Social Workers and Senior Social Workers (Children's Teams)
Job introduction
Are you a qualified social worker wanting to make a difference for children and families?
We don’t need to tell you about why you should work for Brighton & Hove – our staff will do that - Hear more about Brighton & Hove’s model of relationship-based social work and how it makes a difference for families and practitioners.
We are proud of the feedback from our social workers and from Ofsted: “Social workers’ morale is high and they enjoy working in Brighton & Hove.”
If this sounds like the way that you want to work and the kind of support you would like, we have vacancies that may interest you – social workers and senior social workers in our generic pods, small social work teams which support children and families throughout their journey with us. If you are interested in a temporary senior social worker position please also contact us. Senior social workers in our pods complete direct work with families but also support other social workers, including ASYEs and students.
For more information about these roles or, if you are an experienced social worker who is thinking about returning to social work but who is not registered with Social Work England, please contact: Tom Stibbs (Principal Children and Families Social Worker) tom.stibbs@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Closing Date: 22nd November
Interview Date: 29th November
If you are based overseas and are successful in obtaining one of these posts, as well as a generous relocation package, we have an agency in place to provide you with support in relocating to the UK.
We are interested in hearing from people who want to work full-time or part-time and have family friendly policies including flexible working. If you are interested in a fixed-term contract post we may also be able to accommodate this.
As well as a competitive salary, we offer a relocation package of up to £10,000 and a range of other benefits including a rental deposit loan scheme: Why work for us (brighton-hove.gov.uk)
Hear from our practitioners about why they think Brighton & Hove is a great place to live and work
About the role
We know that you and our existing social workers are our greatest asset and we strive to give you the time and active support you need so that you can make a real difference to children’s lives and realise our vision for social work. Our pod model is based on providing emotional containment for you. This includes a supervision model of weekly group supervision, 1:1 supervision, and Reflective Practice Groups for practitioners and managers at every level, as well as a clear CPD pathway. We have a low workload approach where, like most of our social workers, we aim to make sure that you work with less than 18 children (around 8 families).
We have set up an anti-racist project as we recognised that we need to do further work to support Black and global majority families in the city and to support our staff from Black and global majority communities. Hear more about anti-racist practice from our workers including our anti-racist lead practitioner
For these posts, you must hold a Professional Social Work Qualification and be registered as a social worker with Social Work England
If you are a newly-qualified social worker, we advertise for our ASYE programme once a year in March / April – find out more about our ASYE programme from the ASYEs themselves
Please read our Apply for a job at the council (brighton-hove.gov.uk) pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.
As part of your application, you will need to complete your education and work history and provide answers to some shortlisting questions. Your answers to the shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our guidance here (Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.
Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.
Work Permits: We may be able to obtain a Work Permit for this post but this is subject to meeting the requirements of the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) Points-based Immigration System. Please see Gov.uk for more information on the Skilled Worker Visa.
Part office / part home – hybrid - We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining.
Working arrangements are subject to Government guidance at the time. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us (brighton-hove.gov.uk)
Company information
Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).
Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.