Hours: 37 per week
Contract Type: Temporary until 31.08.2022
Service Area: Safeguarding Outcomes/Care Outcomes
Department: Children & Young People Services
If your passion is around collaborative work with families, centred on building relationships in order to help families develop resilience and make changes for their children, then we are the Local Authority for you. Working with families to keep children at home wherever possible, our dynamic teams work with families from point of contact through to long term support and intervention. Our practice model is underpinned by relationship-based, systemic approaches to facilitate change, alongside trauma informed practice.Bath and North East Somerset Children’s Social Care are an innovative small Local Authority focused on therapeutic assessment and support. Rated Good by OFSTED, with continued vision and drive to improve further.An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Senior Practitioner (with a Social Work qualification) to join one of our Family Support Teams, within the Safeguarding Outcomes Service for a year as secondment cover (until 31/08/2022). We are committed to being a dynamic and creative Local Authority, working hard to think differently about how we approach our work with families. We are deeply committed to providing tailored high-quality services and well thought out interventions to families to keep children safe. Our practice is values-driven with a strong ethos of child-focused interventions.About the roleYou will work in partnership with an enthusiastic hub consisting of a Team Manager, Deputy Team Manager, Senior Practitioners, Social Workers, Family Support Practitioners and administrative staff.This challenging but rewarding role will see you responding to, co-ordinating and delivering a range of social care services to children, young people and families in the Bath and North East Somerset area for children subject to Child in Need Plans, Child Protection Plans, Children in Care, and children subject to legal proceedings. The role will include undertaking single assessments and section 47 child protection investigations. You will work closely with our colleagues across the service and have established partnerships with agencies across health, education, support services and adult services to ensure we can respond as effectively as possible to the needs of children, young people, and their families. This includes working alongside our Family Support Plus team who deliver extensive Family Group Conferences to utilise resources and support within families to keep children safe, as well as tailored interventions including the New Way domestic abuse service.The post holder will manage their own caseload, which will include children and families with complex needs. You will be able to evidence a strong ability to analyse information and formulate outcome focused plans for children and families, as well as a commitment to driving forward care plans and legal work to protect children and promote children’s outcomes through permanency. Applicants must be confident in writing professional assessments/reports as well as presenting their evidence verbally, including in court proceedings. Applicants need to have very strong organisational skills to manage and prioritise their work effectively and in a timely way, and will be committed to working as part of a team to support colleagues in delivering optimum services to children and families.As a senior practitioner, you will have an opportunity to develop your supervisory skills through supervision of a Family Support Practitioner, as well as being able to access Practice Educator Professional Standards (PEPS) training to support a student social worker, or taking on a mentoring role for newly qualified social workers on the ASYE programme from other teams.We are seeking applications from workers who have relevant experience in safeguarding, and are looking to enhance and further develop their skills and contribute to service development for vulnerable children in an exciting and dynamic service.You can expect• A comprehensive induction• Managed caseload; supporting children in need, children subject to child protection plans, and children protected through legal proceedings• Regular supervision – at a minimum of monthly one to one• Weekly group reflective supervision to promote thoughtful and creative practice, supported by your peers and managers.• Monthly Peer Circles to ensure strong relationships and support between Senior Practitioners across the teams• Extensive training opportunities, which include SARI workshops around culturally sensitive practice, opportunities to join a 6-month long training in Systemic Practice delivered by the Centre for Systemic Social Work, attachment based workshops, and trauma-informed workshops• Excellent administrative support with 3 admin staff supporting each team• Tri-annual Social Work Conferences with guest speakers who are experts in the field. Examples of previous conferences have included Donald Forrester, Brid Featherstone, Rebecca Carr-Hopkins, ‘Annie’ from Surviving Safeguarding, and Dr Karen Treisman• Paid Social Work England membership renewals• Access to Research in Practice• iPads and iPhones to promote flexible working, to enhance your work-life balance• Relocation Payments are available• A stable leadership team• A stable and committed team, with very low rates of agency workers, and low vacancy ratesTo apply you will have• A relevant social work qualification• At least 2 years social work experience• Knowledge of the legislative framework that governs children’s services• Knowledge of theory and practice applicable to social work• IT skills to enable operation of standard electronic systems.• Passion, commitment, and motivation to support the most vulnerable families in our area
Your main place of work will be the award-winning, modern Civic Centre in Keynsham, halfway between Bath and Bristol, easily accessible via car or public transport, with a train station 5 minutes walk away.
Interested to find out more?
If you are interested in this post and require more details after reading the job description or just to chat through the role and what’s involved, please contact Paul Hartwell on Paul_Hartwell@BATHNES.GOV.UK.
To apply
Please use the online application facility. For further information on applying please see “Application Form Help” page on the Jobs website.
As an equal opportunities employer, Bath & North East Somerset Council is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and is opposed to discrimination on the basis of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender reassignment, or marriage and civil partnership.
We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join us.
Safeguarding Statement:
The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable groups and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. As part of this commitment anyone working in a post with children or vulnerable groups will be expected to undertake an Enhanced DBS check with/without barred list checks.
As this post involves working within one of these groups, we will require a Disclosure & Barring Service check and/or subscription to the DBS online service. The suitability of all prospective employees or volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment.
You must provide proof that you have successfully registered with Social Work England. Further information about the Registration Scheme can be found at https://www.socialworkengland.org.uk/
Please note the Council operates a policy of prior consideration for roles for any individual on the Council’s at risk register. This means should a redeployee express an interest in this role, providing they meet the essential criteria for the role, they will be interviewed before any shortlisting or interviewing of external candidates.