Special Guardianship Lead

Are you passionate about Kinship Care?

We are seeking an experienced and dedicated Special Guardianship Lead to join our Special Guardianship Post Order Support Team!

This role will involve fostering creativity in developing the team's new chapter of more direct support to Special Guardianship families, offering tailored packages of support and encouraging their engagement at Special Guardianship events. Our objective is to cultivate a network of Special Guardians who can complement and support one another in times of need.

This essential position offers professional expertise and guidance to a team of Family Practitioners and other social work colleagues on matters related to Special Guardianship. This will also include working in partnership with external services / agencies.

The post is fixed term for 9-12 months.

You will:

• Provide reflective supervision, coaching and support to Family Practitioners in their work with Special Guardians.
• Provide oversight and reflective support to the Welfare Rights Officer in their advisory role to Special Guardianship families and other professionals.
• Show creativity in supporting the team to develop Special Guardianship services and ensure timely, effective and purposeful interventions Post Order.
• Support the team in triaging referrals and to appropriately assess the needs of Special Guardians and identify the right package of support for them.
• Oversee and offer advice regarding ASGSF applications and SG annual reviews.
• To act as the lead professional where there are stability concerns.
• Manage and allocate resources for the team, including making decisions about non-statutory service thresholds.
• To work collaboratively with the Kinship Team Managers to improve knowledge and practice related to all areas of the Kinship Service, and where required deputise in their absence.

You'll have:

• Relevant professional qualification in Social Work and Social Work England registration
• Experience in a supervisory or leadership role within Social Work, an approach to leading others utilising restorative practice principles is also essential
• Sound knowledge of Special Guardianship / Kinship Care and related legislation.
• Ability to work collaboratively with organisations is key as are excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to problem solve is essential in this role given the competing demands and deadlines.
• Experience in completing risk/needs assessments and support plans will be key to supporting others in their interventions as well as ability to make defensible, safe decisions

If you are passionate about making a difference in the lives of children and families and have the necessary skills and experience, we would love to hear from you.

For further information about this role please contact Chloe Ottley, Team Manager at chloe.ottley@staffordshire.gov.uk or Nicola Hope, Head of Service nicola.hope@staffordshire.gov.uk

Interviews are expected to held week commencing 9 February.

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.