Social Workers

The Academy; Swindon; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

The Academy in Swindon is seeking an Advanced Social Worker Practitioner for our Fostering Team. You will undertake a range of fostering assessments for mainstream carers, Kinship, connected carers and special guardians, and support viability and private fostering work.

You will also mentor social work students and assist the Management Team, contributing to service improvements and staff development. A charismatic practitioner with advanced experience is encouraged to apply.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years post-qualifying experience in social work.
• Experience in Fostering assessments (mainstream, Kinship, and Private Foster Carers).
• Ability to mentor social work students and support the Management Team.
• Fluent English required (Part 7 Immigration Act).

Responsibilities

• Undertake Fostering assessments for mainstream carers, Kinship assessments, and Private Foster Carers.
• Carry out Viability Assessments within the pod.
• Mentor and supervise social work students and support the Management Team.
• Build strong relationships with carers, children and young people and other professionals.

Skills

Mentoring

Supervision

Learning & development

Research & evaluation

Job description

This role is within our Fostering Team in the Recruitment and Assessment Pod who undertake Fostering assessments of mainstream foster carers alongside Kinship assessments both Connected Carers and Special Guardianship Assessments. The pod also undertakes assessments and support of Private Foster Carers. Viability Assessments are also undertaken within the pod.

We are looking for Advanced Social Worker Practitioner with a minimum of 5 years post qualifying experience who has worked within Fostering previously and will experience of undertaking a range of assessments. You will also be expected to take on social work students, provide mentoring and support the Management Team.

Advanced Social Workers are highly skilled in their field of social work, are routinely involved in supervision or oversight of others and / or highly specialised practice and / or learning and development. They ensure the integration of professional knowledge, the perspectives of people using services and research / evaluation evidence routinely in their practice and promote this with others.

This is a dynamic role and we are looking for a charismatic social worker with advanced experience to work alongside our social workers and managers.

There are lots of opportunities to build meaningful relationships with carers, children and young people alongside other professionals who will share your passion for doing all you can to ensure our children and young people.

We are working hard to keep those children who need to live locally, in our local area. We do have some children living outside of Swindon, and we are committed to these children receiving just as good a service as those who remain in Swindon.

About You

Your aspirations should be limitless and you will be as determined and passionate about Children's Services as we are. As a local authority, we continuously drive forward improvements in our services. We want our Social Workers to be part of our transformation, contribute to improving the safeguarding of our children, and we will make sure you have the full support network and training to do it.

Our teams are ambitious and proactive and we are looking for people who will share that ambition and be a part of our journey.

Candidates must be fluent in the English language (as a requirement of Part 7 of the Immigration Act - for the effective performance of a customer-facing role).

Our commitment to your development

We are dedicated to ensuring that you can progress your continued professional development and access training and learning opportunities linked to the BASW competencies for career progression.

We have an established Social Work & Leadership Academy. The Academy aims to celebrate the best in professional practice in Social Work and Social Care Leadership. The Academy represents an opportunity for us to demonstrate how we support, develop and value the professional disciplines in Social Work and Social Care through a targeted framework of career development and learning opportunities.

As an employee, you will receive a diverse and exciting environment in which to work, encouraging creativity and innovation whilst recognising the need to support ongoing personal development and a flexible work life balance.

Here in Swindon we have a clear vision and plans to reduce the need for Children to come into our care with our new adolescent offer and edge of care work and we are continually working as a partnership to ensure our children are safe.

We're making a real difference to the lives of the children and families we work with in Swindon.

About Us

We have now implemented the Family Safeguarding Model, a new multi-disciplinary approach that supports a whole-system change to child protection for children up to adolescence, focusing on supporting the needs of children and adults so that children can safely remain within their families.

This is a great opportunity to join us now and be part of this pioneering work as we continue to learn from multi agency family work and support more families to look after their children in their families and wider communities.