Team Leader (Keeping Families Together)

Lewisham Council; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority is seeking a Team Leader to oversee the Keeping Families Together team, delivering critical interventions for child safety. The ideal candidate should have prior experience in family support, supervision, and a strong understanding of the child protection context. The role offers excellent training and development opportunities within a supportive work culture, promoting effective practices to help families thrive.

Benefits

Local Government Pension Scheme

Flexible working hours

Staff discounts

Training and development opportunities

Qualifications

• Experience in delivering interventions and group work with adults.
• Understanding of child protection context and family group conferencing.
• Experience in supporting colleagues in skills and development.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of practitioners in delivering key interventions.
• Supervise staff and facilitate group work.
• Model best practices in social work.

Skills

Empowering families

Facilitating group work

Understanding child protection

Education

Relevant social work experience

Job description

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Discover yourself in Lewisham where what you do makes a difference to our vibrant and culturally diverse communities! We have a rich history of welcoming people from all over the world and are proud to be recognised as the UK’s first Borough of Sanctuary, for our work in championing the rights of refugees and migrants.

It's an exciting time to join us - Lewisham is a wave Pathfinder authority and is leading the way on national reforms to social work practice through the Families First for Children programme.

Introduction

Lewisham is recruiting to a Team Leader in the Keeping Families Together team. This is an exciting opportunity to lead a team of practitioners in delivering key interventions that make a difference to children and their families. A social work qualification is not necessary for this role.

The Keeping Families Together team is based within our Multi-Agency Child Protection Intervention Service who are at the heart of supporting families in Lewisham. The service is based within the Family Help and Care division and works closely with allocated social work teams to provide intervention to families that keep children living safely at home.

The Keeping Families Together team works alongside the Family Help/Children Looked After team to provide interventions around positive parenting, non-violent resistance and family networks. The team complete pieces of work where children are subject to child in need plans, child protection plans, Public Law Outline, care proceedings and looked after children.

As well as parenting interventions, the Keeping Families Together team lead on family group conferencing across the safeguarding service with KFT practitioners leading on these meetings.

It’s an exciting time to join Lewisham as we are at the forefront of social work reform as a Wave Families First for Children Pathfinder Local Authority. The Multi-Agency Child Protection Intervention Service is at the heart of delivering key interventions that keep children safe. The post holder will be part of a Local Authority taking a lead role in supporting other Local Authorities to embed the reforms as part of the wider DfE national roll out.

What’s the role?

We are looking for practitioner with a passion for supporting families and delivering interventions that keep children safe at home. The role involves supervision of staff, group facilitation, : work, family group conferencing and leading practice development. If you are a practitioner with experience in working with families and a keen interest in empowering them to keep their children safe, then we would love to hear from you.

About You

You will be an experienced practitioner with knowledge and experience of delivering interventions with adults, that have helped them make meaningful change in their lives. You will be confident in leading on interventions and facilitating group supervision and group work.

You will understand the benefits of a whole family approach and work with vulnerable people to empower them to seek support from their family and friend network. You will have an understanding of family group conferences and the benefits of these in supporting children and their parents.

You will have an understanding of the child protection context including neglect, domestic abuse, physical abuse, and emotional harm, which will hold you in good stead to support families facing such difficulties. You will be keen to be part of a service modelling best practice and be able to support more junior colleagues to develop their skills.

Supervisory experience is desirable as the role involves deputising for the team manager and supervising staff.

You will have experience in:

• Delivering interventions and group work with adults
• Understanding of the child protection context and family group conferencing
• Supporting more junior colleagues in their skills and development

What’s in it for you?

Excellent training and development opportunities, plus a range of benefits including:

• Local Government Pension scheme
• Flexible working and family friendly policies
• Season ticket and bicycle loans
• A range of staff discounts including local subsidised gym memberships
• Supportive staff networks

Our Vision -What Good Children’s Social Work Looks Like in Lewisham

In Lewisham Children’s Social Care, we know what good social work looks like and we are passionate about creating the right conditions and culture for good practice to thrive.

Families are respected and supported to stay together, whenever there is safety.

Families will tell us they understand why we are involved.

Children will tell us their social worker has made a difference to their lives.

Children who are in our care know we care, and we won’t give up on them.

Young people who have been in our care feel confident about their future.

We have taken a whole system approach to improving our services to children and young people in our borough using Signs of Safety as our practice model.Ofsted recognised the progress we have made noting that:

Staff talk positively about their manageable caseloads, regular supervision, team meetings and access to a range of training, including the social work model of practice.

Senior leaders demonstrate a clear focus on hearing the voices of children to develop and improve services.

Leaders know the service well. They have a clear understanding of areas for development that are being appropriately addressed.

In January , Ofsted's report lauds significant improvements in our children's services. Praised areas include strong leadership, high-quality support for families and children, and positive outcomes across all criteria.

The Executive Director for Children and Young People and his team are credited for driving these improvements, with particular focus on enhancing workforce stability, early help services, and partnerships with stakeholders.

Noteworthy practices include creative life-story work and culturally sensitive social work approaches, crucial in a diverse borough like Lewisham.

The Council's anti-racist practice network and safe space platform also garnered praise for supporting staff from black and global majority backgrounds.

Overall, the report highlights a commendable commitment to improving outcomes for vulnerable children and young people in Lewisham.

Why choose Lewisham?

“Lewisham has so much to offer any social worker. I feel supported, respected and valued every step of the way”(Social Worker).

Our social workers benefit from working in small, supportive teams with caseloads on average between - children. Our Signs of Safety family-led practice framework means we are committed to working in a relationship-based way with children and families, focussing on strengths in the family network to effect change. A positive learning culture which promotes opportunities for reflection and relationship-based practice is important to us. We are committed to developing our practice using reflective practice spaces such as case mapping, thinking spaces and group supervision.

Our permanent and stable senior management team are visible and approachable.Our dedicated workforce team supports professional development across the service so that you will;

• be supported through our comprehensive learning and development offer, which includes subscription to ‘Research in Practice’.
• receive regular supervision and appraisal.
• have - practice development coaching as a case holder, and professional development coaching as a manager.
• have access to regular Signs of Safety training
• have access to external leadership development opportunities such as the Black and Asian Leadership Initiative (BALI).
• have a clearly defined career progression pathway with opportunities for professional development at all levels.
• opportunities to become a practice educator and work with students and newly qualified social workers.

What we’re looking for

If you want to work in a thriving borough and our social work vision connects with your professional values, then we are interested in hearing from you. We are looking for people to join our team who:

• value the importance of communication and seeking feedback
• can inspire and motivate those they work with, manage and lead
• are committed to developing their skills and expertise to deliver an excellent service
• are professionally curious and value thinking slowly and calmly in a balanced way
• work inclusively, collaboratively with others recognising their strengths
• take responsibility and make a positive contribution by focusing on solutions
• are transparent, are appreciative in enquiry, reflect and learn.

Location

The job is primarily based in Laurence House in Catford SE. There are local train stations - minutes’ walk from the office, and the train journey from London Bridge is approximately minutes. There are also numerous bus routes that stop right by the office.

We operate a hybrid approach where you will be required to work both in the office and from home on a regular basis.

Creating an Inclusive Lewisham

A core value of Lewisham Council is to 'draw on the diversity of our communities to create a more inclusive Lewisham'. We believe that freedom from discrimination and equality of opportunity are fundamental rights, and that each person should be valued regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender re-assignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, or age. Social inclusion lies at the heart of everything we do as a Council in our roles as an employer, a provider of services and a community leader.