Children's Senior Social Worker - Family Safeguarding

We Manage Jobs(WMJobs); Shrewsbury; On-site; GBP 48,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

Join Telford & Wrekin Council as a Children’s Senior Social Worker and make a significant impact on the lives of children and families. This role involves engaging in innovative Family Safeguarding practices, ensuring children receive the best care possible, while working within a supportive and outstanding local authority environment.

Benefits

Generous leave entitlement (24 days rising to 32 days)

Automatic access to Local Government Pension Scheme

Flexible and mobile working policy

Free on-site parking

Employee assistance programme

Qualifications

• Registered Social Worker with experience in child protection.
• Ability to work within multi-disciplinary teams.
• Experience in using Motivational Interviewing techniques.

Responsibilities

• Support children and families through the Family Safeguarding model.
• Conduct assessments and provide direct support.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams for holistic care.

Skills

Understanding of child welfare

Effective communication

Empathy and kindness

Education

Social Work England registration

Job description

Children’s Senior Social Worker – Family Safeguarding
£48,711 - £51,754* per annum (Salaries include market factor where applicable)

Full reimbursement of Social Work England registration fee

Essential Car User Allowance

Do you aspire to work for an ‘Outstanding’ Local Authority?

And can you peel back the layers...?

Children and young people are at the heart of all we do. The qualities that are important to them are:

• Understanding that there are layers to a person, a practitioners ability to see the person as a 'whole'
• The ability to practice care and kindness
• Being able to really listen to children and young people - what are their views, hopes, aspirations and worries?
• The ability to communicate well

Our family are usually the people closest to us, those we care most about. Family life is not just about legal ties – it goes far deeper than that. It concerns our most important biological, social and emotional relationships.We hold the value that children and young people are best cared for by their birth families and extended networks, and this underpins our ‘family first’ ethos.Where this cannot be achieved, we seek to ensure that children and young people’s relationships are maintained in line with their best interests.Birth parents and extended networks are included within the decision-making processes and we provide alternative care which is nurturing and which fosters a sense of belonging.

There has never been a more exciting time to join our service: alongside making a difference to the lives of individuals and families, we have adopted exciting new strengths-based approaches and are passionate about delivering continuous service improvement.

Here in Telford & Wrekin, we implemented a new approach to Child Protection services developed by Hertfordshire County Council, and began to deliver their innovative and pioneering practice model of Family Safeguarding.

Family Safeguarding is a model of system change where specialist adult practitioners are embedded within Family Safeguarding teams of Social Workers.The intervention supports a whole-system change to a local authority’s child protection approach for children up to adolescence, focusing on supporting the needs of children and adults in order that children can safely remain within their families.

This involves:

• Establishing multi-disciplinary teams where specialist adult practitioners in domestic abuse, mental health and substance misuse are co-located with Social Workers under a unified management structure.This enables a multi-disciplinary whole family response through direct assessment and support from specialist adult practitioners as well as multi-professional group case discussions and sharing of knowledge and skills across disciplines.
• Use of Motivational Interviewing (MI) as a framework for practice for all staff.Staff undergo training and ongoing skills development workshops and follow a structured solution-focussed intervention programme with families which aims to work collaboratively with families and increase engagement.
• Using an electronic assessment workbook which provides a single data tool for all professionals and links to the work programme.This increases ease of information sharing between professionals and reduces social worker time spent recording and sharing information.

Our brilliant practitioners are at the heart of our ambitious approach to improve outcomes for children and families in Telford and Wrekin: from tailored in-house training to the West Midlands Teaching Partnership, we ensure that our workforce have access to the best development opportunities.

Here at Telford and Wrekin Council, we have been judged to be outstanding overall in terms of effectiveness (the only Authority in the West Midlands with this judgement) for the second time! Here’s just some of the great things Ofsted had to say when they visited us in April 2024:

• Children and families in Telford and Wrekin continue to experience exceptional social work practice when they are in care and as care leavers.
• Participation is a real strength and children’s and families’ involvement is threaded throughout service developments.
• Social workers know their children well and have developed effective relationships with parents.
• The virtual school is a significant strength in Telford and Wrekin.
• Care leavers benefit from an extremely comprehensive and generous local offer.
• Corporate parenting is a strength in Telford and Wrekin.
• The stability of the experienced workforce creates the perfect environment to benefit children and care leavers.As a result, social workers maintain relationships with children who know them over many years, which contributes to children’s feeling of belonging.
• Staff enjoy working in an environment where senior leaders are visible, and they feel valued.

There has never been a more exciting time to join our service after the recent publication of our Ofsted Inspection!

If you think you can meet thechallengeand would like to find out more about this role, please see our recruitment web pagesor contact us by emailing [e-mail] or by calling 0773 142 637.

Please click on the links below to view the job description and person specification.

At Telford & Wrekin Council, we know that having a diverse workforce is key to providing the best possible services to our community.We celebrate having a diverse andinclusiveculture where people are able to be themselves at work, and everyone has a voice.

Posts working with children or vulnerable groups will be subject to an appropriate criminal records check.It is an offence to apply for a role that involves engaging in regulated activity with children and adults in vulnerable circumstances if you are barred from working with one or both of these groups.

A CV template is available if you do not already have a CV.

We value our employees and offer staff rewards and plenty of opportunities for personal development and career progression including:

• Competitive rates of pay
• Automatic access to a secure, flexible and tax efficient Local Government Pension Scheme
• Staff benefits and discounts including salary sacrifice schemes
• Free on-site parking
• Generous leave entitlement (24 days rising to 32 days) plus 8 bank holidays and an additional concessionary day
• Free access to our employee assistance programme and confidential counselling
• Flexible and mobile working policy - we are well adapted to a hybrid model of working which includes a combination of time spent in the office and at home – our approach is to promote greater level of flexible working around personal and family commitments
• Private lettings are available from ‘Nuplace’ who give priority to social work professional

Find out further information about working at Telford & Wrekin Council including our full list of benefits.

Please note that Telford & Wrekin Council do not hold a sponsorship licence for visas.

Attached documents
Job description - senior social worker (children's)