Principal Social Worker - EDT ( Emergency Duty Team )

Northamptonshire Children's Trust; Northampton; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A children's social services provider is seeking a qualified Social Worker for the Emergency Duty Team in Northampton. This position involves providing a statutory duty service for child protection out-of-hours and requires a minimum of three years of relevant experience along with the ability to work independently. The role is supported by a management team and offers opportunities for professional development in a challenging yet rewarding environment.

Benefits

Welcome Bonus of £6000

Relocation costs up to £8,000

28 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays

Local Government Pension Scheme

Flexible working arrangements

Extensive learning and development opportunities

Qualifications

• Three years of post-qualifying child protection experience.
• Qualified Social Worker registered with Social Work England.
• Ability to work autonomously with minimal supervision.

Responsibilities

• Provide emergency statutory social work duty service out-of-hours.
• Lead child protection investigations and adult safeguarding investigations.
• Assess needs of children and families against threshold criteria.

Skills

Good communication

Emergency response

Child protection

Autonomous working

Education

Qualified Social Worker

Registered with Social Work England

Job description

Our benefits

We are committed to continuous improvement, building a skilled, knowledgeable, and flexible workforce alongside promoting innovation and creativity whilst keeping children, young people and families at the heart of all we do.

We really value our workforce and offer you a great benefits package including:

• SWE Registration paid yearly (social care colleagues)
• Recruitment Welcome Bonus of £6000
• Relocation costs of up to £8,000
• Retention bonus payments for established personnel
• 28 days annual leave, plus 8 Bank Holidays (pro rata for part time) and an additional 5 days, after 5 years
• Local Government Pension Scheme plus immediate life cover (3 times your annual salary from day one) and ill-health protection.
• Opportunity to purchase up to 25 days annual leave
• Employee Assistance Programme - We have an employee support programme run by Health Assured, an independent, external organisation. Health Assured is available for you and your immediate family members, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and includes telephone counselling, legal advice, bereavement support and medical information.
• Employee discounts with local and national retailers, days out, finance, health and beauty, travel and eating out plus lots more.
• Flexible and family working arrangements including enhanced maternity benefits
• A permanent, supportive and inclusive management team where you will be empowered to make good professional decisions
• Extensive Learning & Development and career development opportunities
• Subsidised town centre car parking scheme

About the role

The Emergency Duty team runs an out-of-hours service, responding to statutory emergencies and other social work matters within the children and adult services. The positions within the team are Principal Social Worker roles. The service operates a rota with shift patterns, and you will need to be able to access Northampton town centre within an hour's drive. The role requires you to have the skills and experience to provide an emergency statutory social work duty service out-of-hours with minimal supervision. The ability to work autonomously is therefore paramount.

You will provide guidance and support to sessional and unqualified staff. You will take the lead in child protection investigations, adult safeguarding investigations ensuring that services are delivered within the legislative and statutory planning frameworks, Government Guidance, the Trust's Core Values and Strategic Aims, and Service policies and procedures.

The role includes assessing the needs of children and their families against the Departments agreed threshold criteria and in accordance with National Guidance with set timescales, the creation and implementation of culturally appropriate care plans that demonstrate flexibility and innovative use of resources, and which will fulfil the statutory requirements of the Department until the next working day.

Get in touch

We welcome the opportunity to speak to any interested candidates so please feel free to email: Sarah Hunt, Team Manager Sarah.Hunt@ and they can agree a mutually agreeable time to call you.

What will you be doing?

In a rewarding, diverse but complex environment, you will be part of a team that is public facing who will work to ensure the safety of children and adults, with a range of presentations that require emergency action that cannot wait until the following day.

You will be supported by an on-call Service Manager on each shift, and you will have regular formal and informal supervision by the team manager. The team hold monthly team meetings and have a team training profile that supports your professional development. The Northamptonshire Emergency Duty Team has received consistent positive comments in recent OFSTED Inspections, and we would welcome any worker who shares the team ethos to provide the right amount of help and support at the right time, to those most in need.

Northamptonshire's children's service delivers their service via a TRUST and the EDT is currently undergoing a review focussing on the delivery of adult services including the AMHP role. We can only accept applications from people who have flexibility in relation to working patterns as these may change within a re-structuring process. All statutory employment legislation would apply.

About you

You will have good communication within the Directorate, Local Authority and Partnerships, promoting a culture of continuous improvement and service user focus that delivers good outcomes for children and adults.

Three years of post-qualifying children protection experience.

You must be a qualified Social Worker, Registered with Social Work England.

This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore subject to an enhanced DBS certificate. It is also a regulated activity and will be subject to a Barred List check