About the role

Practice Manager

Service: Private Intermediary and FamilyConnect Service

Salary:
- Starting at £37,211, rising to £41,518 FTE per annum (£22,326.60 - £24,910.80 per annum for part-time, 22.2 hours per week)
- Inner London weighting of £3,866 (pro-rata for part-time) will apply if London based

Location: Leeds or London office based, with remote and hybrid working options considered

Hours: 22.2 hours per week (part-time) with the possibility of 37 hours in the future

We offer flexible working arrangements - please see below for more details.

Contract: Permanent

Family Action & the Role’s Impact:
At Family Action we support people through change, challenge or crisis. It’s what we’ve done for over 150 years. We protect children, support young people and adults and offer direct, practical help to families and communities.

We see first-hand the power of family to shape lives, for better or worse, so we speak up for the importance of family in national and local policymaking, amplify family voices and represent the changing needs of families in the UK today.

We are looking for an experienced and compassionate Practice Manager to lead and support PAC-UK National Intermediary Service. This is an important opportunity to join a respected service supporting adopted adults, birth family members and their descendants, and to help shape high-quality practice that makes a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

Main Responsibilities:

As Practice Manager, you will provide professional leadership, supervision and operational oversight across intermediary services. You will support a team of PAYE and sessional Intermediaries and Researchers, oversee service quality and safeguarding practice, and contribute to service development and strategic growth. The role also involves building strong relationships internally and externally, ensuring that our services remain responsive, safe and effective.

• Provide supervision, guidance and practice leadership to Intermediaries and Researchers.
• Oversee referrals, allocations, case progression and case closure across the service.
• Support decision-making in complex and higher-risk cases, including safeguarding concerns.
• Lead service development, quality assurance activity and continuous improvement work.
• Maintain oversight of active cases and case records to ensure high standards of practice.
• Represent the service in meetings with internal colleagues, commissioners and external professionals.
• Support recruitment, induction, training and ongoing development of staff and sessional workers.

Main Requirements (for details check the job description and person specification):
You will hold a professional qualification in social work, counselling or psychotherapy, and bring strong knowledge of the lifelong impact of adoption. You will have experience in post-adoption and permanency work, alongside the confidence to supervise staff, manage competing priorities and contribute to service development. We are looking for someone with excellent communication, sound judgement, a collaborative approach and a clear commitment to safeguarding, equality, diversity and inclusion.

Benefits:
- an annual paid leave entitlement that commences at 25 working days (pro-rata), and after a full year of service, rising each April by one day, subject to a maximum of 30 working days plus bank holidays
- up to 6% matched-pension contributions
- enhanced paid sick leave and paid family leave provisions
- eye care and winter flu jabs vouchers
- cycle to work scheme
- investing in your professional development with ongoing quality training and career development opportunities

We are forward looking, ambitious and committed to continuous improvement. We are a people focused, can-do organisation, which strives for excellence in all we do and operates with mutual respect.

To Apply:
• Click the ‘Apply’ link below and fill out our digital application form
• Closing Date: 5th June 2026 at 11.59pm

For any queries, or if you would like to discuss any aspect of the selection process or the potential for flexible working, please email: Jo Mitchell, National Lead jo.mitchell@pac-uk.org or Emma Crowther-Duncan, National Development Lead, emma.crowther-duncan@pac-uk.org

All appointments with Family Action are subject to satisfactory Safer Recruitment checks.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion:
We are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that candidates may need during the recruitment process, and you will be asked whether you require any adjustments if shortlisted for interview. We also make reasonable adjustments on the job, where required.
We are committed to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in all that we do and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Intersectionality is important to us and we welcome applications from ethnically diverse communities, LGBTQIA+ candidates and disabled candidates. We are committed to increasing the representation of these groups at Family Action because we know that greater diversity will lead to even greater results for families and children and we strive for our workforce to be truly representative of the diverse communities we support.

All candidates with a disability are welcome to apply under the Disability Confident Scheme and request priority consideration for an interview, provided they meet the essential criteria for the role.

To help remove financial barriers to working with us, we will reimburse reasonable travel costs if you are invited to attend an interview in person.

*Ordinarily Family Action appoints new starters at the starting point of the salary scale (with subsequent annual pay progression), unless you have experience that would justify appointment further up the salary scale or there are any other exceptional reasons.