Head of Service – Systemic Clinical Services; Workforce Development & Principal

Head of Service – Systemic Clinical Services; Workforce Development & Principal Social Worker - salary up to £87,968pa

Croydon has an exciting opportunity to lead systemic social work practice across the Children, Families and Education directorate.  Our systemic clinical practice team is well established with Systemic Therapists, Clinical Psychologists and Health & Wellbeing Practitioners working alongside practitioners; directly with children and families in partnership.  The service provides formal teaching in systemic practice and career development opportunities across disciplines.  Our workforce development team leads the Croydon Social Care Academy the hub of recruitment, Frontline & Step-Up to Social work; ASYE programme and CPD offer.  As Principal Social Worker the successful candidate will create partnerships of learning both nationally and locally contributing to the voice of the profession influencing practice. 

We expect children and families in Croydon to receive collaborative services from our practitioners. We want our staff to have high expectations and high challenge of their practice and each other working alongside families.

Your experience of working in a statutory setting will allow you to operate with confidence and emotional intelligence; using research to support your decision making and creating plans focused on creating positive change in children and young people’s lives.

We are looking for an experienced leader dual qualified in Social Work and Systemic Therapy to join the Directorate leadership team.  You will need to have significant experience working in statutory children’s services and in the leadership of clinical practitioners within systemic practice, clinical psychology and/or other clinical disciplines.

The successful candidate with have:

• Substantial experience of providing social care and clinical practice leadership that manages and reduces risk within a dynamic and changing environment.
• Experience of working within multicultural communities applying systemic approached to challenging oppression and discrimination.
• Experience of working at a highly specialist level with children and young people with a wide range of emotional and behavioural disorders, particularly children in care and their networks.
• The experience and skills to lead the Early Help and Children’s Social Care Academy, bringing together a range of initiatives to support the induction and continuous professional development of early help and social care staff
• Knowledge and experience of developing social care practice and excellent communication skills to lead and motivate internal and external stakeholders.

For an informal conversation – please contact Róisín Madden roisin.madden@croydon.gov.uk and we will get back to you.

Closing Date – Midnight Sunday 27^th June

Shortlisting – Tuesday 29^th June

Interviews will be held on Tuesday 6^th July

Croydon Council is an inclusive employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. We will be pleased to consider applications from candidates seeking flexible working arrangements.  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 an Enhanced DBS check.