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Our benefits - Children's

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A range of benefits made for you

For more information call Nathalie on 01223 475920 or email joinus@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

To submit a CV and apply now, click the link below.

Competitive salaries and relocation packages

We pride ourselves on employing talented social workers and offer salary packages with opportunities to earn up to £40,958 for social workers. In addition, our senior practitioners can earn up to £45,987. We also offer a pay progression scheme for our Social Workers to enable them to accelerate through the pay grade as they gain experience and skills.

We welcome social workers from all over the country. If you’re interested in making the move to Cambridgeshire, we offer a relocation package of up to £8,000 for qualified social workers. The Council provides this contribution to help you set up in your new location and make your move as seamless as possible.

We’re a friendly bunch, so your future managers and our HR team will keep in touch throughout your move to answer questions and ensure you settle into your new surroundings as quickly as possible.

Generous retention payments

We offer a scalable retention payment to loyal social workers after the first full year of employment, this increases during the first three years of service. On completion of three continuous years you will receive a fixed sum for every year you remain in post thereafter.

This offer is available to social workers and senior practitioners in Assessment, Family Support & Safeguarding and Corporate Parenting teams.

A fixed annual retention scheme is also available for Team Managers.

Pension schemes

Local Government Employees and Professional and Management Level employees are eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

The LGPS is an important benefit and provides you with an excellent range of benefits

You contribute a small percentage of your salary and CCC contributes a larger amount depending on how the pension fund performs. In addition, you are guaranteed defined benefits.

  • The scheme is flexible – you can choose to pay less or more, and you can draw your benefits anytime from age 55 to 75.
  • Benefits include a pension when you retire, immediate life cover (3 times your annual salary from day one), and ill-health protection. There are also benefits for your loved ones with pensions for dependants if you die (not something any of us like to think about but depending on your circumstances could be a precious safety net).

Generous annual leave

Your annual leave entitlement is based on the level of your role and the length of your Local Government Continuous Service.

  • Less than 5 years = 28 days
  • 5 to 9 years = 29 days
  • 10 to 14 years = 30 days
  • 15+ years = 31 days

These entitlements are pro-rata and are exclusive of bank holidays.

We understand that some people really appreciate flexibility to help them on a one off or on-going basis, so you can apply to buy up to 4 weeks additional leave and have access to a yearlong career break. This is a great opportunity for our social workers to encourage a positive work-life balance.

Family friendly policies

Our social workers have access to a number of family-friendly policies to help you maintain a healthy work-life balance. These include generous maternity provisions, paternity leave, adoption leave and parental leave.

Great locations

We have a number of offices situated in great locations around Cambridgeshire. Many of our offices house multiple teams, which our social workers have found to be an important advantage. Our senior practitioner John says “Multi-disciplinary teams working in a close location is hugely beneficial. CCC have clearly given a lot of thought to co-location. This means you are a) able to make transfers easier and b) have the ability to get a lot of information. This enables families to access a high level of service and co-operation as information is accessed in an appropriate and timely manner”. For more on John’s Story click here.

Learning and development

You’ll have access to a wide range of training and development opportunities offered by our dedicated Children’s Social Care Development Team which includes career development coaching.

All career development is a crucial focus for the Council, and we encourage all our employees to take advantage of the training options. Conversations about your progression and development are held regularly as part of our appraisal process.

The Council has its own training and development centre that gives you access to a variety of training courses, qualifications, online learning (24/7), bespoke training, as well as leadership, management, and change expertise.

You can use these opportunities to gain knowledge, acquire new skills directly related to your job, and develop and support your future career aspirations.

Here at Cambridgeshire County Council we are passionate about recognising the strengths in our individuals and developing these to enable our social workers to thrive. Find more real-life examples of success stories for our children’s social workers here.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

CPD helps us to continue to provide the best possible support and outcomes for the people we work with by ensuring we are up to date with social care practice, have the space and time to think, discuss and reflect on the work we are doing and meet the requirements of the professional bodies who regulate us.

We know from conversations with our staff that they struggle to find the time to complete their CPD whilst managing busy workloads.

In recognition of this, we give our staff protected time to undertake these learning opportunities for up to 6 days per calendar year to enable those in a social work role to maintain the CPD element of their professional registration.

Agile working

The Council is committed to offering a variety of ways of working. We have learnt a lot during the pandemic and we know that balancing work-life and family-life can be challenging, so we strive to accommodate flexible hours and work locations where possible.

We are currently working to a hybrid model with part remote options available, while still supporting colleagues in offices and ensuring service users continue to be seen face to face.

Employee assistance programme

Because everyone goes through difficult times in life, the Council has confidential and free support 24/7 through our Employee Assistance Programme.

  • Counselling support.
  • Legal information.
  • Bereavement assistance.
  • Medical information.
  • Online self-help tools.

Mental health support

In addition to our Employee Assistance Programme, the Council has a well-established mental health and wellbeing programme.

The programme offers you access to:

  • Mental Health First Aiders
  • One-to-one mental health support through Remploy – an NHS wellbeing support service for health and care staff
  • Mental health workshops run by the Wellbeing Group.

Tusker lease cars

Drive away in a brand-new car with our Tusker Cars Lease Scheme. The scheme includes replacement tyres, motor insurance, service and maintenance, breakdown cover, and accident support. But, of course, you’ll need to add fuel to keep moving.

The scheme is a salary sacrifice scheme whereby you offset some of your monthly salary to buy a new car and benefit from tax and national insurance savings.

Other benefits include:

  • annual road tax
  • roadside assistance
  • relief when your car is off the road
  • doorstep delivery.

Cycle to work scheme

Cycle to work. Get active and save money.

What’s not to like?

Our Cycle to Work Scheme lets you offset some of your monthly salary to buy a new bike. In addition, you benefit from tax and national insurance savings and get fit too.

Refer a friend scheme

  • Social workers: We understand that social workers create networks and support each other. So we want to reward you with a bonus payment of £350 if you introduce a social worker candidate whom we subsequently employ as a result of that introduction.

  • Foster carers: Earn up to £300 in Highstreet vouchers when you recommend a friend to foster care who is then approved.

Employee discounts

Our employees have access to various discounts across a range of shops, restaurants, holidays, utilities and days out.

These include but are not limited to Tesco, Chessington World of Adventure, New Look, Warner Leisure Hotels, and Empire Cinemas. In addition, you have access to a free pass, workout and exercise tips from Pure Gym, and a 50% discount to Unit Gym at our head office.

Employee awards

We believe that our social workers deserve recognition and gratitude for their hard work, which is why we have employee awards to thank those who have gone above and beyond.

Charity donations

We want to support those in our community as much as we can, which is why we partake in the Pennies from Heaven scheme, where your pay is rounded down to the nearest pound and the excess pennies go directly to charity.

Your next steps

If you’re interested in our social worker opportunities, please complete a quick application form using the ‘Apply online now’ button. Shortly after you’ve applied, we will be in touch, to discuss your particular interests further.

Candidates must be qualified social workers with current SWE registration. But we’re happy to consider social workers with diverse backgrounds, including those looking to make a change in specialism or who would like to make the move from Adult services to Children’s.

If you like the sound of moving to an authority where social workers are truly valued and challenged, please apply below or get in touch with us today by