Job Category : Social Care & Health Qualified (Kingston & Richmond)
Location : Guildhall Complex, Achieving for Children
Hours Per Week : 36.00
Start Date : Immediate Start
Start Time : 09:00
End Time : 17:00
Salary: £33.77
About the service
The child protection teams sit within the Safeguarding division and work directly with children who are subject to a child protection plan, or who have a child in need status and their families. This will include; strategy discussions (open cases), child protection conference review and child in need planning and review. The team works to a range of legal options to support investigation and protection and accommodation. If required they give evidence in court using contingency planning to anticipate complexity and changing circumstances. The safeguarding teams will transfer cases to the permanence services when it is clear that permance away from home will be the outcome.
About the role
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All of our social work roles work in partnership with children, young people and those connected to them, in order to co-create plans that meet the identified need. As a Senior Practitioner you are expected to work alongside other professionals, to ensure that our children and young people receive appropriate care, education and health services, and any other support needed to ensure their needs are appropriately met.
Senior Practitioners provide direct support to children and young people and their families to improve outcomes for children. Senior Practitioners work on the most complex cases including cases in legal proceedings and may contribute to team management, deputising for the Team Leaders and potentially supervising the work of a social worker, ASYE or student.
You will have a major contribution to make to the delivery of our vision and strategic priorities set out in the Children and Young People’s Plan, by delivering all aspects of high quality social work provision to children and their families.
As part of your professional development and contribution to the development of others, at times this role will require you to supervise Social Work students and Newly Qualified Social Workers as part of the AfC ASYE programme.
About you: our role specification
Qualifications
⦁ Educated to a degree level with a relevant professional qualification in social work (CSS/CQSW or DipSw, MA SW, BA Hons SW).
⦁ Postgraduate qualification in a relevant field i.e. social work, leadership and management.
⦁ Active HCPC registration and proven evidence of continuing professional development.
Skills and experience
⦁ Experience of building strong partnerships, maintaining relationships and co-producing solutions to challenges across a diverse set of stakeholders, including children, young people and their families. Advocating the voices of those we are working with.
⦁ Proven ability to effectively use data, intelligence and evidence to create meaningful insight and to inform own decision making.
⦁ Experience of keeping and maintaining records (in accordance with local policy) and producing accurate reports, presentations, written updates to a range of stakeholders (which may include families, children or young people).
⦁ Knowledge of statutory legislation (for example Children’s Act) and national policy drivers that will affect children’s services and your role.
⦁ Strong analytical, and planning skills for assessing, and reviewing children and young people’s needs, and planning packages of care across a range of cases, able to explain professional reasoning judgements, and decision making.
⦁ Experienced in undertaking child protection investigations & assessments of needs, assessment
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& appropriate management of risk and ensuring the delivery of agreed programmes of care.
⦁ Experienced in managing an allocated caseload, planning and organising workload to meet statutory timescales and local policy response appropriately and independently (as appropriate) to unanticipated problems.
⦁ Experienced in providing direct professional social work to children and their families, undertaking regular visits to client’s homes and care establishments. Experience in exposure to disagreeable, unpleasant environmental and people related conditions.
⦁ Experienced in the use of ICT including MS Word, Google, Outlook and case record management systems.