We are looking to recruit a Designated Social Care Officer (DSCO) role as required by the Council for Disabled Children and recommended by Working Together to Safeguard Children. The DSCO will provide the capacity and expertise to improve the links between social care services and the SEND system.
The postholder will strategically lead in framing the social care elements of the SEND strategy across the local authority and ensure we comply with legislative requirements of the SEND Code of Practice (2015), and that we meeting our statutory responsibilities under the Children and Family Act (2014) and Care Act (2014).
The role will work across teams and services and regularly liaise with the senior leadership team and external stakeholders to drive organisation development and positive change. The post does not have any line management responsibility but will be responsible for managing improvement processes relating to developing services and increasing awareness of SEND across statutory services.
To find out more, before applying please read the job description.
You will be qualified social worker, currently registered with Social Work England - please note this a qualified social work post.
We are looking for a champion for SEND who is passionate about improving the lives of children and families whose lives are affected by disability, passionate about tackling disportionality, and wants to be a voice and advocate for disabled children and their families in the Borough.
The officer will have in-depth knowledge, and understanding of both social care operations and the SEND reforms agenda and will identify areas where social care practice can be improved and ensuring that work is compliant with the SEND Code of Practice - generating solutions and implementing strategies and plans to address this.
Please refer to the person specification for a fill list of requirements – please also note that to be shortlisted applications will need to clearly demonstrate knowledge, understanding and practical experience in relation to the implementation of SEND legislation within social care and successful applicants will have relevant experience of supporting with children and young people with SEND in statutory social care.
We’re a vibrant, dynamic, culturally rich London Borough with a young population and limitless potential. We’re a challenging yet rewarding place for social work practise to flourish and we are steadfastly committed to our workforce being representative of the families that we work with. We are taking coordinated, meaningful and focused action to develop an inclusive culture because we believe this is at the heart of enabling diversity in all respects, including diversity of thought. We are taking positive actions to challenge all forms of discrimination and injustice to help make Newham a fairer and more equitable place for children and families to live, learn and thrive.
We’re building a fairer Newham through investment, co-production and by continuously developing our 'Circles of Support' practice model; centring on systemic and restorative practice and a specialist support offer for our practitioners. Ofsted described Newham as having a positive culture of learning and development and we always try to develop talent in-house. We promoted 30 internal colleagues in 2023 alone, and have put more than 47 practitioners through further education since 2020. We value your development and at Newham career progression is a reality for many of our colleagues.
We understand that social work can be a challenging yet ultimately very rewarding profession that makes demands of you personally and professionally. In Newham we value your wellbeing and we aim to ensure that you have a better work/life balance through a remote working offer when you are not visiting children and families, a modern office space for when you’re on site, a flexible working policy where all requests are considered, and a clinical offer to support you to do your best work.
We’ve been working hard to make Newham a great place to practise social work:
