Area Manager Children Looked After and Pathway

East Riding of Yorkshire Council; Beverley; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A local authority in the UK seeks an Area Manager for Children Looked After to lead teams in delivering high-quality social work services. Ideal candidates will have a social work qualification, leadership experience, and the ability to foster positive relationships. The role emphasizes collaborative and child-centered practices, aiming to support vulnerable children in achieving their potential. You will manage team operations and drive service improvements within the council, ensuring adherence to best practices.

Benefits

Social Work England fees reimbursed

Regular reflective supervision

Flexible working options

Strong management support

Celebration of best practice

Staff wellbeing support

Qualifications

• Must have a social work qualification and be registered with Social Work England.
• Experience in areas related to children looked after and leaving care services.
• Proven ability to enable and develop teams to achieve high standards.

Responsibilities

• Manage Team Managers and their teams.
• Ensure high standards of social work services.
• Implement improvement plans for service quality.

Skills

Confident decision making

Skilled communication

Collaborative working

Leadership

Ability to build relationships

Education

Social work qualification

Job description

The job itself

The job itself

We have an exciting opportunity available for an Area Manager for Children Looked After and Pathway to join our leadership team. We are looking for a dynamic, experienced and successful Team Manager, who is ready to take the next step into middle management as an Area Manager. This is a permanent post.

The successful candidate will be responsible for Team Managers and their teams, and report to the Head of Corporate Parenting.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council is an innovative Local Authority which constantly strives to improve the standard of services provided to children, families and young people in our area. Our vision is to ensure that vulnerable children and young people receive excellent social work services to keep them safe and to make sure they reach their full potential. We are responding to the challenges we face with energy and innovation. We are continuing our commitment to further improve our services supported by the Council with increased investment, to deliver high quality services.

The right candidate

We are looking for someone with a can do, positive approach to walk alongside our teams, and help us to achieve our ambitious plans with our children and families.

You will be a confident decision maker, experienced in all areas of children looked after and leaving carer service. You will know what good looks like and be experienced in enabling and developing others to achieve high standards of practice.

You will be a skilled communicator who can demonstrate a commitment to collaborative, and inclusive working. You will be a tenacious leader and represent the council corporately with an anticipated high level of professionalism at all times.

You will be able to work on your own initiative, and also collaboratively – with our partners and within our wider leadership team. You will have an eye for detail, at the same time as identifying opportunities for improving performance and quality of practice. You will have a key role in implementing our plan

You will have an in depth understanding and experience of working with children, young people and their networks, as well as a demonstrable commitment to the values of family involvement, relational approaches and empowerment.

You will be passionate about ensuring our most vulnerable children are supported to achieve their full potential. You will be an innovative and creative child centred practitioner, be a solution focussed, reflective and analytical in your approach.

You will be able to build positive working relationships with children and young people, their families, professionals and carers as well as respectfully challenge when appropriate.

In East Riding we really value positive relationships. Therefore, it is essential that the post holder is able to work relationally with others with a flexible and adaptable approach – always demonstrating their commitment to working to the highest possible standards whilst remaining at all times child centred.

To apply for this post you must have a social work qualification and be registered with Social Work England.
If this is you, then we want to hear from you. Apply now or contact Sue Nicholson - [e-mail] for an information conversation.

Why work for East Riding?

We really value all of our leaders and practitioners and it is our fundamental belief that our staff are the most important asset in fulfilling our responsibility to provide a quality service to children, young people and their families. We therefore want to invest in you and your development, for area managers this means the offer of a bespoke leadership programme. We care about your career and will help you to identify your own goals and work with you to support you to achieve that within East Riding.

Our social workers and practitioners describe East Riding as a family'; we really value our relationships with each other, with the families we support, and our partner agencies. We offer flexible working approaches because we want you to be able to enjoy your own family time and we know that this is important to our staff. We listen to what our managers, social workers and practitioners are telling us and work hard to respond and make a difference - in East Riding we are so committed to this that we have a Principal Social Worker for those who are social work qualified and a Principal Practice Lead for our practitioners who are not, who champion the frontline voice across the service.

Other benefits of being a social worker in East Riding include:

• Social Work England fees reimbursed
• Regular reflective supervision with a focus on your wellbeing, your development, and what is working well
• Flexible working options including option for a 9-day fortnight
• Strong management support at all levels
• A service wide commitment to celebrating best practice and practice strengths
• A service wide commitment to promoting staff wellbeing and support
• An opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of children, young people and their families

Take a look at our recruitment web pages and our Children's Social Care information page for a full range of benefits and support.

Our model of practice

Stronger Together: You can, I can, We can'

We have created a bespoke practice model that reflects and connects our vision, our value base and our behaviour as one East Riding of Yorkshire approach to working with children, young people and their families, which is nurtured and grown from within East Riding of Yorkshire CYPSSS and owned by our workforce.

We remain committed to Signs of Safety as a practice framework, but this is set within a much wider, values based, model of practice that clearly connects Signs of Safety with the East Riding value base, and our overall approach to making and sustaining relationships with children, families and communities. Our Stronger Together approach is strengths based, solution-focussed, and relational recognising that the very best work with families takes place within the context of excellent, collaborative relationships.

A well embedded model ensures we all have something to centre our practice on so that, while the work may be different, all of our teams are grounded in the same values, beliefs, theories and approaches. Having a well-developed practice model helps to create a common language for the service and enables everyone to understand how we go about doing the right things, in the right way and for the right reasons for children and their families.

Other important information

East Riding of Yorkshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and is pursuing equality of opportunity in employment.

These posts are subject to an enhanced DBS Check.