Senior Practitioner Child Protection Resource - Howdenhall Centre

City of Edinburgh Council; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 44,000 - 53,000; Full time

Job summary

Join the City of Edinburgh Council as a Senior Practitioner in Child Protection, working in a city-wide team focused on safeguarding children's welfare. This role involves conducting assessments, supporting families, and contributing to a continuous improvement culture. Ideal candidates will have substantial experience in children and families practice and a strong understanding of child protection legislation.

Qualifications

• Experience of complex child protection investigations is essential.
• Must demonstrate flexible thinking and positivity.
• Commitment to ongoing professional development in best practices.

Responsibilities

• Conduct initial child protection assessments.
• Work with children and families to build relationships and safety plans.
• Collaborate with partners to promote children's wellbeing.

Skills

Assessment skills

Communication skills

Ability to analyse complex situations

Understanding of child development

Education

Considerable post qualifying experience in a Children & Families practice team

Tools

ICT skills

Job description

Senior Practitioner Child Protection Resource
Howdenhall Centre

Salary: £44,257 - £52,373
Hours: 36 per week, 52 weeks

We believe that every child and young person deserves the best possible start in life. Our aim is for Edinburgh's children to be safe, healthy, nurtured, educated, active and respected. A Senior Practitioner vacancy has arisen in our Child Protection Resource, which is a city-wide team undertaking initial child protection assessments for children not already involved with social work services for whom there is a new child protection concern.

Please note that the City of Edinburgh Council's social work services are currently undergoing a redesign to improve outcomes for children, young people, and families. As a result, the role profile and base for this Senior Practitioner post may be subject to change within the redesign process.

The post-holder will be working with children and young people who need protection, working in strengths based and restorative ways to get alongside children and their families, to build positive relationships, identify what they need to keep them safe and put in place plans which improve wellbeing for children, young people and their families.

The post-holder must have considerable post qualifying experience in a Children & Families practice team, including experience of complex child protection investigations. We work within a culture of continuous improvement and it is vital for the applicant to be able to demonstrate flexible thinking and the ability to approach change and practice development with positivity.

The applicant must have:

• Well developed assessment and communication skills (written and verbal).
• Experience of direct work with children and families.
• A sound understanding of the national legislative and policy context.
• Drive and determination to support Edinburgh to keep The Promise.
• Breadth and depth of knowledge about child development, attachment and identity.
• Ability to work closely with partners to share information and negotiate effective plans for children to promote their safety and wellbeing.
• Ability to understand issues and problems, to analyse and assess complex situations, often within limited timescales.
• Commitment to maintaining knowledge of current research developments and support discussion/reflection within the team.
• Demonstrated ability to work within a team, supporting team identity and practice development.
• ICT and keyboard skills.

This post is regulated work with children and/or protected adults under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007. The preferred candidate will be required to join the PVG Scheme or undergo a PVG Scheme update check. Where an individual has spent a continuous period of 3 months or more out with the UK in the last 5 years, an Overseas Criminal Record Check will be required. You will be required to provide this check. An unconditional offer of employment and commencement in the post will be subject to the outcome of both these pre-employment checks being deemed satisfactory.

We're committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits that a diverse workforce with different values, beliefs, experience, and backgrounds brings to us as an organisation.

As part of our goal to improve our organisational culture and create a great place to work together for the people of Edinburgh, we want to make sure that we're bringing the best people into our roles, not just in their skills and experience but also in their approach to work.

To help achieve this, we're changing the way we interview and assess candidates by moving from a competency-based interview approach to a behavioural and technical (skills for the job) based approach. This new way of interviewing will allow us to assess how you think and how you would bring Our Behaviours of Respect, Integrity and Flexibility into your ways of working.

Our salary range typically reflects the initial starting salary and annually increases until it reaches the top of the range.

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