Senior Practitioner- Help and Protection

Coventry City Council; Coventry; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a dynamic team at a forward-thinking local authority dedicated to creating a brighter future for children. As a Senior Practitioner, you will play a pivotal role in managing complex cases and providing essential support to families in need. This position offers the opportunity to lead and mentor less experienced colleagues while ensuring high standards of practice. If you are passionate about making a difference and possess a strong background in children's services, this role is perfect for you. Embrace the challenge and help shape a nurturing environment where every child's potential can flourish.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Professional development opportunities

Inclusive workplace culture

Guaranteed interview scheme for diverse applicants

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in handling complex cases involving children and families.
• Strong background in Child Protection and Care Proceedings.

Responsibilities

• Manage and deliver effective services for children and families.
• Provide professional supervision and guidance to team members.

Skills

Social Work

Risk Assessment

Child Protection

Team Leadership

Mentoring

Education

Relevant Social Work Qualification

Job description

We value diverse perspectives and experiences and are striving to create a workplace culture that is inclusive, is accepting of all and is free from discrimination and bias.

At Coventry City Council, we are embarking on an incredible journey to create a brighter future for Coventry's children. As a 'Good' Local Authority, we believe in pushing boundaries and delivering excellence for children and families. Our vision is clear, and our social workers are unwavering in their commitment to putting children and families at the centre of their practice.

Be part of our inspiring team, making a meaningful difference in the lives of Coventry's children. Together, let's create a nurturing environment where every child's potential can flourish.

Our Values

In line with our One Coventry Values, we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking. We particularly welcome applicants from minority ethnic, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our residents so that equity and respect remains at the heart of everything we do.

Our Values are:

• Open and fair: We are fair, open, and transparent.
• Nurture and develop: We help and encourage everyone to be their best and do their best.
• Engage and empower: We talk and listen to others, working together as one.
• Create and innovate: We embrace new ways of working to continuously improve.
• Own and be accountable: We work together to deliver the best services for our residents.
• Value and respect: We put diversity and inclusion at the heart of all we do.

What is the job role?

This is a unique opportunity to join us as a Senior Practitioner in our Help and Protection teams on a permanent basis. We currently have vacancies in the South and Central area help and protection teams. You will assume a crucial role in managing and delivering effective and efficient services for children, young people, and their families.

Your responsibilities include providing professional supervision, adhering to Social Work England's code of practice, and contributing to team development. Flexibility and commitment to working outside office hours are essential to meet the diverse needs of families.

As a Senior Practitioner, you will be responsible for:

• Assessing and managing risk in complex and urgent situations.
• Providing professional advice and guidance to other agencies and professionals.
• Supervising and supporting other staff members in the team.
• Ensuring high standards of practice and record keeping.
• Contributing to the development and improvement of the service.

You will make the most of your social work and specialist experience by holding a smaller caseload, also supporting a team of Social workers and taking a lead in the development of their practice.

This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Who are we looking for?

We are seeking candidates with a strong background in working with children, young people, and their families. You should have extensive experience in handling complex cases, including Child Protection, Child in Need, Care Proceedings, and the Public Law Outline.

The ideal candidate will have previously supported children and families when children have been taken into care and will have experience providing guidance and supervision to less experienced colleagues. A relevant Social Work qualification is essential for this role.

If you are passionate about mentoring the next generation of social workers and have a proven track record in children's services, we would love to hear from you.

Encouraging Diverse Applications:

The children, families and young people we work with come from a variety of backgrounds and in order to deliver the best possible care it is vital that we have a workforce that represents and understands their unique experiences and perspectives.

In order to shape and deliver our services in an effective way, we want to ensure that we have employees from a range of different backgrounds, identities and different lived experiences so that we are able to meet the needs of all the communities that we serve.

Our workforce data shows that men, people from minority ethnic backgrounds, have a disability or who identify as being from the LGBT+ community are under-represented at management level and encourage applicants from these backgrounds to apply. This does not prevent individuals with or without other protected characteristics as set out within the Equality Act 2010 from applying for this post.

For an informal conversation about the role please contact Monika Winstone - [e-mail] or Sandra Kerr - [e-mail].

If you need help or support to complete your application, please visit our accessibility page to see how we can assist you.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme - As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role and identify with one of the below criteria:

• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care or have previously been in care
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition

For full details on the application process please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'. If there is any evidence of a candidate using AI to complete their application, then the application will be rejected unless the candidate can provide a justification which the Council considers to be reasonable.

About Coventry

Coventry has a proud, innovative and creative spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems and bring about real social change.

We are cutting-edge, challenging, youthful, vibrant and diverse.

At Coventry we are committed to excellence in everything we do. With around 5100 staff from a range of different backgrounds, our aim is to recruit and develop talented people who will focus on our customers, take responsibility, work together and find better ways of doing things.

To deliver the best services to our residents, we need the best people working for us to make a difference to our communities.

If you join us, we will provide a fantastic rewards and benefits package - to find out more please visit https://www.coventry.gov.uk/council-vacancies.