| Salary £35,235 - £44,711 per annum | Permanent & Fixed Term Positions Available | Full Time, 37 hours per week | Central Lancashire |
International Sponsorship - this role is not open to international sponsorship
Children's Social Worker
Various Teams across Children's Services
Locations: Central Lancashire – Preston, Chorley, Skelmersdale
Salary up to £44,711
We currently have Social Worker vacancies across Central Lancashire in the following teams:
1. Duty & Assessment
2. Family Safeguarding
3. Permanence (Children in our Care & Leaving Care)
4. Fostering
We have permanent vacancies, full-time (37 hours per week), as well as temporary posts covering acting up arrangements and maternity leave.
About Us:
Lancashire County Council Children's Services is a progressive and innovative place, embracing strengths-based approaches and the Family Safeguarding model of practice. There are a range of exciting opportunities available across our social work teams as we go through positive changes and develop our service. This is a wonderful time to come and work for us!
As one of the largest local authorities with a diverse and evolving range of services there are also many opportunities for future career progression and professional development. The right support is key to effective practice and your positive experience as a Social Worker, and we have a fantastic group of managers who share our values and aspirations for our service and their Social Workers to provide the support you need to thrive in your work.
The Family Safeguarding model is our model of practice, and we use a strengths-based approach across every team to work with children, young people and families, to offer the right support at the right time.
Our Commitment:
In Lancashire we understand the importance of the right support, a healthy work-life balance and a manageable caseload. We are using national funding opportunities to enhance the developments in our service such as reducing caseloads, offering the best training and support, and increasing the range of services we offer to ensure our Social Workers can make a positive impact for Lancashire's children and families.
Training and Development:
New recruits attend our established Social Work Academy, an extensive induction programme, followed by regular recall days and training for ASYE's to support increased knowledge and confidence in practice. The Academy is run by our team of Advanced Practitioners who provide a range of support, training and development across our service to help practice to be at the highest standards.
Our Social Work Teams:
Working within the Duty and Assessment team
Extensive investment within the Children, Families and Wellbeing Service, as well as within the Family Safeguarding teams mean that workers within Duty and Assessment have the capacity and support to really focus on completing good quality and timely assessments. We are committed to delivering a service that enables families, children and young people to actively participate within these assessments, recognising that we are often the first point of contact during what can be a very difficult time for families. The ability to work with other agencies and professionals is essential to our work, and we support our workers to develop multi-agency plans that keep families together and achieve the best possible outcomes for children and their parents.
No two days are the same in Duty and Assessment. If you enjoy fast-paced work, relationship-based practice, and working with children and families to identify together what support they may need, then this is the team for you!
Working within the Family Safeguarding team
Family Safeguarding is a way of working to help keep families together and achieve better outcomes for children and their parents by engaging them in a more collaborative way. Our Family Safeguarding teams are multi-disciplinary with adult specialists and will hold our core Child in Need and Child Protection work taking a Motivational Interviewing approach.
Working within the Permanence team
The Permanence Service is made up of Children in Our Care teams and Leaving Care teams.
Within the Children in Our Care service we care and dare to have big goals, huge ambitions and aspirational dreams for our children and support them to achieve and believe in themselves. Our children are at the very heart of absolutely everything we do, and we include our children in every decision made, from the very small ones to the really big ones! We try not to let the sky limit us to how creative we can work together with our children.
We spend a lot of time listening to our children, and what they tell us is that they want us to organise lots of events & activities and to have fun with us – so this is what we do. We have a strong focus on celebrating our children's achievements and successes, no matter how small or big and we encourage our children to dream big for themselves, so we can dream even bigger for them
As corporate parents, we work closely with our children's schools, health practitioners, foster carers, residential staff, and all the other professionals working with our children so that we can jointly support our children to achieve in every aspect of their childhood, into their adulthood
Within the Leaving Care Service, social workers will share our values for young people with high expectations for them to be safe and achieve in all aspects of their lives. We support our young people to have a voice about how we work with them as well their views on how we develop our service. We want social workers with knowledge and/or experience of our statutory role as well as skills in working alongside young people. The role will involve carrying a complex caseload, chairing multi-agency meetings, assessments, reviews, and supporting our brilliant Personal Advisors across the service.
Working within the Fostering Service
Lancashire's Fostering Service is an exciting and dynamic place to work, we are focused on improving our service in co-production with our children, foster carers and staff team. Our structure has the following functions: Assessment of Mainstream & Kinship carers, Private Fostering, Kinship Support, SCAYT+, Mainstream Support and our new Resource and Development Service which includes our dedicated Family Finding Team, Development & Stability and Support function.
All fostering teams work in partnership with all of Lancashire's Children's Social Care teams to ensure children’s care plans are progressed with minimum delay and children are provided with the best possible care. We attend the required meetings to ensure appropriate planning at the early stages of a child's arrival, when considering Lasting Homes, and to support stability for our children and fostering families. The Fostering Service seeks to build positive relationships with professionals working with our families, ensuring a strengths-based approach when meeting our children and carer's needs.
As an assessing social worker evaluating potential foster carers or a supervising social worker supporting approved foster carers, you’ll be part of an established service with experienced and compassionate managers and colleagues. Our service is dedicated to consistently improving outcomes for children and families. We take pride in the positive feedback from our foster carers, who feel supported and valued. Following a recent remodel, we have worked hard to ensure that our staff have manageable caseloads and the support they need.
Application Process:
If you are interested in applying for this role, please submit the following with your application:
5. CV/Resume
6. Supporting Statement
Interviews: Weekly interview slots
Join us in making a difference in the lives of children and families in Lancashire!
Please ensure you have uploaded and attached your supporting statement to evidence how you meet the criteria for the role. The panel may be unable to shortlist you for interview without this evidence.
The post you are applying for is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013). If successful, you will be required to apply to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) for a 'disclosure'. Further information can be found on the 'Our Recruitment Process' tab.
You must be registered (SWE) to be appointed as a Social Worker or have applied to register with the Social Care Council. For Social Worker/Care Manager positions where non social worker qualifications are accepted, registration is not required, and you will be appointed as a Care Manager.
You will be required to provide a car for use in connection with the duties of this post and must be insured for business use. However, we may consider you if you cannot drive because of a disability.
In return Lancashire County Council offers a range of benefits, which can be found on LCC Vacancies website.
We reserve the right to close down a vacancy early, before the closing date, if we receive sufficient applications.