Practice Improvement Consultant – Children Services

London Borough of Croydon; Croydon; Hybrid; GBP 58,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job description

Practice Improvement Consultant – Children Services – Croydon Council

Salary: Grade 16 £58,692 - £60,819

Permanent – 36 hours per week

Hybrid working

Job Purpose

The Policy and Practice Improvement Consultant provides expertise, challenge, and support to the Heads of Service and Service Managers in order to improve practice across the Children’s Social Care division. The successful candidate will play a key role in developing and implementing our Practice Improvement Plan. They will lead on the implementation of learning from quality assurance activities to improve service delivery with an unswerving focus on outcomes for children, leading professional development and training sessions for staff to embed this into day-to-day practice.

About You

1. We are looking for an experienced and appropriately qualified professional that is able to demonstrate their knowledge and experience.
2. Qualified Social Worker and up-to-date registration with Social Work England.
3. Substantial leadership experience working in a statutory children’s social care setting.
4. Substantial experience of making sound professional judgements on the quality of practice in high risk/high complexity cases.
5. Successful experience of providing management and professional supervision/development to social care staff at all levels including Team and Service Managers and Heads of Service.
6. Up-to-date knowledge of developments in national policy, legislation, statutory guidance, and standards regarding children’s social care.
7. Ability to engage and develop effective professional relationships with children and families and involve them in service developments and improvement activities.
8. Ability to analyse information and produce quality case/service reviews and audits and recommend SMART areas for improvements.
9. Apply theoretical frameworks and evidence-based models of practice, research & theory in practice and service development/improvement.
10. Communicate to a high standard verbally and in writing and produce and present high-quality analytical reports to a range of forms.

Benefits

You will be valued for your skills and expertise, supported by the team of experienced professionals, as well as the management at Croydon Council, one of the largest employers in the borough. We also offer:

• Highly competitive compensation package
• 29-31 days (grade equivalent) annual leave in addition to Bank Holidays and option to purchase more
• A pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 20%
• Continuing Professional Development – genuine opportunities to grow, develop and specialise in your career
• Management development programmes
• Investment into your wellbeing
• Access to Employee Discount scheme with a range of programmes (Cycle Benefit Scheme, GymFlex, Retail Discounts and more)

We promote flexible & hybrid working arrangements where possible to support a healthy work-life balance.

Closing date 18 May 2025 @11:59pm

Equal Opportunities and Safeguarding Statement: Croydon Council is an inclusive employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. Subject to business needs, we will be pleased to consider applications from candidates seeking flexible working arrangements and support hybrid working, whereby staff attend the workplace for part of their working week and work from home, or elsewhere, remotely for the rest of the time. As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the advertised role. Croydon council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to a DBS check.