Senior Practitioner

Proposed Interview Date: Week Commencing 30 November 2026

Closing Date: Sunday 15 November 2026

Contract Type: Permanent                      

Salary Range FC9 - £47,604.34 to £57,196.54 per year pro rata

Working Pattern: 36 hours per week                    

Location: Cowdenbeath

Supporting Statement 

As part of your application, you must provide us with a Supporting Statement which outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy. For more information, check out the How to Apply section of our Career Site. Without a Supporting Statement, your application will not be progressed. Please upload your Supporting Statement at the section marked ‘upload resumé’. Your Supporting Statement must not be a CV. More information is available on our Career site at www.fife.gov.uk/jobs/supportingstatement.

Job Details

This is an exciting time to join the Children, Families Social Work Service in Fife. We have redesigned our service to create a range of Early Help & Support and Enhanced Children & Families Teams. This has allowed us to focus on earlier intervention, community connections and the quality of service for children who are looked after or require a child protection plan.  Following an internal promotion, we are currently recruiting for a Senior Practitioner in our Cowdenbeath Enhanced Children and Families Team.

As a Senior Practitioner you will have a lead role in delivering our Families First Strategy, working alongside children and their families to help them get the right support at the right time, to achieve their potential and succeed. 

Our Enhanced Teams have an establishment of Team Manager, Senior Practitioners, Social Workers and Social Work Assistants. You will join our established team in Cowdenbeath and, alongside your fellow Senior Practitioner, support the Team Manager to optimise the quality of service that is delivered to children and families.  You will combine the carrying of a caseload with the supervision of a number of Social Workers/and or Social Work Assistants.  You will support the Team Manager with the chairing of meetings, offering mentoring/guidance/direction to team members and undertaking quality assurance activity.  This post carries a lead responsibility for supporting the delivery of Fife’s Permanence Strategy within the team – based on our philosophy that every child has the right to a permanent, safe, stable and loving home, preferably with his or her own family.

Links to the role profile, Families First Strategy and Permanence Strategy are included at the bottom of the advert. You will find out more about the job and the type of person we are looking for.

The Person

• You will be an experienced, qualified social worker with a commitment to helping children achieve permanence.

• Registered with the SSSC.

• You will carry a caseload of varying complexity requiring specialist skills and knowledge to enable the team/individual to respond effectively to the assessed needs/risks of service users.

• You will be able to communicate effectively with children, young people, their carers and other professionals involved with families.

• You will be able to assess need and risk.

• You will be able to work individually and/or collaboratively to produce plans to support vulnerable people.

• You will be able to coordinate and/or deliver interventions to support children, young people and families.

• You will produce high quality written work and be able to work to timescales.

• You will be able to organise your diary and prioritise your work.

• You will be committed to keeping The Promise and making a difference for children and families.

• You should have the ability to travel across Fife. 

Workforce Support

• The Children, Families and Justice service is invested in supporting its workforce to be skilled, confident and competent. We offer a range of support to our employee’s including:

• A comprehensive induction programme for new workers

• A commitment to regular and reflective supervision

• A culture where your voice matters and opportunities are available to shape how we work together

• Bespoke training, mentoring and a range of career development opportunities, with protected study time equivalent to one working day per month

• Enhanced support to Newly Qualified Social workers including a monthly forum

• Generous annual leave and working arrangements with home-working opportunities and office-working as required

• Competitive salaries

• Local Government pension scheme and employee benefits and rewards scheme

• Use of the Magic Notes tool to reduce the time required to complete administrative tasks. 

• 'We provide training aligned to the principles of the National Induction Framework'

To hear more about what it’s like to work in a Children and Families Team in Fife, please listen to Brad’s experience Working with children and families | Job Fife

Before confirming your appointment, you will be required to obtain Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme membership through Disclosure Scotland. 

This post requires SSSC registration, and the successful applicant will have three months to apply for registration.

Further Information

• Role Profile - When preparing your supporting statement, review the role profile and think about how you meet the essential criteria Role Profile

• How We Work Matters - Our employees are expected to display and promote certain behaviours in the workplace. See our How We Work Matters behaviour framework for more information.

• Employee Benefits - Employees have access to a benefits package that offers discounts on a wide range of products and services

• Directorate Information - Council Department information

• Social media - Search for more 'Fife Council Jobs' on Facebook or follow us on X @FCJobsOfficial.

• Alternative Formats - Job information can be made available in alternative formats, to make a request please email: [email protected]

• AI - We recognise that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used by many people when they are applying for jobs and preparing for interview.  Candidate guidance on the use of AI in the recruitment process is available here

For further information please contact Morven Aitken -  [email protected]