Social Care - Children Service
Job Summary
Working Pattern:
Full time
Advert Start Date:
29/08/2019
Advert End Date:
Closed for applications on 20/09/2019 12:00
Job Category:
Social Care - Children Service
Employment Location:
Children and Families Social Care, South Tyneside
Further Information
Senior Practitioner – Children and Families Social Care
(South Tyneside)
£39,782 pa
As one of the North East’s smallest Boroughs, we believe that “good” things come in small packages! We are committed to delivering outstanding work with children and families, and we are looking for experience social workers who want to join us - find out more today!
South Tyneside Children and Families Social Care is a “good” service striving to be outstanding.
We know our Borough, our service and our people well and our Senior Management Team work to foster each individual’s strengths and talents. We want every child, young person and family to experience creative, tailored and responsive support. We know that skilled and confident practitioners build the best relationships and support families to achieve the best outcomes - investing in our workforce is the driving force in delivering outstanding services. Creating opportunities for practitioners to flourish will continue to be a key priority for South Tyneside.
We really do understand that social work is a very challenging but equally rewarding profession. There are ups, downs, twists and turns which can both impact and influence how we work with children, young people and their families. In South Tyneside we pride ourselves in our flexibility, creativity, collective ownership and responsiveness during those times when there is increased pressure, challenge and difficulty. Our culture is to “share the load” and the whole service works together to manage the demands on us all. We listen, we respond and most importantly, we care.
We know our strengths, and we also know and understand the areas where we need to further develop. We constantly review and re-align our service to make the best use of our workforce’s skills in offering a great service - over the past year we have introduced a Connected Persons Team and Families First (Edge of Care) to support the work of our Social Work Teams. We have invested in targeted support in continuous professional development through Practice Education. This is underpinned by knowing ourselves well, and an open, learning culture.
Our workforce say they are well supported, feel safe to practice in a child centred way and are excited by the launch of our Strength Based Approach to working with families. They are excited by the move towards Relational Practice, based on getting to know children, their families and networks around them, , building partnerships to support them and working with not to families. Our Members, Director and Head of Service are passionate about practice and we have put the training, resource and time in place to move this forward
Join us and you can expect support, training and opportunities to take your practice and career to the next level.
• A bespoke ‘core skills’ training programme designed by our specialist training provider.
• A range of reflective supervision opportunities - looking at cases, working in peer groups, and one to one focus on you and your professional development.
• Access to online research and resources as well as our own Good Practice Portal.
• A stable and permanent Practice Management and Senior Management team.
• A visible and approachable senior management team, who encourage your views and ideas on how we can develop our service.
• A supportive and learning environment. We understand the demands on social workers and what you need to ensure you are able to practice safely.
• Opportunity to enrol on our Practice Educator training programme, should you wish to help train student social workers.
• A career pathway that will provide you the opportunity to gain the necessary experience to work towards management positions.
• Flexible working and the opportunity to take 2 days ‘flexi leave’ per month.
• Mobile working, supported by our current refresh of It solutions.
• An environment where “good” practice is embedded and the focus is not on compliance, but on providing an “outstanding” service to our staff and more importantly the children and families we engage.
We have two vacancies for experienced social workers, to join a Local Authority rated as Good by Ofsted in 2017 and striving towards Outstanding, in Senior Practitioner roles.
The successful candidate will be required to work across the service, spending time in various teams depending on demand and service development. This is therefore an exciting opportunity for practitioners to gain experience and skills in a variety of settings whilst mentoring less experienced workers and supporting Practice Managers to develop and improve services available to our children and young people.
You will carry a reduced caseload to enable you to do this, allowing additional time to mentor, support and effect changes and improvements, including through audit and quality assurance, but also as part of focus groups and a wider management team to enable service wide change.
The role will provide opportunities within the children’s social care teams and also across Fostering and Connected Carers. Therefore the successful candidate would benefit from experience in various settings and be able to adapt to the variety of roles involved, integrating into teams and services as required.
If you require further information about the role please contact Lucy Cook, Service Manager on (0191) 4244790.
South Tyneside Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment and an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) disclosure will be sought along with other relevant pre-employment checks.
To find out more about this role and to apply please visit www.southtyneside.gov.uk alternatively you can email jobs@southtyneside.gov.uk or call (0191) 455 4968. BT Typetalkers welcome.
Closing date: Noon, 20 September 2018
Please note
This job is closed for applications.