Director (Children’s Social Care)

A message from Mark Mirfin, Executive Director for Children and Young People

In this video, Mark Mirfin, Executive Director for Children and Young People, shares his perspective on Knowsley’s ambition for children and young people and the vital role the Director of Children's Social Care plays in shaping an inclusive, high-performing children's social care system across the borough.

Knowsley Children's Services logo

The Role

Director of Children’s Social Care

  • Salary: £99,161 – £104,870 (Pay award pending)
  • Location: Huyton, Merseyside

Lead with purpose. Protect children. Shape brighter futures.

Knowsley Council is seeking an exceptional Director of Children's Social Care to lead all statutory children’s social care services across the borough and to play a pivotal role in strengthening outcomes for children, young people and families.

This is a critical executive leadership role for an inspirational, values-led social care professional with the credibility, compassion and drive to lead improvement, assurance and high-quality practice in a complex and demanding environment.

About the role

Reporting to the Executive Director (Children and Young People), you will provide strategic leadership for all statutory children’s social care functions, ensuring services are safe, effective, inspection-ready and firmly focused on achieving the best possible outcomes for children and families.

Our leaders are committed to building trusted relationships and embedding coproduction at every level, recognising this as fundamental to delivering sustainable improvement.

You will lead across the full range of children’s social care services, including:

  • Family Help and Protection
  • Permanence and Sufficiency
  • Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
  • Court services and Public Law Outline (PLO)
  • Children with Disabilities
  • Cared for and care-experienced children
  • Adoption and quality assurance services

You will embed excellent social work practice, strengthen performance and governance, and ensure a strong learning culture through effective quality assurance, workforce development and professional leadership.

What you will be responsible for

As Director of Children’s Social Care, you will:

  • Provide strategic and professional leadership for all statutory children’s social care functions
  • Ensure consistently safe, high-quality and compliant practice across services
  • Lead improvement, inspection readiness and regulatory assurance activity
  • Strengthen permanence planning and local sufficiency, ensuring timely, child-centred decisions
  • Provide senior leadership for quality assurance through Independent Reviewing Officers, CP Chairs, the Principal Social Worker and practice improvement functions
  • Lead workforce development, including strategic oversight of the Social Care Academy
  • Drive service transformation that improves frontline practice and delivers measurable outcomes
  • Ensure strong governance, risk management and performance oversight
  • Act as a visible senior leader within the Children’s Services directorate and across the organisation

Safeguarding, partnership and system leadership

You will play a key role in multi-agency safeguarding and partnership working, strengthening effective collaboration with:

  • Health, police and education partners
  • The courts and wider justice system
  • Regional and sub-regional safeguarding arrangements, including Pan Merseyside activity
  • Voluntary and community sector partners

As a senior corporate leader, you will ensure Children’s Social Care contributes fully to the Council’s wider priorities and the Children and Young People Partnership Plan.

Corporate parenting

Central to this role is your responsibility as a corporate parent. You will champion the voices, aspirations and lived experiences of children in care and care-experienced young people, ensuring they receive the same care, ambition and advocacy that any good parent would expect for their own children.

About you

We are looking for a confident, credible and compassionate leader who brings:

  • Significant senior leadership experience within Children’s Social Care
  • In-depth knowledge of statutory social care functions and the regulatory framework
  • A proven track record of leading improvement, inspection readiness and service transformation
  • Experience in managing complex services in challenging and political environments
  • The ability to inspire, support and challenge a large professional workforce
  • Strong partnership and influencing skills across agencies and at the regional level
  • A recognised professional qualification, professional registration and a strong commitment to continued professional development
  • A clear commitment to equality, inclusion and child-centred, strengths-based practice

Above all, you will share our ambition to deliver the very best outcomes for Knowsley’s children, young people and families and lead in line with our Knowsley Better Together values of integrity, accountability, communication and respect.

Why Knowsley?

Knowsley is a resilient and ambitious borough with a strong sense of community and a relentless focus on improving lives. We are proud of our improvement journey and equally clear about the role strong, values-driven leadership plays in sustaining progress.

You will join:

  • A supportive and committed Corporate and Children’s Services leadership team
  • An organisation that values collaboration, learning and innovation
  • A place where senior leaders are trusted, visible and empowered
  • A borough where your leadership will have a direct and lasting impact

This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of Children’s Social Care in Knowsley and make a genuine difference to the lives of children and families.

Interested?

For further information and details on how to apply, please explore the candidate information via the links on this site.

For a confidential discussion about the role, please contact:

Mark Mirfin

Executive Director (Children and Young People)

Telephone: 0151 443 3530

Email: Mark.mirfin@knowsley.gov.uk 

Recruitment Timeline - Key Dates

  • Closing date - Noon Friday 29 May 2026
  • Assessment Centre (in person) - Thursday 11 June 2026
  • Employment and Appointments Committee (in person) - Wednesday 24 June 2026.

Supporting Information

Knowsley Knowledge

Knowsley Overview is an official council insight and intelligence website that brings together key data and information about the borough of Knowsley. It provides an accessible overview of local population, communities, services, and outcomes, with comparisons to regional and national data.

Our Offer

Our workplace offer

Knowsley Council offers a competitive salary and generous benefits package within flexible working arrangements.

Find all our employee benefits below. 

Financial

  • Competitive salary, which rises annually to the next increment of our pay scale for most roles
  • Annual Pay Awards which are negotiated nationally and apply to all employees
  • Financial well-being offers and support, including affordable borrowing
  • 24-hour financial advice from our Employee Assistance Programme
  • Car mileage payments
  • Free car parking
  • Access to a salary sacrifice scheme to lease hybrid and electric vehicles
  • A home goods and electricals salary sacrifice scheme
  • Transparent pay structures so you are paid fairly in line with peers and know what you will be paid as you develop your career with the council

Development

  • Engaging comprehensive induction programme
  • Fully embedded apprenticeship and graduate development programmes with tailored support and development
  • Collaborative working with educational establishments to support development initiatives and opportunities
  • Levy funded vocational and degree level qualifications available
  • Full programme of CPD for work-based learning and development opportunities
  • A wide variety of roles, helping you to try different careers and apply your skills in new areas
  • Opportunities for getting involved in innovative projects and initiatives to support continuous improvement
  • Strong culture of employee engagement as well as reward and recognition – supporting you to be the best you can be

Pensions

  • Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.  Unlike many private sector pensions which are defined contribution (DC), LGPS is a defined benefit (DB) scheme. This means:
    • Pension is based on salary and length of service.
    • Provides a guaranteed income for life after retirement.
    • Less risk for the employee compared to DC schemes.

Whereas most DC schemes are based on performance of market investments.

  • LGPS pensions are inflation-protected, increasing annually in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), helping maintain purchasing power over time.
  • The council will typically contribute 9.3% towards your pension, compared to lower contributions in many DC schemes.
  • The scheme includes ill health and death benefits which includes immediate access to your pension if you are retired early due to ill health and a lump sum death benefit of 3 times your salary as a lump sum and survivors pensions for dependents.
  • Members of the pension scheme can also opt for early retirement from 55 (with reductions to pension benefits).
  • You can find out more about our pensions at Merseyside Pension Fund (mpfmembers.org.uk)
  • Ways to top up your pension benefits, including shared cost salary sacrifice, meaning more savings on National Insurance and Income Tax and the option to voluntarily make additional pension contributions.

Wellbeing

  • 36 hour full time working week
  • Generous annual leave entitlement with an additional two concessionary days over the festive period plus public holidays. Entitlement varies depending on grade, illustrated below, in addition to public holidays.

Entitlements below are based on full time hours and will be pro rata for part time employees.

Grade (Days) Basic Leave Continuous Service (Days) After 3 Years Continuous Service (Days) After 5 Years Continuous Service (Days) After 10 Years (Days)
Grade A-E 23 24 28 29
Grade F-G 24 25 28 30
Grade H-L 26 27 29 32
Grade M-Q and PMG 1-2 28 29 31 34
PMG 3-5 and Directors 30 31 33 36
  • Option to buy additional annual leave
  • Flexible working
  • Hybrid working in many roles
  • Active travel support with a cycle-to-work scheme
  • 24-hour health and wellbeing support with access to qualified counsellors and practitioners
  • Occupational health services
  • Workplace adjustments
  • Access to a wide range of wellbeing support material including lifestyle assessments and recommendations, information about different health and wellbeing subjects and healthy eating recipes.
  • Free flu jab
  • Free eye tests for DSE users
  • Access to a range of health programmes, such as weight management and smoking cessation sessions
  • The council has strong Trade Union representation through Unison, GMB and Unite and you will have the option to join.

Discounts

  • A range of lifestyle savings and discounts available to all employees, including high street retailers, dining out, cinema, holidays, days out, health and fitness and beauty
  • Discounted gym memberships
  • Access to reduced-cost travel passes
  • Discounts available through mobile phone providers
  • All local authority employees are eligible for Costco membership

Family and Carers support

  • Maternity Leave
  • Paternity leave
  • Shared parental leave
  • Unpaid emergency leave support
  • Family-friendly policies supporting fostering, fertility treatment, fostering, adoption and caring responsibilities
  • Carers passports to make sure you’re supported to manage caring responsibilities alongside work
  • Menopause policy, passport, and support

Employee Networks

  • The Changies offers a safe, informal space for men to connect and support each other.
  • The Carer’s Forum offers support to employees with caring responsibilities.
  • The Disability Workers’ Group advocates for disabled employees and helps shape inclusive policies.
  • The LGBTQ+ Forum supports LGBTQ+ staff, promotes visibility, and influences inclusive change.
  • The Multi Faith and Belief Workers’ Group raises awareness of diverse beliefs to reduce discrimination and improve service delivery.
  • The Neuro Diversity Network offers  a place for employees who are neuro diverse to come together and support each other.
  • The United in Diversity Network challenges discrimination and promotes cultural diversity and race equality.
  • The Women’s Operational Workers’ Network focuses on sex equality in employment and policy development and runs Menopause Café’s.
  • The Youth Employee Network empowers young staff to share experiences, develop skills, and influence workplace culture.

The employee networks work together on joint projects across the organisation.

Download the booklet version

 

How to apply

Start here

Hear more about working for Knowsley

Chat with us