Welcome to the Norfolk County Council employer profile. We are delighted to showcase our adults’ and children’s social care services, to give you more information on our practices and teams, and on why Norfolk is the perfect place to continue your social work career!
Why choose Norfolk?
Adults' Services
In Norfolk, we believe everyone deserves to start life well, live well and age well.
We are responsible for empowering and enabling adults to live independently in their own homes or elsewhere in the community, through offering advice, care and support.
We are looking after the social, physical and mental wellbeing of adults across Norfolk.
At Norfolk County Council, we strive to support people to be independent, resilient and well. We do this by working closely with individuals and communities.
To achieve our vision, we have a strategy – Promoting Independence – which is shaped by The Care Act 2014 with its call to action across public services to prevent, reduce and delay the demand for social care and emphasises that local authorities should consider the person’s own strengths and capabilities, and what support might be available from their wider support network or within the community to help.
At the heart of our Promoting Independence strategy is the Living Well model – Norfolk’s social work practice approach. By supporting individuals in the context of their own families, communities and circle of support, it empowers them to remain independent for longer, preventing, reducing and delaying the need for formal services.
We have three core themes:
- Prevention and early help: how we help people stay well and independent in their home
- Being, and staying independent: timely and effective support for people to develop independent living skills, avoid losing independence and where possible, gain independence back
- Living with complex needs: how we help some people with long-term, high level of support with many aspects of their daily life
Children's Services
At Norfolk County Council, children’s services are committed to supporting the circa 57,000 children living in our wonderful county.
We are ambitious and passionately committed, with a real track record of success and strong aspirations for further excellence.
We were recognised by Ofsted in January 2023 for being Good across children’s services, with exceptional and outstanding practice in a number of areas.
We are most proud of our ways of working and the relationships we build with each other, partner agencies and, most importantly, children and their family networks, who we put at the heart of everything we do.
We have built a sustainable system placing practitioners and relationship-based practice at the heart of what we do.
Through Vital Signs we work as one system across a partnership and with whole family networks. It is a whole system and whole family practice approach which is relationship based, strengths orientated, and outcome focused.
We embrace the Flourish ambition, and we want Norfolk to be a county where all children and young people can thrive.
We are:
- Relationship based
- Strengths orientated- identifying and working on strengths in families and their networks
- Outcome focused
Relationships are at the heart of our work with children and families. We’ve listened to what children and young people told us they wanted and have put plans in place to make sure our practitioners can spend less time with paperwork and more time with children and families.
Our Specialist Teams
We cover a wide range of social work activities, with teams focusing on changing and improving adults’ lives.
SCCE is a telephone-based service. Their training and induction allow for professional development through the service and are keen advocates for developing staff at all levels to progress their careers into management, social work and other areas. It is a generic team that look at all cases holistically.
The Emergency Duty Team (EDT) are working closely with children’s services and other key partner agencies such as the Police and Health services. Their main objective is to provide a service to people who require an emergency social care response outside usual working hours. This can include emergency actions to safeguard a child or vulnerable adult from significant harm.
The Preparing for Adult Life (PfAL) service is responsible for ensuring young people with a learning disability, mental health issue, physical disability and/or autism have a smooth transition into adult social services. The service works with young people to promote independence in relation to the four preparing for adult life outcomes from the Children and Families Act 2014:
- Employment
- Independent living
- Being as healthy as possible
- Being part of the community
Read more abut PfAL here
The People from Abroad Team (PFAT) is a specialist health and social work team working to support migrants and their families establish themselves and become independent living in the county.
Their work includes supporting resettled refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants. Together they work with vulnerable individuals on the margins of society, promoting their futures and addressing risk and exploitation.
The team won the gold award in 2018 Social Worker of the Year awards under the category of creative and innovative social work.
The Sensory Support Unit comprises three teams who work with people who are hard of hearing or whose first language is British Sign Language (BSL), people who are blind or sight impaired and those who have a dual sensory loss, for example, deafblind.
Their aim is to promote the inclusion, wellbeing and quality of life for residents of Norfolk who have a sensory loss.
It’s much more than assessing a person’s needs and identifying a means to support the needs. Our teams provide direct support and rehabilitation to the people they work with.
These teams work with older people and adults with a physical disability.
They work as part of the Integrated Care System and are also aligned to Primary Care Networks which means the integrated team structures benefits hugely from great collaboration with primary care colleagues.
The teams promote a supportive and learning culture with reflective practice and other learning opportunities such as practice teaching and social work apprenticeships encouraged.
The adult Mental Health Team works with adults aged 18-65 experiencing serious mental health issues and/or autism.
The service is always looking for creative ways to support and develop people’s independence and make a positive difference to the lives of people experiencing serious mental illness and to protect them from harm.
The learning disability social care team is a specialist team supporting people over 18 years old with learning disabilities, to achieve their potential.
The teams play a vital role in ensuring that people with a learning disability in Norfolk have the same access to housing, work, education, and community as all other residents of Norfolk.
In Norfolk we’ve invested millions to completely change our operating model in children’s social care and to get the best outcomes for children and families.
CADs is our ‘front door’ team of senior consultant social workers. Professionals can raise any concerns about a child and discuss which service would best meet the child’s needs.
FAST teams work with children at greatest need of care and protection. They provide statutory interventions to safeguard wellbeing and take cases from the point of assessment, working with them on child in need and child protection plans. They also work with courts where necessary for removal into care all the way to permanency.
Our dedicated and specialist Youth FAST social workers, through lower caseloads, work much more intensively with young people across the county deemed at high risk of exploitation and/or serious youth violence.
This service is made up of our In Care and Life Beyond Care teams which comprise social work and personal adviser teams. It is for children and young people in long-term care or who are care experienced.
The CWD service consists of specialist social workers and occupational therapists supporting children with additional complex needs and their families, assisting with short breaks, occupational therapy and transition services.
These teams of qualified and supervising social workers focus on recruiting, approving and supporting those providing short-term, long-term and permanent care for children. Our adoption and fostering service is rated outstanding by Ofsted.
This is a call-in service for case-holding practitioners, when the skills and specialism of youth work are needed to engage with young people.
This award-winning service works with more than 150 young people ensuring they are safe, supported and settled into local communities, and supports those leaving care.
The YJS is a multi-agency service, including social workers, which aims to prevent young people offending and supports those who have.
Our Location
Living in Norfolk
- Home to the beautiful Norfolk Broads
- 90 miles of golden, beautiful beaches
- Voted 2nd best place to bring up a family in 2022- Norwich named the second best place to raise a family in the UK
- Voted one of the best places to live in 2023- Why Norwich, Norfolk, is one of the best places to live 2023
- We are home to many industries so the whole family will be able to thrive in our beautiful county!
Map of Norfolk
Employee Benefits
Health and wellbeing services including fast-track physiotherapy and a free counselling service
Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contribution, life assurance, death in service payments and dependants’ pensions.
Competitive salary with an excellent relocation package up to £10,000 (paid upfront where possible) as well as an interest free loan of up to £10,000 (subject to terms)
Generous holiday entitlement with the ability to buy and sell leave
Flexible working opportunities including flexitime, part-time, remote and hybrid working – dependent on your job role and business need.
A payment if you refer someone you know to a hard-to-fill job (up to £3,000 for some jobs).
Electric Car salary sacrifice scheme.
An advance of your expenses if you travel for work
‘Norfolk Rewards’, our employee discount programme, which helps you save money on almost anything, from everyday groceries and clothes, to holidays, new technology, gym membership, trips to the cinema and days out.
You are also given a Blue Light card to obtain discounts on a range of items.
Social Work Career
Pursuing a social work career with Norfolk County Council children’s services or adults’ services gives you the opportunity to make a real difference to children, young people and vulnerable adults in the county.
There are several routes into the social work profession, for:
- those interested in qualifying, and
- those returning to practice after a career break.
Social Work Apprenticeship Programme
Social Work Apprenticeship Programme
This programme enables you to study for a fully funded BA (Hons) in social work with our partner education provider, while working full-time for Norfolk County Council and receiving a salary.
The aocial work apprentices are employed on a three-year full time fixed term contract. Throughout the programme you will gain experience of working in a range of social work services including time in both adult social services and children’s services. The programme starts in January each year and posts are advertised annually in the spring/early summer for the following year.
Step Up to Social Work programme
Step Up to Social Work programme
The programme is an intensive 14-month full-time programme funded by Department for Education. You will learn through a combination of academic study and hands-on experience.
Graduate Trainee Scheme
Graduate Trainee Scheme
The scheme offers one year’s paid employment at Norfolk County Council before starting the MA in Social Work programme at the University of East Anglia.
Children’s Services
You will be a graduate trainee family practitioner in the Family Support Service, providing direct support to children, young people and families in their homes or in the community.
Adult Social Services
You will be a graduate trainee assistant practitioner in adult social services working with a front-line team with a range of service users.
Return to Social Work
Return to Social Work
We can offer tailored support to help you re-register with Social Work England and get back into practice in both children’s services and adult social services.
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