Team Manager - Assessment

Cambridgeshire County Council; Wisbech; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 56,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing package

Additional annual leave

Flexible holidays

AVCs pension

Development opportunities

Volunteer hours

IDEAL network

Recognition awards

Discounts & car schemes

Job summary

Cambridgeshire County Council is seeking an experienced Team Manager in Assessment to lead a 7-social-worker team and oversee complex safeguarding and intervention work for children aged 0-17. The role involves frontline leadership, staff development and cross‑agency collaboration within a fast‑paced, multi‑agency environment.

The post offers hybrid working and opportunities for professional growth within the Families First transformation programme, with interviews conducted in person where

Qualifications

• Be a qualified Social Worker with a Social Work England registration
• Have the ability to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently

Responsibilities

• Supervision and development of practitioners, identifying areas of strengths and areas to improve and implement appropriate plans to achieve this.
• Manage the delivery of the team to ensure it is a high quality and effective service that responds to the needs of children, young people and their families or carers in a timely manner within statutory guidelines or service specifications.
• Manage the planning, allocation and review of cases and ensure priorities are managed.
• Lead on customer service and stage 1 complaints.
• Manage the recruitment and staffing of the team.
• Provide expert knowledge of safeguarding processes, policy and case law.
• Lead on initiating, developing and sustaining internal and external working relationships with other professionals and partner agencies.

Job description

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

About the role

Are you an experienced Team Manager? Do you have the passion and commitment to manage, develop and motivate a team, to achieve the best possible outcomes for children? Then now is the perfect time to join us as a Team Manager in our Assessment Team!

You will manage one of the five locality Assessment Teams in Cambridgeshire and will work with the Head of Service for the Integrated Front Door, Service Managers in Assessment and MASH, and the Team Managers from the other four district teams. You will be responsible for a team of 7 social workers, including a senior practitioner, plus a Child Information and Advice Officer (CIAO).

The Assessment Team cover the cases of children aged 0-17 that arejudged to require level 3 and 4 interventions under the Cambridgeshire Level of Need Document. Wecover S17 Assessments, strategy discussions and S47 investigations; respond to court ordered reports such as S37 and S7 reports; complete SWET for court, and care plans where this is necessary and proportionate.

We work closely with Targeted Support to ensure that cases are stepped down into targeted intervention to improve relationships and parenting to prevent escalating of need following a completed C&F Assessment. You will oversee the improvement of the team by ensuring that KPI’s are achieved.

Our Assessment Team is lively and fast-paced. We’re a team who have a passion for ensuring that children, young people and families in our community receive a positive and timely service. The work is rich, varied and allows for a high level of multi-agency working, often to tight timelines. The nature of our work means that you see positive outcomes quickly.

Cambridgeshire County Council fully supports the principles of the Families First programme and is currently working on implementing the model in a considered and planned way to ensure that the changes made best meet the needs of our local communities and workforce.

As the programme develops, detailed delivery arrangements and implementation timescales are continuing to be refined, tested and agreed. Consequently, this role is expected to evolve into a Family Help Team Manager position in the future as the Families First transformation programme progresses.

There are two positions available, one based in Wisbech and one in Ely. The role is hybrid with a mix of home and office working.

Interviews will be held in person wherever possible.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

What will you be doing?

Day-to-day responsibilities of a Team Manager in Assessment include:

• Supervision and development of practitioners, identifying areas of strengths and areas to improve and implement appropriate plans to achieve this.
• Manage the delivery of the team to ensure it is a high quality and effective service that responds to the needs of children, young people and their families or carers in a timely manner within statutory guidelines or service specifications.
• Manage the planning, allocation and review of cases and ensure priorities are managed.
• Lead on customer service and stage 1 complaints.
• Manage the recruitment and staffing of the team.
• Provide expert knowledge of safeguarding processes, policy and case law.
• Lead on initiating, developing and sustaining internal and external working relationships with other professionals and partner agencies.

About you

We’re looking for a confident and dynamic individualwhoenjoys making a difference in theirlocal community, iscurious and spots things that others might not see, enjoysbuilding relationships and likes to explore possibilities.

You must:

• Be aqualified Social Worker with a Social Work England registration
• Havethe ability towork from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently

For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

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