Social Worker / Senior Social Worker - 0-18 Children with Disabilities Team

South Gloucestershire Council; Kendleshire; Hybrid; GBP 36,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A local authority in the UK is hiring a Children's Social Worker to provide support and advice to children and families. The role involves safeguarding vulnerable children and developing tailored plans to meet their needs. Candidates must be qualified Social Workers with relevant registration and experience in children's services. The position offers opportunities for career progression and flexible working arrangements, alongside a supportive management team focused on improving outcomes for children and young people.

Benefits

Generous annual leave

Employee wellbeing support

Access to staff discounts

Recruitment incentive payment

Retention payment for long-term staff

Qualifications

• Must be a qualified Social Worker with relevant registration.
• Should have substantial post-qualifying experience in children's services.
• Those seeking Advanced or Senior positions need additional specialist knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Provide information, advice, and support to children and families.
• Safeguard vulnerable children and develop plans tailored to their needs.
• Ensure positive outcomes for children with disabilities through coordinated services.

Skills

Qualified Social Worker

Experience in children's services

Problem solving

Decision making

Education

Registration with Social Work England

Completion of ASYE

Job description

Our social workers make a real difference. Every day, they work with families to help children and young people who have had a difficult start in life to achieve their ambitions. You'll be listening to young people, putting them at the heart of everything we do and work in partnership with families to equip them with the skills they need to ensure young people live in happy, healthy and safe homes. We’re pleased to say that we provide an Ofsted rated 'Good' service, our Ofsted report can be viewed here. Join us to collectively maintain and build on this for the ongoing betterment of the children and young people of South Gloucestershire. We encourage newly qualified social workers (NQSW's) who are looking for a supportive environment under stable management to offer their Assessed and Supported first Year in Employment (ASYE) to apply.

What you will be doing

The 0-18 Children with Disabilities social care teams undertake statutory social work in the areas of Child Protection (CP), Children in Need (CiN) and the initial stages of Looked After Children (LAC), as well as working within the Public Law Outline and on occasion, Care Proceedings. Working within one of the two 0-18 Children with Disabilities social care teams within the 0-25 service; you will be integral to facilitating several functions.

• You will provide information, advice and support to children, young people, their families and carers to enable children with disabilities to enjoy and achieve social inclusion.
• Fulfilling a duty to safeguard vulnerable children and young people and to assess need, you will develop plans and provide services where appropriate. You will then review these plans regularly to ensure that outcomes are being achieved.
• It will be your responsibility to ensure vulnerable children and young people with a significant impairment or disability are identified, protected and supported to achieve positive outcomes through the provision of well-planned, integrated and coordinated services.

What we need from you

• We require you to be a qualified Social Worker with relevant registration to practice with Social Work England (SWE) or pending your formal qualification award and registration.

You will have already successfully completed your ASYE (where qualifying since 2012) and have substantial post qualifying experience in a children's services role, unless you are seeking a newly qualified position. Given the elements of this role, you will be used to solving problems, be confident about making important decisions and are passionate about working with children, young people and families to meet their goals and aspirations.

If seeking an Advanced Social Worker position, you will be able to demonstrate specialist knowledge of the relevant services including latest service developments, legislation, regulations and codes of practice.

Those seeking a Senior Social Worker position will in addition to the above, have experience of supervision or mentoring of social workers or support staff and substantial first-hand experience in a relevant children's social care team.

• We're a positive, proactive team, with supportive management who listen to ideas, and act on them - fast.
• We're expanding our frontline teams. We've created 60 new roles, which will mean consistently lower caseloads for our social workers, so they can deliver genuinely child-centred support.
• We're making it easier for staff to work flexibly, enabling them to work how and where they need to, to do their jobs as well as they can.
• We're strengthening our reward offer to recognise the fantastic job our staff do.
• We're adopting clinical supervision to support staff because we recognise that our work can be tough emotionally. It builds on our training offer, helping staff to develop critical thinking skills and support their work with families.
• We're building early intervention partnership capacity because we know we can achieve better results for families if we get multi‑agency working right.
• We're increasing what we spend on evidence‑based specialist expertise and capabilities, including specialist trauma support and an in‑house psychologist to support families.
• We're introducing new initiatives like the Mockingbird extended family model in fostering, a Caring Dads scheme and a new approach to domestic abuse.
• We're enhancing an already exceptional training and development offer. A new systemic practice academy will drive our focus on relationship based social work.
• We're investing in our systems and processes, because we want them to help us, rather than hold us back in our work.

What you need to know

• Although this post is advertised as a full‑time position, we encourage and welcome applications from experienced social workers who may be seeking part time, job share or flexible working arrangements.
• Please note that due to the nature of this role, it is a requirement of employment that an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is obtained.
• You will be expected to travel throughout the authority and surrounding area so you must have a full, valid driving licence with regular access to a vehicle insured for business use or have an alternative suitable means of travel.

At South Gloucestershire Council, we’ll support you at every moment. As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro‑rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities.

We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.

We invest in the careers of our people, and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps our people make the greatest long‑term difference in their work.

What's special here is the strength of the team ethos. We are a relatively small local authority, so managers know staff well. They can plan their services to ensure teams have manageable caseloads and have effective supervision so feel supported to make decisions which are right for the children and young people they work with.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. Ensuring all our staff are given right skills, knowledge and support to recognise and respond effectively to potential abuse or neglect.

Career progression and salaries

Any post can become any social worker grade, be it at initial recruitment or through internal progression.

• Social Worker £36,363 - £39,152
• Advanced Social Worker £40,077 - £44,075
• Senior Social Worker £45,091 - £48,226

We have a fluid career progression programme and structure; what does this mean for you? You no longer need to wait for a vacancy to gain promotion.

Apply for progression assessment when you are ready, no restrictions on application windows.

Earn a higher income for your recognised experience.

Gain promotion without needing to change teams, managers or employer - fast track your potential.

Senior roles leading to both managerial or practice specialist careers.

Gain experience in other teams with secondment opportunities encouraged.

Recruitment incentive

These posts attract a gross lump sum £3,000 'recruitment payment' pro‑rata offered to enable Social Workers who have already successfully completed their ASYE to join our permanent workforce. This is payable upon successful completion of your probationary period (after approximately 3‑6 months) and is subject to eligibility criteria. These posts are currently eligible for a market factor £3,000 'retention payment' pro‑rata, payable in November annually to those with two years' service with the council in Children's Social Care inclusive of any ASYE period.

Community impact

We’re building and shaping communities which people are proud of.

We’re providing essential services across our communities to ensure they are safe and well maintained.

We’ve achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference. We’re making a difference, be part of it!

To view the full job description, please click this link: Children's Social Worker - Job Description