Community Lead Practitioner

Application closing date

01/08/2026

Working Pattern

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Salary

Grade G £33,142 - £36,363 a year

Contractual hours

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Basis

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Job category/type

Social Care - Children

Attachments

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Role: Community Lead Practitioner

Salary: Grade G £33,142 - £36,363 a year

Location: The Light House, Derby

Hours: 16 hours a week

Closing Date: 01/08/2026

Contract Type: Permanent

This is an exciting opportunity to join Derby City Council's Community Short Breaks Team as a Community Lead Practitioner, helping children with disabilities access personalised support that promotes independence, inclusion and positive family outcomes.

As a Community Lead Practitioner, you will have the opportunity to make a lasting difference by working alongside families and partners to deliver flexible, high-quality Community Short Breaks.

Working within a supportive and forward-thinking team, the Community Lead Practitioner plays an important role in coordinating Community Short Break support, including commissioned services and Community Short Break Grants. If you are passionate about improving outcomes for children and families and enjoy building positive relationships, you will find a rewarding career where your skills and commitment make a real difference every day.

Who We Are

Here at Derby City Council, we’re dedicated to delivering nearly 250 first-class services to citizens and businesses in the heart of the Midlands. People are at the centre of all that we do, and we have an outstanding track record of recruiting and developing talented individuals by providing them with varied and fulfilling career opportunities. Find out more about what it’s like to work for us.

What We Offer

You too could be part of something brilliant by becoming a colleague at Derby City Council; in addition to making a difference to the lives of people across the city, you’ll also receive:

• Flexible work/life balance scheme
• Hybrid working
• Continued professional development opportunities & career conversations
• 27 days annual leave (rising to 32 days after 5 years' service), plus bank holidays
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Team Derby Rewards – retail and leisure discounts
• Tusker Car Benefit Scheme
• Cycle2Work Scheme & free cycle training
• Employee Assistance Programme, Wellbeing Calendar and Support
• Access to our Equality Employee Networks – LGBTQ+, Disabled Employee Network & Carers and our Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic Employee Support Network and Neurodiversity Network
• Support for colleagues who are carers

The Opportunity

In the role of Community Lead Practitioner , here’s an example of what you’ll be doing to make an impact:

• Work alongside children with disabilities and their families to understand their needs, identify the outcomes they want to achieve and coordinate the most appropriate Community Short Break support.

• Coordinate referrals to commissioned Community Short Break providers, matching children with services that best meet their assessed needs and reviewing support to ensure it continues to deliver positive outcomes.

• Manage Community Short Break Grants by supporting families to use their funding in line with agreed outcomes, providing information and guidance, and reviewing the impact of the grant on the child and family.

• Build positive relationships with providers and partner organisations to ensure children receive safe, effective and high-quality support.

• Monitor outcomes, maintain accurate records and contribute to the quality assurance and continuous improvement of the Community Short Breaks service.

About You

To be successful in this role, you’ll ideally have…

• A Level 3 qualification (or equivalent) in Health, Social Care, Education, Early Help or a related field.

• Experience of working within health, education, social care or a related service, supporting children, young people and families.

• Experience of providing information, advice and guidance and building positive relationships with families and partner organisations.
• A good understanding of the needs of children with disabilities, the impact of caring responsibilities on families, safeguarding responsibilities, equality, diversity and inclusion.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with children, families and a range of professionals.

• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities, maintain accurate records and use IT systems effectively.

• The ability to analyse information, make sound decisions, solve problems and use your initiative to deliver high-quality, person-centred support.

• A flexible approach to working across community settings and a commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

Next Steps

If you would like to apply for this vacancy via an application form, please submit an application via the Derby City Council website.

The closing date for this vacancy is at midnight on 1 August 2026. Any applications received after the closing date will not be accepted.

Interviews will be held: Friday 14 August 2026 at the Light House, St Mark’s Road, Derby, DE21

If you would prefer to apply for this job using your CV, then please download the attached Declaration Form and send it to ***email_hidden***. Without a completed declaration form, your application will not be accepted. We also encourage you to download the Equalities Form and return this to [email protected], however this is optional and will not affect your application.

Important Information

Links to the full Job Description and Person Specification are below.

As part of our safer recruitment checks the successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.

All employees will normally be appointed to the minimum of the grade for the job.

Before you complete your application, please read our guidance on filling in your application form.

Remember to align your personal statement to the essential criteria in the Person Specification.

Please be aware that where there are colleagues within the organisation who are 'at risk' of redundancy, requirements to redeploy to another suitable role will apply and take priority.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

We are a fair and inclusive employer and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds. We recruit for diversity and value difference. As many of our roles can now be home-based, we are able to offer more opportunities for people who need this facility.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. If you are a disabled person, you have the choice to apply under our Guaranteed Interview Scheme so long as you demonstrate that you meet the essential requirements for the job.

We feel it is essential that we recruit a talented workforce that is as diverse as the community we work for.

Please let us know of any individual requirements or reasonable adjustments you may have during the application, interview, or onboarding process and we’ll do all we can to help. We strongly believe in social understanding of disability and for us it’s all about removing barriers to equality.

If you have any questions regarding this vacancy or are having difficulty applying, please contact our Recruitment Team on 01332 640844 (Relay UK - 18001 01332 640 844) or at [email protected]. https://www.derby.gov.uk/signing-service/