Grade J SCP 35 £46,142- SCP 39 £50,269 plus Essential Car User Allowance up to £963pa
Contract: Fixed term 12 months.
Essential Requirement: Full Driving Licence, DBS
Essential Qualification: CQSW/DipSW/CSS or equivalent and registered with Social Work England
Interview date: 23 March 2026
For further information about this role, contact Laura O’Malley Laura.Omalley@Bolton.gov.uk

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
We embrace AI to enhance our operations and to innovate our services. However, we value human talent and are looking for passionate individuals to join our organisation. Please ensure you personally complete your application and read all the instructions carefully to maximise your chances of success.

Applications that rely too heavily on AI may be rejected during shortlisting, however we understand that AI may be used as a reasonable adjustment, if using AI to support your application, please give a brief explanation why to help ensure fair selection process.
Ask us about flexible working options to fit with your work/life balance - #HappytoTalkFlexible

The Role
Frontline is a charity working with social workers like you to make life better for children at risk of harm. Approach Social Work is our three year masters programme, building a new, diverse generation of social workers.
Our consultant social worker play a pivotal role at the heart of this programme. As the practice educator for new student social workers, you will help them to blend learning and practice, and to apply the theory they learn in real-life settings.
At the same time, you’ll continue to develop your own practice skills, while also gaining management and practice education experience.
All throughout, we’ll provide tailored training and be here to support you on every step of the journey.

Management and Leadership
The role involves line management responsibility for students within the hub, with overall day-to-day management and oversight of their work within the local authority. This includes leading the weekly hub meetings, which are designed to embed systemic thinking about families, support students to develop and hold multiple hypotheses, and promote peer challenge alongside critical reflection in decision-making. Regular one-to-one supervision is provided to each student, with a strong emphasis on developing reflexive practice, professional curiosity, and self-awareness.
Where performance issues arise, these are addressed professionally and constructively, maintaining high standards while supporting students to improve and resolve any concerns. The role also includes managing workflow and the allocation of work relating to children and families entering the hub, ensuring cases are appropriately distributed and that learning opportunities are aligned with students’ development. In partnership with Frontline, responsibility is taken for organising the logistics and planning required to ensure the hub operates smoothly and effectively throughout the year. Additionally, oversight is maintained to ensure that all elements of practice assessments are completed in a timely manner and that students consistently meet required deadlines across the programme.

Practice Educator
The Practice Educator is responsible for creating meaningful and developmentally appropriate learning opportunities by identifying suitable children and families for the hub to work with over the course of the year. Ongoing guidance and support are provided to students in relation to their direct work, ensuring they are supported to develop confidence, competence, and professional judgement. Using professional discretion, the Practice Educator gradually exposes students to increasingly complex and varied casework, increasing autonomy as students demonstrate readiness and progress.
A key aspect of the role involves supporting students to apply the practice models they have learned to real-life discussions and interventions with children and families. The Practice Educator regularly observes students undertaking direct work, offering constructive and developmental feedback to enhance their practice. They assess students against the relevant elements of the Professional Capabilities Framework and are responsible for tracking and reporting on each student’s progress throughout the programme.
In addition, the Practice Educator acts as the named case holder for all children and families allocated to the hub. They retain responsibility for statutory compliance, decision-making, and the overall quality and safety of casework, ensuring that all statutory requirements are met while maintaining appropriate oversight of students’ practice.

For more information about the role, please join our information session being held on teams:
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/31136922899921?p=KlRy8pZTA2Oy9kMdB3
Meeting ID: 311 369 228 999 21
Passcode: fz3cL7uM

We would love to receive your application to this role. In order to apply please use this -

Application Form

About You
To be eligible for the CSW role you need to:
be a SWE registered social worker (permanent),
have experience working in child protection social work, and
have at least two years of social work experience after qualification.
There is no requirement that you have a systemic qualification or prior systemic training. Similarly, you do not need to have been a practice educator or manager of social workers. The CSW role is a full-time position, employed by the local authority.

Front Line as a charity has a strong focus on anti-discriminatory practice and inclusion. We cannot develop excellent social work practice and leadership without including a wide variety of voices, experiences and backgrounds. Therefore, we are actively seeking applicants from racialised minority groups for this role.

About Us
This is your opportunity to join us at an exciting time as we have strong ambitions for the borough.

Bolton is a great place to work. We are a welcoming organisation that wants to contribute to a place where people feel active, connected and prosperous. We are passionate about improving the outcomes and experience of Bolton people. We want Bolton to be a vibrant place built on strong cohesive communities, successful businesses and healthy, engaged residents.

As an employer we want to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment, by giving them the opportunity to access a range of exclusive rewards and benefits, including discounts and exclusive gym membership prices and salary sacrifice schemes. In addition, we offer a generous annual leave allowance, flexible work opportunities, access to a Pension Scheme, as well as a range of employee wellbeing and support services.

Our Values are really important to us, read all about them below, along with all our great staff benefits, the job description/person specification for the role and the important legal bits, and our Top Tips too.

Within Greater Manchester, local authorities have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers, carers, and ex-military personnel. Please see greater.jobs for further information before you apply.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) clearance - this post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (amended in 2013). Employment offers are conditional subject to satisfactory clearances. For roles where a criminal records check from the DBS is required, this includes satisfactory clearance of this check. The possession of a criminal record will not necessarily bar an individual from working with us. This will depend on the nature of the position and the circumstances and background of an individual’s offence/s. Information provided by you or the DBS will be dealt with in a confidential manner and in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice which can be viewed here. Bolton Council’s policy on the Employment of Ex-Offenders is available here.

This post is a designated customer facing role under the fluency duty and requires a specified level of spoken English as per the person specification.

This organisation has signed up to the Greater Manchester Continuous Service Commitment. That means we will recognise your continuous or ‘unbroken’ service in any Greater Manchester local authority or NHS organisation that has signed the commitment, Transport for Greater Manchester, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service or Greater Manchester Combined Authority, giving you access to our service-related benefits. Please see the home page of greater.jobs for more information.

For more information about working for Bolton Council, please see greater.jobs; for advice and support with your application, contact recruitment@bolton.gov.uk