Job Description

Practice Manager Next Steps Leaving Care Team

Grade:

5A, 54,495 to 56,288

Working hours:

36 hours perweek

Contract type: Fixed Term for 12 months

Closing date:

25th January 2026


An excellent opportunity has arisen to appoint a Practice Manager within our Next Steps Leaving Care Service

About us

Next Step Team

The Next Step has been rated by OFSTED as

'Outstanding'

and prides itself upon favourable outcomes for care leavers in education, employment and training (71% August 2025) and contact with all our service users under 21 years of age (100% August 2025).


The post holder will have at least

5 years post qualifying Social Work experience,

be able to display and promote Salford's behaviours and values, whilst demonstrating enthusiasm and passion for protecting children and young people across the city.


At Next Step we work with children in care and care leavers aged 16 - 25 years.

We are looking for an enthusiastic manager who has good interpersonal and communication skills to manage a staff team, support and supervise work with care leavers, assisting them in planning their future goals and aspirations.


Your style and approach will reflect our values:, you will be passionate about what you do always striving to improve things; valuing and respecting others' contribution and be able to lead a team.

Your role will include:

Oversight and management of the day to day delivery of all aspects of the Social Work team. Your role will have a focus on the quality and improvement of social work and service delivery You will ensure the service is facilitating effective participation of young people and families and that their lived experiences are known, understood and inform plans. You will be responsible for ensuring documentation, record keeping, accounting and communication is maintained, and effective information strategies and systems are in place to enable appropriate sharing of data and information. Including responding to complaints. You will ensure the regular and effective analysis, monitoring, measurement and maintaining of the performance of the team to ensure impact on outcomes for children and young people is understood. You will be accountable to the Service Manager for staff supervision, care and development of the team.

In return we can offer

A well-motivated and energetic team backed up by a dedicated Administrative Team

Solid Management Support

Full induction Programme

Agreed programme of Supervision

Personal Development Plan

Not to mention the satisfaction you'll gain from making a real difference to the lives of young people.

In Salford, we are interested in you as a person and the practitioner you are or who you aspire to be.


Please be aware that this post is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. If you have lived or worked abroad for 3 months or more in the last 5 years or 12 months or more (whether continuously or in total) in the last 10 years whilst aged 18 or over, please refer to the link below for details for how to obtain your Certificates of Good Character. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants


If you have completed the GM Elevate Leadership Development Programme within the last 2 years, please indicate this within the 'About You' or 'Supporting Statement' section of your application.

Want to know more about Salford?

As an authority we are dedicated to improving the lives of our residents, and as an employer we are passionate about helping individuals to thrive in their work. We are committed to developing a diverse and inclusive culture and are proud of our professional accreditations which champion this.


Find out about our city as a place to live, work & grow, and learn more about the amazing work we are doing. You'll also find out about the wealth of benefits we have to offer you here!

Continuous Service commitment

New employees can keep their service related benefits when moving between a whole host of public sector organisations within Greater Manchester, which include: Councils, NHS, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue, Transport for Greater Manchester, as well as many others under this scheme. Find out if this applies to you here.

Guaranteed Assessment Schemes

We have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers, carers, and ex-military personnel by way of a Guaranteed Assessment Scheme. Our application forms ask you to indicate if you meet any of the criteria within this scheme, and so to find out more and if you qualify please click here.

Privacy Statement and Data Protection

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the council's primary Recruitment and Employment Privacy Notice which can be found at https://www.salford.gov.uk/gdpr .