Experienced Social Worker - Accelerated Permanence Team

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Are you a Qualified Social Worker? Do you want to make a difference to the lives of Children and Families through high‑quality social care practice? Do you want to use your experience and analytical skills to support improved outcomes without holding a caseload?

Then the Accelerated Permanence Team within Knowsley Children’s Services could be the place for you.

Be part of what we are building

Following our recent Ofsted inspection, our Children’s Social Care Services (CSC) department are on an improvement journey – one we would love you to join us on. This includes the development of a dedicated court team. The focus within this team is to promote positive outcomes for children and families through collaborative work which is produced within appropriate timescales.

Do you want to work with:

• a friendly, supportive team who genuinely cares about their employees?
• a smaller Local Authority in easy commuting distance from across the North West with hybrid working options?
• Somewhere you can really make a difference to the lives of our Children and Young People

Then this may be the role for you...

We have high aspirations for our children and young people and are determined to work together to make the necessary improvements and get to ‘good’ whilst always aiming higher. This is an exciting time to join our service - improving CSC is one of the Council’s main priorities; there’s significant investment in the service, expertise on-hand and opportunities for you to make a real difference; helping to shape the future delivery of CSC for the benefit of our children and young people.

If you choose to join us, you will be coming to an inclusive, supportive, and friendly team. We have a new engaging and ambitious leadership team in place, who will ensure that you work in an environment where you feel recognised, valued, and listened to. As a service we offer flexible working, manageable caseloads and a vast array of employee benefits details of which can be found below. We welcome you to come and join us on this exciting journey– in return we promise to support, develop, and help you achieve your goals.

Don’t just take our word for it though, see what our current social workers have to say.-

watch here

About the Role (Non‑Caseholding)

Successful candidates would work alongside our colleagues within the Child Looked After service (who remain the allocated social workers for the children) to complete assessments and reports which support permanency planning. This is a non-case holding post focused on producing high‑quality, evidence‑based reports within agreed timescales that reduce drift and delay for children and families. Responsibilities would include the production of assessments, reports and statements, supporting allocated social workers and colleagues, and contributing to improved permanency planning for our children and young people.

Who we are looking for:

To be successful you will be a qualified, experienced social worker and you will be professionally registered with Social Work England. You will be committed to making a difference for Children, Young People and their families and you’ll be a great communicator able to quickly build good relationships. It’s important you actively invest in your continuous professional development, and we will support you in doing this. You will have strong analytical and written skills, be able to manage time effectively and build relationships with children and families which support you in creating robust, evidence-based reports for use within the court arena. You will have proven experience of court social work to an excellent standard with a good understanding of public law legal frameworks.

Our offer to you:

• We are a Disability Confident Employer, meaning we offer Inclusive & accessible recruitment, offering an interview to disabled people, providing reasonable adjustments, & supporting existing employees.
• Flexible working, Hybrid working arrangements & family friendly initiatives; Our flexible working scheme allows you to manage your hours & plan your life more easily. We will consider requests for flexible working. For most roles, the following types of flexibility are usually possible: flexible hours, working from home, compressed hours, part-time.
• Generous Holiday Entitlement: starting at 28 days leave with an option to buy additional 10 days leave
• Manageable Workloads - directors of our service work closely with the Heads of Service & Team Managers to ensure workloads are manageable & you are supported.

• Differentiated sickness absence for individuals living with a disability.

• Menopause policy supporting women in the workplace.

• Local Government Pension Scheme.

• Newley Developed Bespoke Four-Week Induction Program.

• High Quality IT Kit supporting agile working arrangements

• Learning & Career Development: We have a wide range of blended learning opportunities available to all employees, which will be relevant to your job & progression
• Supportive Practice Improvement Team – we have a team of experienced staff who build positive working relationships with staff to work alongside you to embed learning from audits or reviews.

• A range of Workers Groups, e.g. Black & Minority Workers' Group, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Forum, Neurodiverse Staff Support Group.

• Well-being Support: We want to improve the well-being of our employees both in & out of the workplace.

• Apprenticeship Offer.

• Secondment Opportunities.

• MyTime – our monthly supervisions scheduled with you. This is your one-to-one time solely focused on your career development.

• Reflective Supervision - 4 weekly.

• Access to Signs of Safety Group Supervision.

• Newly Developed Progression Pathway.

• Learning at Work Week: A yearly celebration awards to recognise & celebrate individual practice across the council.

• Visible and accessible Leadership including Monthly Principal Social Worker (PSW) drop-in sessions.

• Themed Practice Learning Week: Providing a range of bitesize learning opportunities.

• Currently Offering Free Parking.

• Cycle to Work Scheme: We are committed to greener transport solutions. Our scheme entitles you to significant discounts on the price of a new bike & safety equipment.

• Bank holidays (in addition to annual leave entitlement).

• Eye Tests: We provide all display screen users with a free eye test on request. We have a corporate eye care scheme which includes a contribution to the cost of glasses.

• Childcare Vouchers.
• Free Refreshments – Tea, Coffee and Milk

• Discounted Gym Membership.

• Credit Union Membership.

• VIVUP Discounts & Savings The program offers a staff discount scheme.

At Knowsley Council we will consider requests for flexible working. For most roles, the following types of flexibility are usually possible: flexible hours, working from home, compressed hours, part-time.

We promote applications from all sections of the community, regardless of background, belief, or identity, recognising the value that diversity brings to our organisation. We particularly welcome applications from individuals from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and candidates with disabilities as we acknowledge their underrepresentation in our workforce.

See the benefits of working for Knowsley MBC https://www.knowsley.gov.uk/yes.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applicants.

At Knowsley we value our applicants and want them to feel well-informed and welcomed. If you have any questions about this specific job role or what it is like to work at Knowsley, please contact:

Joanne Sheridan / Joanne.Sheridan@knowsley.gov.uk / Tel: 0151 443 3288.

Please note that sponsorship is not available for this post

If you are interested in this vacancy, please upload your CV along with a supporting statement as one document in PDF or Word format. Your CV and supporting statement should be tailored to reflect the competencies within the person specification. Please note if a CV and supporting statement does not reflect the person specification it is unlikely to be shortlisted.