Senior Social Worker - Children's - Children in Care

SENIOR SOCIAL WORKERS – CHILDREN’S – CHILDREN IN CARE

£54,083 - £57,116 (includes market supplement)

Newham Dockside E16 2QU – Hybrid role – working with children and families

Closing date: 11/08/2024 at 23:59 *please apply ASAP as we may shortlist and interview applicants before the closing date

Job Description

JOIN US AND BUILD A FAIRER NEWHAM

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. 

ABOUT THE JOB – SENIOR SOCIAL WORKER, CHILDREN IN CARE (CiC)

Social Work in Newham is underpinned by a culture of Systemic and Restorative practice with high quality relationships at the heart of our approach. Senior Social Workers (SSWs) in our Children in Care service work closely with children and young people who are in the care of the local authority, through care proceedings, placements, to eventual transfer to leaving care services or ideally returning to family. 

Senior Social Workers have a vital case holding role delivering high quality practice to best serve our children and families, whilst supporting lesser experienced colleagues. SSWs will potentially take on responsibility for supervising social work students on placement at Newham so we welcome Practice Educators, though this is not essential for this role. You’ll be joining an experienced and friendly service, where progression is a genuine possibility; we’ve seen two Senior Social Workers make the upwards step to Assistant Team Manager, and one Assistant Team Manager to move up to Team Manager in recent months.

We value our Senior Social Workers and understand the importance of supporting your learning, development, and wellbeing. We have a bespoke support offer through our very own clinical service; and our embedded systemic family psychotherapist assists with interventions where this may benefit children and young people in our care.

Newham’s commitment to our children in care was recently emphasised by us making being care experienced a protected characteristic – find out more about this by clicking here.

ABOUT YOU – SENIOR SOCIAL WORKER, CHILDREN IN CARE

We’re looking for experienced, confident social work practitioners; you likely have at least 3 years’ post qualified experience (or more) and experience of working effectively within a diverse, urban community. You will have experience working in a service focusing solely on looked after children, and will be able to comfortably discuss the positive outcomes you’ve achieved for children and young people if shortlisted for interview. You’ll be confident and have a firm understanding of court work and proceedings, and be pro-active and energetic about travelling to meet our children and young people within their placements.

Newham is committed to our workforce being representative of the families we work with, to enhance cultural competence and adjust our practice to suit the individuals we serve. We are looking for colleagues who share our values and are passionate about tackling disproportionality wherever they find it and building a Fairer Newham. You will have a genuine interest in a restorative, relationship based practice model, drawing on systemic thinking to inform your approach to building effective relationships with children, families and communities.

You will be a qualified social worker who is registered with Social Work England.

WHY WORK WITH US?

We’ve been working hard to make Newham a great place to practise social work.

• A commitment to addressing disproportionality wherever we find it.
• We’re a GOOD local authority focused on reaching excellence.
• We offer genuinely flexible/hybrid working as long as children and families are supported.
• Stability: 100% of our Senior Managers and 71% of Team Managers are permanent.
• Our firmly established practice model, Circles of Support, was recently nominated for the prestigious MJ Award for Innovation in Children’s Services and allows systemic, restorative practice to flourish.
• Career progression; we promoted 30 internal colleagues in 2023.
• Social Care Academy – 47 social workers have studied for systemic higher education with us since 2020. Our Academy offer received significant praise from Ofsted.
• A competitive package for social workers of up to £57,116 (includes market supplement).
• Oyster card/parking permit for business use.
• Wellbeing service, leisure and discount benefits (Council scheme).
• Travel season ticket loan, cycle scheme, Local Authority pension.

TO APPLY

To apply please submit your CV and a supporting statement (1-2 sides of A4) through our online recruitment portal. 

Shortlisting decisions will be based on candidates' relevant experience and on candidates' suitability for the role in line with the person specification, as described in their supporting statement and CV.

Closing date: 11/08/2024 at 23:59

Interviews: ASAP* - 

*PLEASE APPLY ASAP AS WE MAY SHORTLIST AND INTERVIEW BEFORE THE CLOSING DATE

If you have any questions about the recruitment process or want to discuss joining Newham Children’s Services with one of our managers, please contact our Recruitment Team.

Additional Information

We are committed to creating an inclusive, anti-racist environment for all. When you apply for a job at Newham, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. If you share our vision and values, and you bring the experience and skills we need, that’s all that matters to us.

The London Borough of Newham has important res