their lives.
Child-centred
We listen to and see our children throughout their journey in care, and all action we take is child focused and needs led.
Collaborative
Children are at the heart of all decisions and their voices guide toward impactful outcomes.
Our practice model
Building Connections
We will be strengths based, relational, and trauma informed, to build connections with and for families. We prioritise the quality of relationships and recognise the strengths of the family. We focus on working with families, involving them in decision making, and supporting them to identify what needs to change. We understand the impact of trauma and guide families through paths for recovery which resist re-traumatisation.
Our ambitions
We provide the right support at the right time - maximising opportunities for early intervention and support and safeguarding our children from harm.
We want all children and young people to do well in school, achieve to the best of their ability and go on to have the skills they need to have access to meaningful work, with a decent income.
We support the health and wellbeing of our children and young people from birth to adulthood, ensuring they have a voice in the decisions that affect them.
Passport to Practice Learning & Development Programme
Our Passport to Practice programme helps our practitioners design their essential learning and development in collaboration with supervisors, to deliver high-quality support to families, and to support career development. We offer learning spaces in person and online throughout the year, and this includes reflective circles, and Lunch & Learns, so you can join learning sessions at a time and place that suits you.
We have designed our courses with our practice model in mind, and deliver learning ourselves, so every course leader understands our local context. We ensure all our practitioners have protected learning time, because we recognise that there is always more to learn in our roles, and we keep caseloads low to make this possible.
Leading Relationally Leadership Programme
In North Somerset, we want to enable our aspiring managers to become our future leaders. That’s why we’ve partnered with Frontline to co-create the first bespoke Frontline leadership programme for a Local Authority in the UK, which offers all the key ingredients of Frontline’s national leadership programmes with a dedicated North Somerset focus. Key themes in the programme include:
- The self, values, and behaviours; mapping my journey to leadership
- Partnership working; leading effective partnership conversations
- Public narratives
- The small changes approach
- Equity, diversity, and inclusion – with dedicated workshops on anti-racist leadership
- Spheres of influence and maximising influence through relationships
- High-support, high challenge approaches, and how to deliver effective supervision
- Integrating practice, quality, and learning
- Emotional labour of leadership/trauma-informed leadership
If you are a senior social worker or existing manager in North Somerset Children’s Services and you are directly employed by the Council, you can join this fantastic programme!
Joining Leading Relationally in North Somerset has been a valuable experience as a Team Manager. On an individual level it has helped me connect with my Social Work and Systemic values. The reflective space held by the trainers combined with the practical approach has made this training stand out to me in its capacity to be truly meaningful and long lasting in impact. I came away feeling North Somerset values the investment of people leading our work with Children and Families, who will inevitably benefit from leaders who are relational in all that they do.
Team Manager testimonial
About the council
Our vision
Our council vision is ‘an open, fairer, greener North Somerset’ and we have three key priorities:
- A thriving and sustainable place
- A council which empowers and cares about people
- An open and enabling organisation
Our values
Our organisational values are important. They help guide us in how we work and provide services for our residents. Our people produced our values in collaboration with elected members. They provide a strong ethos and help us to deliver our ambitious agenda, working in partnership across the council and beyond:
- We act with integrity
- We respect each other
- We innovate
- We care
- We collaborate
Members of our Ashcombe Nursery team
Members of our Children with Disabilities team
Living here
Find out more about the area
Click on one of the tiles below to find out more about living in North Somerset
Join us
Ready to take the next step in your career? We're actively recruiting for social workers and practitioners across all our children's services teams. Bring your skills, passion, and commitment to North Somerset, and we'll provide the support, training, and opportunities you need to flourish. Together, we can create brighter futures for the children and families we serve.
Our vacancies