Practitioner - Integrated Adolescent Service

Kent County Council; Whitmore; On-site; GBP 43,000 - 53,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Retention bonus up to £3,000 per annum

Golden hello £3,000

Flexible working

Annual leave

Wellbeing support

Regular supervision

Job summary

Kent County Council's Integrated Adolescent Service is recruiting social workers to support vulnerable adolescents, delivering trauma-informed practice and contextual safeguarding. You will work across assessment, CIN, child protection, looked-after children, court work and rehabilitation planning, with personalised development plans to grow your professional skills.

You will build trust with hard-to-reach youths and families, empower long-term solutions, mentor junior staff, and may serve as

Qualifications

• Degree in social work (CQSW, DipSW or equivalent) and registration with Social Work England.
• Extensive post-qualification experience with children and families.
• Interest in trauma and adverse life events with contextual harm awareness.

Responsibilities

• Assess and manage cases across assessment, CIN, child protection, contextual harm and looked-after children.
• Engage in court work and rehabilitation planning with families.
• Provide coaching, mentoring, and supervise ASYE and student social workers.
• Participate in multi‑agency groups to develop new initiatives and share practice.
• Act as Practice Assessor when required and support team management in absence.

Skills

Empathy

Trauma-informed practice

Contextual safeguarding

Coaching & mentoring

Resilience & persistence

Education

Social Work degree (CQSW, DipSW or equivalent)

Job description

Do you want to work in a Good Local Authority? Ofsted have recently inspected Kent and were impressed with the Adolescent Service response and support to children at risk of contextualised harm. We are now looking for social workers who can lend their skills and experience to help us build on our successes The Integrated Adolescent Service recognises that adolescents should be given a bespoke offer of support. We want professionals capable of bringing understanding and emotional intelligence to everything they do. The service promotes a practice philosophy which seeks to empower young people and their families, building on individual strengths, and helping them to develop strategies which support them to understand, manage and respond to the difficulties they face. Our practitioners need to be resilient and persistent; be solution-focused; look past challenging behaviours; build positive relationships with adolescents and their carers, and to inspire young people to reach their potential. We want practitioners who really care about adolescents and who understand the impact of trauma, and how to respond to contextual harm. With a degree in social work - CQSW, DipSW or equivalent - you must be Social Work England registered and should have extensive post-qualification experiences of working with children and families. You will need an interest in working with children who have experienced adverse life events, or trauma. You will need an in‑depth understanding of Children's social work legislation, along with a willingness to learn and help others develop as a practitioner. Your role will involve building up trust with hard‑to‑reach young people, empowering them and their families to develop effective long‑term solutions to manage their family relationships and develop strategies to overcome the risks that adolescents face during this phase of their life. Where it is not safe for young people to remain living at home, we will continue to work with them and their families as well as their wider network to identify suitable safe alternatives. This role will uniquely provide you with experience in working across the areas of assessment, children in need, child protection, contextual harm, looked after children, court work and rehabilitation home. We believe that this will provide you with a wide spectrum of skills and we are committed to putting in place personalised development plans with our workers to enable them to feel valued and supported in their career development. In this respect we’ll support you to consolidate your skills and knowledge, assisting you to develop areas of specialist practice, including trauma‑informed practice and contextual safeguarding. As a role model for good practice and champion for your area of expertise, you’ll set performance expectations, striking a balance between support and oversight. As well as coaching and mentoring less experienced staff, you’ll have the opportunity to act as a Practice Assessor for ASYE and student social workers. You’ll share your knowledge and experience with the team in several ways, including assisted fieldwork, case audits and reviews. In addition, you contribute to working groups and multi‑agency forums to develop new initiatives. In the Team Manager’s absence, you will be expected to provide management support to colleagues and act on the Team Manager’s behalf. This role is subject to holding a Full UK Driving Licence — The Council is committed to making reasonable adjustments so whilst this job requires the jobholder to drive your application will still be considered if you are unable to drive due to a disability. This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service and you must be registered as a qualified Social Worker with Social Work England. This post is considered by KCC to be a customer‑facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification. AST sit within an Integrated Adolescent Service which includes Youth Justice, Early Help, and Family Hub Youth Services. AST offers intensive social work support to adolescents and their families to manage complex situations including extra familial harm and family conflict. Work that works for you and us - let’s talk flexibility! KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county’s working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds, faiths and those with caring responsibilities, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work. Our generous retention package is up to £3,000 per annum, after a qualifying period. In specific circumstances a golden hello payment of £3,000 is available. Successful applicants will receive a base level salary starting from £47,990 dependent on evidenced skills and experience. We have invested heavily in our core offer to staff, including evidenced based training in case formulation, contextual safeguarding and trauma‑informed approaches. We also offer regular supervision to practitioners and managers to enhance how we support our workforce. Alongside this we promote flexible working, a good package of annual leave and employee support in recognition that all staff do a valuable job, and we wish to promote their wellbeing.