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Children and young people feedback line: 0808 175 3333

Recruitment process for social workers

A woman sits and smiles while holding a pad and pen

Our recruitment promise

We set and maintain high standards for our recruitment and selection processes, ensuring they are fair, objective and inclusive. We also want this to be an experience we go through with you, not something we do to you because creating a collaborative, supportive environment not only reflects our ethos but gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your strengths, experience and values.

Our Resourcing Team will ensure your application is dealt with efficiently and confidentially and your information will remain secure at all times in accordance with all relevant legislation.

As part of your application, you are invited to indicate if you have a disability.  If you have a disability, we hope you will feel confident enough to let us know. If you indicate a disability, we will contact you to invite you to provide us with further information to help us understand what, if any, reasonable adjustments you may require so you are not disadvantaged.

We want to assure you our Resourcing Team will not share information about your disability (or any other sensitive information, including responses to equality, diversity and inclusion questions) with recruiting managers until required (i.e. you’re your application is progressed and reasonable adjustments are needed). However, if you make reference to your disability either in your CV and/or any answers to application questions, we are unable to restrict what Managers will have access to. 

It is our commitment that candidates who indicate a disability and meet the essential criteria for the role they have applied for are guaranteed to have their application progressed to the next stage.

Our recruitment process

We are passionate about providing a quality service to vulnerable children and families. So, it will not surprise you we want to recruit people who share our passion and commitment. Our recruitment processes, as well as being fair to all, are designed to help your passion, strengths, values and expertise come to the fore.

We see the recruitment process as very much two-way. We want to ensure we recruit the right individuals, but also for you to have the confidence to accept because you see it as right for you professionally and personally.

Finding a role and completing your application
Once you have found a role that interests you on our vacancies page, you can start our short and simple online application process.

Your application is a key part of our recruitment process as it introduces you to us. Therefore, while we’ve made it simple to apply, take some time to ensure your CV is current and reflects your experience and achievements relevant to the role.

Similarly, if there are questions that allow for free text responses, use the opportunity to give detailed, insightful responses. You don’t need to complete and submit your application in one visit, you can start and go back and submit later, giving you time to modify your responses or refine your CV. Just be aware of the closing date and ensure you submit before this date.

To apply, you will need to create and verify an account on our application system. If you have a Facebook, LinkedIn or Google account you can use this to quicken the process further or simply use your email address. As part of your application, you can set up email alerts so that you can automatically be informed of other opportunities with us that might interest you.

The process
After we receive your application, the recruitment team complete an initial high-level review to ensure it is appropriate to forward your application to relevant managers. If so, the recruitment team complete a more detailed review to decide which candidates they want to progress to the next stage.

We use a variety of assessment methods, including:

  • Initial interviews - normally quite informal, maybe 1-2-1 basis, used primarily to help us to further our knowledge of you and for candidates to ask key questions and enhance their understanding of the role / team / organisation.
  • Assessments / exercises – sometimes we may use general assessments (e.g. verbal reasoning) or they may be role-specific. 
  • Panel interviews – most of the time, this is the final stage and would see 2-4 interviewers, potentially including a Family Justice Young People's Board (FJYPB) member. As well as relevant interview questions, it may include additional elements like a presentation.

Where possible we will give an overview of the selection process within vacancy adverts, alongside indicative timescales.

Our initial offer and pre-employment checks
If you accept an offer to join us, our Resourcing Team arranges a ‘welcome call’. During this call they give you more insight into what needs to be done and by when to enable us to move things forward. You will also receive an offer letter setting out the key details of our offer.

All offers are conditional and subject to satisfactory pre-employment checks but once these are complete and a start date is agreed, we issue you with your employment contract.

Our pre-employment checks consist of the following:

References, qualifications and professional memberships
You will need to provide at least two referees that should cover a minimum five-year employment period. One of these must be your current or most recent employer. If you have just left full-time education, one of your referees could be your course tutor. You would need to gain your referees permission before we contact them. We will not contact your referees without your permission.

We will also need to verify your qualifications and professional memberships, which may require us to see original documents. 

Medical clearance
If you are offered a role with us, you will be required to complete a medical questionnaire. This may lead to us asking you to attend a medical assessment to ensure you are fit to carry out the duties of the post.

Right to work in the UK / Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Disclosure
We will guide you through the process of confirming you have the right to work in the UK. Increasingly this is a digital process although there are instances that require us to see original documents.

As you will be working closely with children and young people in a position of trust, most of our roles require a satisfactory Enhanced DBS Disclosure before you can start working for us. We comply fully with the DBS Code of Practice and will not discriminate unfairly against anyone on the basis of conviction or other information revealed. If you are on the DBS Update Service, you will need to provide Cafcass with your original certificate and permission to perform a status check. Your status will be rechecked every three years whilst you remain on the service.

Our DBS policy and procedure is available to read here.

Social Work Community

If you are looking for a social work role but there is not currently a role that interests you, you can register your future interest to join us. This allows us to potentially contact you if a suitable vacancy occurs, plus if you were interested in having an informal conversation with a manager ahead of there being a vacancy, we could look to facilitate this. 

You can register your future interest to join us here.

Hints and tips

Do:

  • Read any supporting documents such as job description and person specification. You may also want to spend some time looking elsewhere on this website to further your understanding of the organisation.
  •  Be aware of - and ensure you meet - any minimum eligibility criteria such as qualifications and professional registration before applying.
  • Make sure that you complete all relevant sections of the application and submit it before the closing date.
  • Take some time to update and tailor your CV to make it relevant to the role.
  • Tell us about your skills and experience and why you are interested in joining us.
  • Be honest – make sure that the information you provide is accurate.
  • Tell us about any requirements or reasonable adjustments that you need to fully participate in the selection process.

Do not:

  • Leave gaps in your employment history. If you have had any gaps in your employment, please include a short explanation.
  • Leave out any relevant experience, even if this has been gained in voluntary or unpaid work – it may be important to the role you are applying for.
  • Worry if your qualifications have been gained abroad. Include them in your application and we will check out whether they are relevant.

Feedback

If you are not successful but would like constructive feedback on your performance during the recruitment and selection process, please ask. We also welcome your opinion and feedback on our recruitment process, including written materials and online guidance.

Frequently asked questions