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What will you be doing?

Do you want to work in a Good Local Authority? Ofsted have recently inspected Kent and were impressed with the Adolescent Service response and support to children at risk of contextualised harm. We are now looking for a Senior Adolescent Early Help Worker who can lend their skills and experience to help us build on our successes.

The Integrated Adolescent Service recognises that adolescents should be given a bespoke offer of support. We want professionals capable of bringing understanding and emotional intelligence to everything they do. The service promotes a practice philosophy which seeks to empower young people and their families, building on individual strengths, and helping them to develop strategies which support them to understand, manage, and respond to the difficulties they face.

Our practitioners need to be resilient and persistent; be solution-focussed; look past challenging behaviours; build positive relationships with adolescents and their carers, and to inspire young people to reach their potential. We want practitioners who really care about adolescents and who understand the impact of trauma, and how to respond to contextual harm.

We all work together to support each other and there are regular social activities and away days for learning and development. We value that our staff are committed and often work above and beyond, we therefore offer a flexible approach to working including offices across the county, home working, and flexible hours.

Your role

Successful candidates will be paid £36,264 per annum. The successful candidate will receive quality regular supervision, specialist adolescent training and a case load tailored to your experience and skills. There are opportunities for flexible working arrangements and access to employee rewards packages. You will receive 29 – 30 days annual leave per year dependent on your previous years of Local Government continuous service. Bank holidays and 1 concessionary day are in addition to this entitlement.

This role will involve undertaking assessments, making plans, and providing intensive support, you will seek to mediate and promote young people remaining safely at home with their family and support networks. You will support young people to manage extra familial risk, as well as linking young people in with Family Hubs and other partner agencies to ensure their needs are met in a holistic way

You will support the Unit Lead and team of Early Help Workers and will work collaboratively to innovate and find new solutions, taking personal and professional responsibility for your actions and performance and those of the team you support. The right person will have the ability to create rapport and build relationships with a range of partner agencies across the West districts.

Applicants will need to be able to work as part of a team, you will need to have an understanding of multi-agency work. This post, alongside creativity and good communication, requires flexibility, innovative thinking, and good organisation skills and requires a positive adolescent centered approach. You will need to enjoy working with adolescents with a range of difficulties and draw upon various theories and practice frameworks in order to bring about change.

You will be able to gather and interpret information/data from a range of sources, and you will have knowledge of safeguarding and child protection and relevant legislation and regulatory frameworks. This role requires strong interpersonal and organisational skills; good IT skills are essential. You will have significant experience of working with children, young people and families in a similar role or setting.

The ability to travel across a wide geographical area in a timely and flexible manner at various times of the day is essential.

We welcome applicants who meet the criteria regardless of their sex, age, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, or disability.

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements.

The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.

This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

About you

For an informal discussion or to find out more please, contact Matt Bullock, Unit Lead – matt.bullock@kent.gov.uk

About us

Work that works for you and us - let's talk flexibility!

KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county's working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds, faiths and those with caring responsibilities, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work.

Please note - if you are interested, please apply soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.