Practice Manager - Children Looked After & Leaving Care Service

I Independent Futures is Islington's specialist Leaving Care Service for children and young people age 16-25 years old.  As a practice manager within the service, you will be responsible for managing practitioners holding cases of both young people in care and supporting others exiting the care system to achieve independence. At the heart of our work is the development of our practice model to help vulnerable children, young people and their families to make meaningful and sustainable changes in their lives. Islington’s Motivational Practice Model provides an integrated care, safeguarding and change model based on evidence-based theory of change. This includes motivational interviewing skills which help build meaningful relationships and promote safety, collaboration and purposeful change. Our practice model is further complemented by Trauma-informed practice (including Dyadic Development Practice), which provides a framework for understanding children’s developmental needs, how their experiences are expressed through behaviour, and skills to engage vulnerable children and young people, families and carers.

You will be joining a multi- professional team made up of Senior Social workers, Social Workers, Young Person Advisors, Mental Health Social Workers, Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children Project Manager and  Clinicians.
Our young people are at the heart of everything we do. As a Practice Manager you will promote and govern excellent practice, developing the practitioners you supervise individually and in group supervision. You will be responsible for overseeing and supporting practitioners to make decisions about children and families and provide effective and purposeful social work. You will actively champion the delivery of the Motivational Practice model, developing excellent practitioners by shaping and leading the practice within your cluster of 6 practitioners. You will provide strengths based observation and coaching of direct practice and ensure that statutory requirements for your Cluster’s cases are completed to a high standard.

We take pride in providing a learning environment where staff can develop, our controlled caseloads, safe working practices, a culture of strong supervision and excellent training opportunities which enable a supportive working environment for all staff. We offer dedicated training, coaching and supervision to develop your skills. We have opportunities to consult with clinicians on cases and offer a range of appropriate support services in borough for our children and young people. Islington Children Social Care was judged by OFSTED in March 2020 as being Outstanding. The Independent Futures Service is well resourced and enjoys a stable and supportive workforce.

You will be accustomed to employing social work principles such as dignity, respect, empathy, and strength based, collaborative approach to service delivery. Relationship based practice is the cornerstone of social work practice in the Leaving Care Service. In order to help us select the best candidates, Islington have developed a two stage interview process with the first stage being an opportunity to test out applicants’ Motivational Practice compatibility. Candidates are not required to have advanced motivational interviewing skills, rather we are seeking to identify those who have the capacity to develop these skills with the advanced training and coaching. Further details will be provided to all candidates who are shortlisted and offered an interview.

Benefits: Zone 1-2 Travel card, specially designed core training package, professional development opportunities, retention bonus, good pension scheme and generous holidays, flexible working arrangements, an experienced management team, key worker housing on successful completion of probation and a great working location with good transport links.
Please ensure you address the person specification fully, referencing how you meet each specification in turn as fully as possible.

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Brenda Amisi-Hutchinson/Ritah Jackson on 0207 527 7347/7152

Closing date: Sunday 03 October 2021  at 23.59

Shortlisting- Friday 8th October 2021

Motivational Interview date: Friday 15th October 2021

Only candidates who are successful at the Motivational interviews will be invited for the technical interview.