Job Introduction
Job Title: Children's Practitioner
Location: Stevenage (office base) with travel across Stevenage and the East of Hertfordshire
Starting Salary: £34,434 progressing to £37,280 pa
Hours: 37 hours per week
Contract: Permanent
About The Team
We have exciting opportunities to join strong, motivated and passionate teams and contribute to the amazing work that we do with children, young people and their families.
Our Family Safeguarding Teams are multi-disciplinary teams consisting of social workers, domestic abuse, substance misuse and mental health workers, working together to tackle the root causes of risk in families. We work with Child Protection, Child in Need cases, PLO (Public Law Outline), children subject to care proceedings and children looked after.
About The Role
As a Children’s Practitioner you will be supporting social workers within the team to undertake identified pieces of work, working directly with children and parents, to achieve positive change. You will have the opportunity to undertake creative pieces of work that truly contribute to positive outcomes for children, young people, and their families. You will work closely with social workers and multi‑agency partners (health, education, police, probation service, CGL to name a few) to evoke change and support families to keep their children safe.
You will be working in a fast‑paced environment, working as part of a busy safeguarding team. You will need to have good organisational skills and time management and the ability to take a proactive approach to the work that you do. You will need to be motivated, committed, and have the confidence and initiative to work independently when required.
You will use direct work tools creatively to support children and young people and work alongside social workers completing parenting interventions, direct work with children, attending meetings, home visits, school visits, alongside many other safeguarding interventions.
Responsibilities
* Children’s Practitioners work directly with children and their parents.
* They provide support to Social Workers to undertake identified pieces of work. Other responsibilities will include:
* Attend Core Group Meetings and Child in Need Meetings and contribute to developing, supporting and monitoring of SMART plans.
* Undertake direct work with children and families.
* Attend and participate in Group Case Supervision and contribute to reflecting on progress in improving outcomes for children.
* Supervise contact and undertake observations between parent and their children. Support Social Workers to complete Family Safeguarding Intervention Programme and Parenting Assessments.
* Be part of a Team Duty Rota as required.
* Support parents/carers/young people’s attendance at appointments, access to benefits etc.
* Support requests for placements, finances and support packages via brokerage.
* Ensuring the work, you undertake with families is recorded in an accurate and timely way onto the child/ren’s electronic case records and Workbook (LCS).
* To respect confidentiality and explain to parents/carers when there is need to share information with others in order to protect children.
* Develop positive relationships with professionals and partner agencies to ensure that children and families receive the best possible service at the right time.
About You
Although there are no specific qualifications needed for this role, the following skills and experience is required:
* Experience of working directly with children.
* Effective communication skills in working with children, their parents/carers and partner agencies.
* Excellent organisation skills and time management.
* IT skills including electronic recording keeping.
* An understanding of safeguarding/risk.
* An ability to relay accurate information/concerns in a timely way.
* Ability to work independently alongside being a team player.
You will need to be able to drive and hold a current driving licence.
Additional Information
* Disability Confident: We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.
* Safeguarding: This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.
* Driving Required: You’ll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.
* English Fluency: The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.
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