Children's Social Workers and Senior Social Workers

Posted 1st Nov, 2024
Location
Wandsworth
Salary/rate
£35,094 – £49,503
Hours
Full-time
Working arrangements
Office based
Contract type
Permanent
Closing date
24th Nov, 2024
About the role

Children's Social Workers and Senior Social Workers
Up to £47,082 per annum (subject to experience) + Benefits*
Permanent, Full Time (36 Hours)
Wandsworth
Ofsted Rating: ‘Good’ 

Benefits:

  • £5,000 welcome bonus* and £1,000 retention bonus (every 2 years of service)
  • Payment of Social Work England registration fee
  • Plus more – view our Children’s Services offer here.


Are you an experienced and qualified Social Worker passionate about making a difference to children’s lives and want to join an organisation committed to outstanding, relationship-based social work practice? 

Our values inspire our Outstanding Practice Framework, which creates the context for you as a Social Worker in Wandsworth to build relationships with families that bring about change to support children to live at home wherever possible. Coupled with the implementation of Family Safeguarding you will join the best practice conditions we’ve ever had to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and families. You will have incredibly sound, solid and strong leadership in Ana Popovici and Rasheed Pendry, who have an exciting vision to transform our approaches to the most vulnerable in society.

Can you join us and help children and their families by delivering ethical based interventions which respect and promote their rights?

About the Role

Brief Intervention Service

The Brief Intervention Service works with children, young people and their families for up to six months. Our brief interventions will support children, young people and their families to create change – through co-produced child and family assessments, family led plans, Family Space Clinics and a range of community based services.

There is strong leadership in the Service and social workers benefit from small teams, regular supervision and a caseload that allows them to spend time with children and young people building relationships and building on their strengths and those of the wider family network.

To support you in creating change for families you will be connected with a range of specialist workers including: a Domestic Abuse Specialist Social Worker, a Housing Specialist, a SEN Social Worker, a Substance Misuse Worker and a NRPF Social Worker, a Practice Specialist Social Worker and a Family Therapist.

For more information, please refer to the Brief Intervention Flyer attachment at the end of this page.

Family Safeguarding Service

The Family Safeguarding Service has a stable, knowledgeable and creative team. You will be working collaboratively with your colleagues across the service and the partnership to deliver a high-quality and responsive social work service. You will be a valued member of our team and encouraged to be a leader and champion of exemplary practice to work with families with a range of needs including child protection, care proceedings, and looked-after children.

When joining the service, you will be part of a dedicated team of Children's Social Workers, Children’s Practitioners, Adult Mental Health Practitioners, Substance Misuse and Domestic Abuse Practitioners all working together. The service consists of nine Family Safeguarding teams covering three geographical clusters of Roehampton, Battersea and Tooting. Find out more about our Family Safeguarding service here

Essential Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

  • You will hold social work qualification with Social Work England membership and have completed your ASYE Year.
  • Experience of working across voluntary and statutory agencies with applied knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance.
  • An excellent communicator and collaborator who is compassionate and understands the needs of children and young people.
  • A 'can do' attitude coupled with creativity, you will be a champion for children and families and support them with hope, self-esteem and potential.

How We Support You:

  • You will be part of a small team of five social workers with manageable caseloads.
  • Have business support for your team who work in collaboration with you.
  • You will be part of various working groups within the service and across the partnerships to champion areas of best practice and influence positive outcomes for children and families.
  • You will have access to an excellent training offer for Social Workers ranging from Systemic Training, Motivational Interviewing, Trauma Informed Practice and various other reflective spaces to promote best practice.
  • Access to great transport links.

Contact Details

For an informal discussion about the role please contact 

Family Safeguarding Service – Liisa Jordan, Service Manager at Liisa.Jordan@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

Brief Intervention Service – Veronica Leigh, Service Manager at Veronica.Leigh@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

Iain Low, Head of Service at Iain.low@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

If you are an experienced Social Worker who meets the above criteria and want to play a central role in providing transformational help for families to achieve positive outcomes for children, Wandsworth’s is where you need to be, and we encourage you to apply for this opportunity. 

We review applications as and when they come in and invite successful candidates to our regular Friday interview panel. 

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services. 

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment and selection process, please let us know. 

We are also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Some posts may be exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to these posts will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

We offer a wide range of benefits designed to attract, develop, and reward our employees such as 40 days annual leave (including Bank Holidays), flexible working and a generous pension plan.  

*The welcome bonus is paid in two instalments: the first £2,500 after 6 months on successful completion of your probation period and the second £2,500 after 12 months of employment.

About you

Please refer to the Job Profile on the original careers page for the person specification. 

About Wandsworth

Our social workers are at the heart of our success, and we’re looking for Social Workers who share and are excited by our vision. Come and be part of our success.

All children and families deserve an outstanding level of practice, let’s work together to provide them with the very best.

Our shared vision and values to improve outcomes for children and families will drive practice. Our outstanding practice framework will support us collectively to do that. We want to apply solutions to complex problems in the simplest way. Having a robust practice framework will enable a shared language, understanding and value base from which we can all work creatively with children and families to achieve the best outcomes for them.

We know that to recruit passionate, dedicated social workers - where there’s simply more demand than the available resource - we must show our appreciation in more tangible ways. That's why we have put together an attractive package for all our social workers.

In return for your skills, knowledge and experience, you will receive an appropriate starting salary and a friendly, kind, positive and supportive working culture.

We also offer:

  • Performance related salary progression scheme

  • 32 days annual leave to all employees plus bank holidays

  • Relocation package for experienced social workers moving to London

  • Manageable caseloads

  • Agile and flexible working arrangements

  • Professional development and CPD opportunities

  • Regular reflective supervision and peer group supervision

  • Refer a friend scheme

  • Welcome payments and retention bonuses for harder to recruit to areas of our services

  • Social Work Career Pathway Framework

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services. 

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment and selection process, please let us know. 

We are also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Some posts may be exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to these posts will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

If you have any questions about applying for this role, please get in touch with Simi Sabo on simi.sabo@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk