Senior Practitioner

Job Description

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO4 - PO5 £49,056 - £55,323

Retention Bonus: £3000

Contract Type: Full-time/Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 04/12/2025

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference: 1937

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

An experienced Senior Practitioner is sought to support the Practice Support Groups within our Corporate Parenting Service (Looked After Children).

We are seeking a dedicated and enthusiastic practitioner committed to making a positive impact on children’s lives. Our service prioritises high-quality, relationship-based social work that is child-centred, family-oriented, strengths- and evidence-based, outcome-focused, and equitable.

The Senior Practitioner is tasked with handling complex cases involving elevated risk, efficiently managing their workload, and ensuring all statutory obligations are met. They actively participate in weekly case reviews and receive support and guidance

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities: Please refer to Job description with all the details

• Significant post-qualifying social work experience in a Children & Families setting
• Experience of undertaking highly complex casework within a statutory children’s setting
• Experience of service delivery which is culturally sensitive and responsive to the needs of a multi-cultural community
• Experience of prioritisation, care planning and service delivery
• Demonstrable knowledge and experience in assessing complex risk
• Experience of having to interpret, understand and make judgements on the complex interactions between the risk and protective factors in any given situation when arriving at a decision about whether the child or young person is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm
• High-level knowledge and skills in gathering information from a range of sources, including direct observation of children and young people and their interactions with carers
• Ability to make timely judgments and decisions that are based on evidence and thorough analysis of all the information gathered
• Demonstrable ability to draw up specific practical plans with clear timescales that are based on high quality assessments, which set out the planned outcomes for the child or young person
• Ability to drive service improvements
• Ability to negotiate
• Ability to set priorities personally and for others
• Knowledge and understanding of key management skills, roles and responsibilities required for successful leadership
• Ability to systematically monitor and review decisions and plans, and to revise them where appropriate in the light of new information and evaluation of whether the interventions are achieving the planned outcomes
• Knowledge about the different methods of intervention and, on the basis of a critical review of the research evidence, ability to understand their effectiveness
• Ability to demonstrate or show evidence of having undertaken and managed to completion a number of complex cases and ability to demonstrate a high level of conceptualisation of critical analysis
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written)
• ICT skills including use of Microsoft applications.

Qualifications and Requirements: To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

• Must have experience in Court Work and sound Court Report Writing skills
• Must have experience in Looked After Children
• Must have a current Social Work England Registration
• Will need enhanced DBS Clearance.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

Satisfactory employment references;

Satisfactory declaration of interest;

This role is subject to safer recruitment practices as it involves work with children and/ or vulnerable adults;

Satisfactory DBS check;

Continued professional body registration;

Suitable driver’s license;

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Verena La Chiusa, Team manager at verena.lachiusa@walthamforest.gov.uk .

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.