Advanced Social Worker

Our Social Workers make a huge difference to the lives of people across our county, and we remain passionate about investing in retaining our own and developing practice and this an exciting opportunity which offers just that.

Working with us means collaborating across our different teams, and sharing best practice, knowledge, and experience to continually improve the way we do things. Support is important, as we work in a big county with some diverse challenges – but together we can meet all kinds of needs and demands.

If you are looking for more responsibility, a supportive role with your colleagues whilst continuing to support and safeguard some of our most vulnerable/high risk children and young people, then this could be just for you.

This role is based in Newcastle in the Children in Care and Care leavers Team 1 and you will be working with Children and families whereby the age range is from 0-18 yrs.

It is fixed term for 12 months.

We are a team of 7 made up of 6 Social Workers and a Family Practitioner led by an experienced Team Manager. We have good levels of staff retention which we believe is due to ensuring staff feel supported and part of a wider team all striving to achieve the best for the children and families we support. The district consists of a Duty Team, 3 Assessment and Staying Together Teams and 2 Child in Care Teams.

As an advanced social worker you will:

• be responsible for completing your statutory duties in co ordinating the child’s plan, reviewing and ensuring that our children are seen and heard.
• undertake section 47 investigations
• To arrange /co ordinate PEPs and Looked After Children reviews
• undertake placement of children into Local Authority care, when it is agreed they can no longer remain at home or when their care placements break down
• Complete Court reports
• be responsible for referring into our centralised services for specialist support/ services.
• offer informal and formal mentoring to less experienced social workers, and use your practice wisdom to champion specific areas of practice.
• work within the framework of legislation, agreed council policies and procedures to work with or on behalf of children, young people and their families, to improve their well-being, and promote their independence.
• work within a District Model and will work closely with your colleagues in Early Help, The PA team for Care Leavers and Children with Disabilities Team. As well as our colleagues in health and education.

You will be an experienced social worker and have:

• a social work degree and be Social Work England (SWE) registered.
• post qualifying experience of working with vulnerable children and knowledge of safeguarding and children in care.
• knowledge of legislation and guidance underpinning delivery of children’s social care e.g. Children's Act, Working Together, Adoption Act, Every Child Matters.
• full UK Driving Licence.
• experience in mentoring.
• demonstrated ability in improving outcomes for children and young people
• examples of creative social work practice to keep children and young people within their families where safe to do so.

But above all, you will bring the desire to work with children and families to give them the right support, at the right time with the aim of keeping families together where it is safe to do so.

We offer you:

We have a career progression framework in place to support you which also includes:

• Practice Educator Programme
• Aspiring Social Work Practice Lead and Aspiring Team Manager programme.

We are ambitious in our learning and development programme with strong links within the West Midlands and our teaching partnership.

You can find out more about working here and our social worker career pathways here.

Interviews will be held: Week commencing 30 March

For more information about this vacancy or for an informal chat please contact Sam Hubszer - sam.hubszer@staffordshire.gov.uk

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.