Team Manager – Children with Disabilities

London Borough of Croydon; Croydon; Hybrid; GBP 57,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job description

Team Manager – Children with Disabilities – Croydon Council

Salary: Grade 16 (£57,201 - £59,328)

Permanent – 36 hours per week
Welcome Payment - £10,000
Retention Payment – £5,000

Hybrid working

We are seeking a qualified and experienced Team Manager to join us and support our extremely talented team of Social Workers to drive the service forward. You will lead and manage the performance of a team and foster a culture of continuous learning and reflection of practice that inspires staff to give their best in their roles.

Your responsibilities will include:

1. Leading and managing performance of a team of social workers.
2. Introducing, embedding, and continually improving the quality of social work consistent with established models of good practice.
3. Providing professional advice to staff, colleagues, and partners for the area of responsibility.
4. Ensuring that assessments and plans for children are robust, evidence-based, progressed in a timely way, effective in keeping children safe, and outcome-focused.
5. Allocating cases effectively in terms of matching the risk/complexity of cases with the skills, experience, and professional development needs of social workers.
6. Prioritising the deployment of staff resources and ensuring practice is operating in accordance with the thresholds of Croydon’s early help and staged intervention model.
7. Ensuring compliance with statutory requirements and Croydon practice standards in respect of the protection and well-being of children, including looked after children and young people.
8. Embedding and developing the outcomes-focused framework and culture across the service that demonstrates measurable improvements in the stability, well-being, and safety of children and families allocated in the Team.
9. Contributing to the development and introduction of a quality assurance framework for the service and using the findings to drive continuous practice improvement in the Team.
10. Managing and contributing to projects that deliver service improvement, working to recognised project management principles and methods.
11. Maintaining up-to-date knowledge of research findings, legislation, statutory guidance, and policy developments relevant to the service area.

Essential Requirements

1. Qualified Social Workers who are Social Work England registered.
2. Working knowledge of national policy, strategy, and developments regarding children’s social care, and areas that impact on children’s social care.
3. Able to lead improvement in social work practice at an operational level through effective performance management.
4. Evidence of leading and managing operational change effectively.
5. Able to lead and manage in an operational area dealing with high risk and high complexity in a way that delivers good safeguarding and well-being outcomes for children and families.
6. Experience of managing and/or supervising childcare social workers in an area relevant to this particular service area with evidenced results of continuing practice and good outcomes for children.

Why Join Us

1. Our team consists of experienced, dedicated practitioners.
2. We meet regularly to ensure everyone we work with has the support and knowledge needed to make a difference and be the difference to our families, communities, and colleagues.
3. At Croydon, relationships matter, and we are about strong partnerships and working together to make lasting positive change.
4. We are an established team who can help you settle in and offer their expertise.
5. You will have the support of an extremely knowledgeable manager.
6. You will have access to a busy, committed workforce and work environment.
7. Opportunities to work from home and work flexibly provide you with more work-life balance.
8. Opportunities to think together with your manager about career development.
9. Support to help you grow, develop, learn, and lead.

Closing date 21 May 2025 @11:59pm

Equal Opportunities and Safeguarding Statement

Croydon Council is an inclusive employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. Subject to business needs, we will be pleased to consider applications from candidates seeking flexible working arrangements and support hybrid working, whereby staff attend the workplace for part of their working week and work from home, or elsewhere, remotely for the rest of the time. As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the advertised role. Croydon Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to a DBS check.