Return Home Interview Worker

Job Description

• Suffolk County Council
• Address: Landmark House, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 5PB, Community and onsite
• Salary: £35,570 per annum, (pro rata if part time)
• Hours: 37 hours per week, flexible working options available
• Contract: Permanent

Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Suffolk County Council.

We’re looking for a compassionate and motivated Return Home Interview Worker to join our Integrated Front Door. If you’re passionate about hearing young people’s voices and making a real difference following missing episodes, we’d love to hear from you.

Reimagine the possibilities.

Your role and responsibilities

This is a unique and important role where you’ll work directly with children and young people following missing episodes, helping them feel heard, understood and supported.

On a day-to-day basis, you’ll build trusted relationships with young people, exploring their experiences and identifying risks, vulnerabilities and opportunities for support. Your work will directly inform safeguarding decisions and help shape better outcomes.

This role is county wide with an office base in Ipswich. The expectation is that staff are office-based aside from arranged visits.

You will:

• Undertake timely Return Home Interviews, ensuring the child’s voice and experience are central 
• Identify risk, vulnerability and protective factors to inform safeguarding responses 
• Work closely with the Integrated Front Door to inform decision-making and planning 
• Support identification and disruption of exploitation and contextual risks 
• Build trusting, respectful relationships to encourage engagement and disclosure 
• Share insight with partners to strengthen multi-agency safeguarding responses
• Use learning from interviews to identify themes, patterns and emerging risks.

You’ll play a vital role in helping us understand why children go missing and how we can better protect and support them.

What you will need

We’re looking for someone who is passionate about working with children and young people and confident managing risk and safeguarding concerns.

Our ideal candidate will bring:

• A Level 5 qualification (or equivalent experience) in a relevant field.
• Experience of working directly with children, young people and families.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding, risk identification and early intervention. 
• Ability to build trust and communicate effectively with young people.
• Confidence to assess situations and use professional judgement to support safe outcomes.
• Experience of working with partner agencies and contributing to multi-agency responses.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage your own workload.
• Knowledge of Signs of Safety or solution-focused approaches.
• Experience of working with complex family needs or safeguarding concerns.

Due to the nature of this role, you will be required to have a driving licence and access to personal transport. If you feel you can meet these travel requirements through other suitable means, please contact the Hiring Manager before applying to discuss.

You can view a full list of requirements in the Job and Person Profile (JPP), which you can find in the ‘How to apply’ section towards the bottom of this advert.

If you believe you can succeed in this role, apply. Even if you don't meet all requirements, still apply. We would appreciate the opportunity to consider your application.

The team

At Suffolk County Council, we aspire for every child to live their best life.

The Integrated Front Door is a fast-paced, multi-agency environment bringing together professionals from across the partnership – including social care, police, health and education – to ensure concerns are responded to quickly, consistently and effectively.

You’ll be part of a service that:

• Supports early decision-making and earlier help
• Works within a shared safeguarding framework and statutory duties
• Promotes joined-up, high-quality responses for children and families
• Plays a key role in Suffolk’s Families First approach.

We believe that being together matters. Visible leadership supports better decision-making, stronger oversight, professional development and a culture where practitioners feel supported to do their best work.

Take a look at what makes our Ideal Worker (pdf), shaped by the voices of young people.

Empowering Everyone

We’re big believers in potential, possibility and the power of different ideas. We’re always searching for ways to encourage, respect and enable everyone to be the best they can be. We want to represent the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all individuals, especially those from groups that are currently underrepresented in the organisation, as shown in our Workforce Equality Report.

For more information

For a casual chat, please contact either Milly Clark by either calling [phone removed] or emailing [email removed] or Sean Segal by either calling [phone removed] or emailing [email removed]

How to apply

Step 1 - Read the Job and Person Profile (Word).

Step 2 - Click ‘Apply Now’ to start your online application.

Step 3 - Upload a supporting statement answering the following questions below (no more than 400 words per question). You should use the Supporting Statement template (Word).

1. Describe your experience of working directly with children or young people. How have you built trust and encouraged open communication?
2. Tell us about a time you identified a safeguarding concern. What action did you take and what was the outcome?
3. Describe your experience of working with children or young people who may have experienced risk, vulnerability or exploitation. What approach did you take?

Please note: Without a supporting statement, your interest will not be progressed. Any supporting documents must be in either PDF or MS Word format.

For guidance on completing your application, please see our How to Apply page.

Planning to use Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Please ensure your application still reflects your own skills, experience and ideas. If used inappropriately, your application may not be processed.

Please read our guidance for using AI to understand what’s acceptable.

Do you need any reasonable adjustments to