Senior Practitioner - Children's Records
Our vision is for Newcastle to be a great place to grow up, where every child and young person is safe and loved, healthy and happy, and ready for their next steps.
We're looking for an experienced and passionate social worker to join our specialist Children's Records Team. This is a unique opportunity to use your professional expertise, judgement and understanding of children's social care to support children, young people, care-experienced adults and families to access information about their lives. Through this work, you'll play an important role in promoting children's rights, supporting identity and life-story work, and ensuring people can access information safely and compassionately.
About the Role
The Children's Records Team manages requests from individuals seeking access to records held by Children's Social Care. The information within these records can form an important part of a person's story, helping them understand significant events, experiences and relationships throughout their life.
As a Senior Practitioner, you will lead on the review of complex and highly sensitive records, using your social work knowledge and professional judgement to make balanced, lawful and proportionate decisions about disclosure. You will work closely with colleagues across Children's Services, Information Governance and partner agencies to ensure requests are managed effectively and within statutory timescales.
This is a specialist, practice-focused role. You will provide professional advice and guidance, support colleagues, contribute to quality assurance and service improvement, and help shape the ongoing development of this important service. The role reflects our commitment to transparency, restorative practice and keeping the rights and experiences of children and families at the centre of decision-making.
Who We're Looking For
We are looking for a qualified social worker who can demonstrate:
What You'll Do
Why We Think There Is Nowhere Better
At Newcastle, we're committed to creating a culture where people feel supported, valued and able to do their best work. Through our Families First transformation, we're building services around relationships, strengths and partnership working. We invest in our workforce, value professional expertise and encourage innovation, reflection and continuous learning.
Working with us includes:
If you're looking for a specialist social work role where your experience, judgement and values can make a lasting difference, we'd love to hear from you.
We are committed to protecting and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expect all staff to share this commitment. This post is working in regulated activity. If you are successful we will undertake additional recruitment checks which will include a check to see if you have had any criminal convictions, a check of police information and we will check the barred list(s). It is a criminal offence for a barred individual to apply for a job in regulated activity.
For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Amy Furniss, Social Care Assurance and Qulaity of Practice Lead amy.furniss@newcastle.gov.uk
Apply online at www.northeastjobs.org.uk, select 'Apply Now' and complete our online application form. Before completing the form please ensure you read the supporting documents. Any communication sent to you regarding your application will be sent to the email address you have set up on your Northeast Jobs account, so you will need to ensure that you check your inbox.
We're looking for an experienced and passionate social worker to join our specialist Children's Records Team. This is a unique opportunity to use your professional expertise, judgement and understanding of children's social care to support children, young people, care-experienced adults and families to access information about their lives. Through this work, you'll play an important role in promoting children's rights, supporting identity and life-story work, and ensuring people can access information safely and compassionately.
About the Role
The Children's Records Team manages requests from individuals seeking access to records held by Children's Social Care. The information within these records can form an important part of a person's story, helping them understand significant events, experiences and relationships throughout their life.
As a Senior Practitioner, you will lead on the review of complex and highly sensitive records, using your social work knowledge and professional judgement to make balanced, lawful and proportionate decisions about disclosure. You will work closely with colleagues across Children's Services, Information Governance and partner agencies to ensure requests are managed effectively and within statutory timescales.
This is a specialist, practice-focused role. You will provide professional advice and guidance, support colleagues, contribute to quality assurance and service improvement, and help shape the ongoing development of this important service. The role reflects our commitment to transparency, restorative practice and keeping the rights and experiences of children and families at the centre of decision-making.
Who We're Looking For
We are looking for a qualified social worker who can demonstrate:
- A recognised Social Work qualification and current Social Work England registration
- Significant post-qualifying experience working with children, young people and families
- Strong knowledge of children's social care legislation, safeguarding and statutory guidance
- Excellent analytical, assessment and decision-making skills
- Experience of working with complex, highly sensitive and confidential information
- Confidence in providing professional advice, guidance and constructive challenge
- Experience of supporting and developing colleagues
- Excellent written communication, recording skills and attention to detail
- A commitment to relational, restorative and child-centred practice
What You'll Do
- Lead the review of complex children's social care records
- Assess potential risks and make defensible, proportionate decisions about information disclosure
- Provide professional consultation, advice and guidance to practitioners and managers
- Work collaboratively to ensure requests are completed effectively and within statutory timescales
- Support and mentor colleagues, including trainee and unprogressed social workers
- Contribute to quality assurance, service development and the improvement of local guidance and processes
- Ensure children, families and care-experienced adults remain at the centre of decision-making
Why We Think There Is Nowhere Better
At Newcastle, we're committed to creating a culture where people feel supported, valued and able to do their best work. Through our Families First transformation, we're building services around relationships, strengths and partnership working. We invest in our workforce, value professional expertise and encourage innovation, reflection and continuous learning.
Working with us includes:
- A dedicated 5-day induction
- Generous annual leave in addition to Bank Holidays, with the ability to buy additional leave annually
- A range of flexible working options, including opportunities for part-time working
- A generous Flexi Scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme offering confidential advice and support
- Access to a generous, defined benefit pension scheme
- Access to a home electronics scheme and vehicle leasing scheme
If you're looking for a specialist social work role where your experience, judgement and values can make a lasting difference, we'd love to hear from you.
We are committed to protecting and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expect all staff to share this commitment. This post is working in regulated activity. If you are successful we will undertake additional recruitment checks which will include a check to see if you have had any criminal convictions, a check of police information and we will check the barred list(s). It is a criminal offence for a barred individual to apply for a job in regulated activity.
For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Amy Furniss, Social Care Assurance and Qulaity of Practice Lead amy.furniss@newcastle.gov.uk
Apply online at www.northeastjobs.org.uk, select 'Apply Now' and complete our online application form. Before completing the form please ensure you read the supporting documents. Any communication sent to you regarding your application will be sent to the email address you have set up on your Northeast Jobs account, so you will need to ensure that you check your inbox.
Attachments
Salary range
- £47,665 - £50,908 per year