We are looking for Social Work Resource Officers to support the work of our social work pods. You will provide support to families and to children in care and other children with a social worker. You will work to support families or placements for children in care. These posts will play a key role in helping families to achieve the changes they wish to make and to support children so that they do not need to come into Local Authority care. You will have the opportunity to be at the centre of delivering high quality, relationship-based social work support to families. The roles will be supported from our adolescent pod but will work across our social work pods and will provide support to children and families across assessment, child in need, child protection, and children in care work. For an informal discussion, please contact James.Murphy@brighton-hove.gov.uk Closing date 1st July About The Role: We are looking for someone who is child-focused and has experience of children's social care - working to support children and adults in families. Applicants must have knowledge of safeguarding issues and previous experience of working with young people, foster carers, and other professionals involved in the care of looked after young people, and care leavers. Excellent record writing and IT skills are vital, along with an ability to deal sensitively with difficult or unexpected situations as they arise. Applicants must be able to work independently, and as part of team, have an understanding of anti-racist practice and be aware of safe working practices. We have recognised that we need to do further work to support families and communities who experience racism in the city and to support our Black and Global Majority staff. As a council we have made a commitment to being an anti-racist organisation and we have set up an Anti-Racist Project to make sure we achieve this within children's social work services. We have also appointed a Lead Practitioner for Anti-Racist Practice and we are one of the Local Authorities piloting the Workforce Race Equality Standards for social care. We would particularly encourage applications from candidates who identify as from a Black or Global Majority background. Hear more about anti-racist practice in Brighton & Hove. We have developed a relationship-based system that provides containment for social work staff so they can build ongoing relationships with families and use these relationships to make a difference for children and young people. This system is made up of small teams/pods of workers who work closely together with the families they are supporting. Hear more from our practitioners about our model of relationship-based practice. Encouraging a diverse workforce Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans. Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk). Why work for us? As a council, we want to: • be connected • be confident • be innovative and creative • be diverse and inclusive • be healthy and psychologically safe For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development. How to apply Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you've submitted your application and at interview. As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process. AI advice for candidates We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application. We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert. All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants' responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words. Additional information Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only. Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check. We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.