Senior Practitioner - Kinship Support

Leicestershire County Council; East Midlands, Leicester; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 47,000; Full time

Job summary

Leicestershire County Council is seeking a Senior Practitioner for the Kinship Support Team. This role requires an experienced social worker to support kinship foster carers and enhance outcomes for children. The ideal candidate will have relevant qualifications and extensive experience in statutory social care. The position offers flexible working arrangements, a competitive salary, and a supportive environment committed to diversity and inclusion.

Qualifications

• Extensive and recent post-qualification experience of working with children and families.
• In-depth knowledge of relevant policies and legislation.

Responsibilities

• Modelling good social work practice and encouraging professional development.
• Providing advice and support to colleagues using a multi-agency approach.

Skills

Child Development

Safeguarding

Assessment

Education

MA

DipSW

CQSW

Job description

Children & Families

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall Glenfield Leicester LE3 8RA

Worker Category: Field Based

Salary: £42,498 -£46,344 per annum (pro-rata for part-time) Plus market premia of £2,250

Working Hours:18.5 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 28th May 2025

Interview Date(s): TBC

We have an exciting & a key role of a Senior Practitioner in the Kinship Support Team, and we are looking for an experienced social worker with a DipSW, CQSW, CSS, Degree, Masters or equivalent qualifications, and with experience of working in a Fostering Service and statutory social care.

About the Role

The role involves proving support to the social workers in the team, and to the approved kinship foster carers with the children in their care. The main duties and responsibilities of the role include:

• Modelling good social work practice and encouraging continuing professional development of colleagues via coaching, joint working and contributing to the development and delivery of training including the skills to foster course for prospective kinship foster carers.
• Preparing for and participating in reflective supervision and personal development reviews compliant with C&FS Supervision policy and procedures.
• Using your professional expertise to provide advice and support to a range of colleagues within C&FS and partner agencies to enhance positive outcomes for children and young people using a multi-agency approach.
• Assisting the Team Manager in using performance information as part of a commitment to continuous service improvement
• Dealing with different daily challenges of kinship placements.

.A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.

For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our policy statement .

About You

To apply for this post, you must have:

• Appropriate social work professional qualificationsuch as MA, DipSW CQSW or equivalent.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Extensive and recent post-qualification experience of working with children and families in a statutory setting including Safeguarding, Court and Pre-proceeding work.
• In depth knowledge and ability to apply relevant policies appropriate legislation government guidance and best practice in all aspects of social work including LSCB procedures.
• Significant knowledge of the factors and influences which can impact on children achieving positive outcomes including child development, attachment and neglect, and parental factors such as substance misuse domestic abuse and mental health.
• Extensive knowledge of a range of relevant theories, research, serious case review findings and models of social work interventions and how these can be integrated into service delivery to enhance outcomes for children.
• Ability to undertake complex and evidenced based assessment in line with practice standards which are timely and child focused.

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equal opportunities, and the ability to apply this to all situations.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion,please contact:

Fred Luneta, Team Manager

Email: [e-mail]

Tel : [phone]

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on 'Apply Now'. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Employee Service Centre: https://emss.freshdesk.com/support/home .

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions .