Social Worker - Assessment

Duty & Assessment Social Worker

Nottingham City Council | Up to £37.50 per hour | Ongoing contract | Full-time | Hybrid
Duty week: 1 in 4 (one full duty week every four weeks)

Nottingham City Council are looking for an experienced Duty & Assessment Social Worker to join their frontline service. This is a fast-paced role where you’ll make confident decisions at the point of referral, complete high-quality assessments, and progress work quickly — including legal planning and court work where required.

About the Role

You’ll sit at the front door of children’s social care, balancing timely decision-making with strong analysis and purposeful direct work. You’ll complete statutory assessments, manage duty activity during your rota week, and ensure children get the right help at the right time — whether that’s Early Help, CIN/CP planning, or escalation into PLO / proceedings.

Key responsibilities

  • Manage duty activity during your rota week, including screening contacts/referrals and agreeing thresholds

  • Complete single assessments and timely visits, with clear analysis of risk, safety and need

  • Undertake S47 enquiries, strategy discussions and joint working with partner agencies

  • Progress cases to CIN / CP where appropriate, including conference attendance and safety planning

  • Present well-evidenced recommendations at legal planning meetings and support PLO / pre-proceedings work

  • Prepare high-quality written work (assessments, chronologies, statements) and contribute to court documentation when needed

  • Maintain strong, defensible case recording and transfer cases smoothly to longer-term teams when thresholds are met

Practice Model

Nottingham City Children’s Services use Signs of Safety as their overarching practice framework — a structured, strengths-based way of working that keeps the focus on what we’re worried about, what’s working well, and what needs to happen to build lasting safety with families. Nottingham City Council+1

Requirements

  • Social Work England registration

  • Recent statutory children’s experience (duty/assessment, CIN/CP)

  • Confident risk assessment and decision-making at pace

  • Comfortable with escalation to legal planning / PLO, and contributing to court work when required

  • Strong written work (assessments, statements, evidence-based analysis)

Benefits

  • Up to £37.50 per hour

  • Clear rota: 1 in 4 duty week

  • Hybrid working (service needs depending)

  • Supportive management oversight and structured practice framework

  • Opportunity to sharpen frontline threshold, assessment and legal skills