Cheshire West and Chester Council is a place where everyone can Thrive – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money and Empowerment. The post holder will be an integral part of our Children’s Social Care Permanence Hub and will demonstrate a commitment to children and young people in care, providing high quality Pathway Planning for our young people to transition into adulthood in the strongest position. The ideal candidate will have a good understanding of children and young people in care and their needs, will be able to develop and maintain positive relationships with the children and young people that we support and care for, evidence the importance of effective Care Planning and Permanency planning. Our role as Corporate Parents in Cheshire West and Chester is both a privilege and a job we take seriously, therefore any candidates should be passionate about providing care, nurture and support for our young people. Our practice model being Our Ways of Working is rooted in trauma informed practice meaning that candidates will have the opportunity to engage in bespoke trauma informed practice and motivational interview training to ensure the highest quality of care and planning for our young people. Our Children's Social Care workforce is passionate and committed to improving outcomes for children by providing a consistent, high-quality service to children and families, together with excellent working relationships with our partners and the support from a stable leadership and management team. We are committed to a culture of shared learning and development in which you will have an active part to play in the continued progress of our services to children and families. We have developed and embedded ‘Our Way of Working’ with our multi-agency partners to ensure improved collaboration and one common approach to our work with families using Motivational Interviewing and Trauma Informed Practice. You will be supported and encouraged to work creatively in planning and decision-making with children and their families and our partner agencies to achieve positive outcomes and with a focus on prevention at every level. Please see Job Description / Person Specification. Grade 8- SCP 23- 28, £33,366 - £37,938 Grade 9- SCP 27- 31, £37,035- £40,476 Grade 10- SCP 31- 35, £40,476 - £46,581 Our social workers will tell you: - They feel supported and part of a team. They have access to excellent training opportunities. Managers at Cheshire West and Chester strive to make Social Workers feel valued and recognised, they are approachable, available and compassionate. Social Workers are encouraged and supported to be creative and strive for excellence. They feel valued and supported by their team, manager, and the senior managers. Our commitment and investment in professional development means that most of our Senior Practice Leads, Team Managers and some Senior Managers have progressed within our own organisation. As a local authority, we continue to develop and enhance our social work offer to support and develop our valued workforce. We will offer you: - excellent work-life balance, flexible and remote working arrangements. We took the positives we learned from ‘lockdown’ and kept them bright, modern, and recently refurbished office environments high quality progression and developmental opportunities competitive working rewards up to 16 days ‘flexi time’ per year as well as your annual leave high quality supervision strong reflective practice framework free parking at all our office locations we’ll pay your Social Work England registration excellent training opportunities re-location allowance in some circumstances competitive salary As employers, we recognise that Cheshire West and Chester Council has a major role to play in improving the quality of life of its employees. We are committed to agile flexible and mobile working and helping employees to maintain an effective balance between their work and home life. The COVID lockdown has meant we have been able to improve our ability to work away from an office, to be more flexible and creative in the use of our time and maximising the use of technology, whilst at the same time ensuring we can come together as teams and with our support networks on a regular basis. We have developed a ‘new normal’ and this ‘hybrid’ arrangement allows for us to be more flexible in how we provide services to children and families and an enhanced work/life balance to our Social Workers. We have a strong and supportive political and senior leadership team with a wealth of experience and knowledge about children’s outcomes across the borough of Cheshire West and Chester. If you would like to discuss the opportunities available, please contact Sarah Clarke; Sarah.Clarke3@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk Please note that this job is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. To find out more information about what it is like to work for Cheshire West and Chester Council including our rewards and benefits please see www.cwcrecruitment.co.uk No candidate will meet every single requirement - if your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you! Cheshire West and Chester Council are committed to equality and diversity in employment. Please see the Equality Policy for more information. Cheshire West and Chester Council have adopted a Local Living Wage for our employees which means that all employees will receive a minimum of £12.60 per hour for all contracted hours. For any technical enquiries please email Sourcingteam@ecwip.co.uk and quote job reference number in all correspondence.