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)