We are recruiting for:

Senior Specialist Social Workers - Ref: CH03922
Salary - Grade 10: £38,553 - £43,570 per annum, plus relocation package of up to 25% of starting salary (conditions apply).          

Equality Statement

We want our staff and management teams to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve in Walsall, and in Children’s Social Care we are committed to promoting equality and anti-discriminatory practice.

We welcome applications from people of all cultures, races, ethnicities and religions, of different genders, ages, sexual orientations, disabled applicants, and recognise unique perspectives and contributions.

Working for Walsall Children’s Social Care

Walsall is a great place to practice Social Work. We strive to provide the best services and outcomes for our children, young people and families, and this has just been recognised by Ofsted who have graded us as GOOD!

Ofsted told us that: ‘There is a strong corporate commitment and investment in children’s services from the chief executive, lead member and other members to implement Walsall Council’s priorities for children. As a result, there is tangible progress and benefits for children, their families and the workforce. There has been a significant reduction in social work caseloads so social workers can spend more time with children and their families. Workforce stability is good and results in fewer changes of social workers for children’.

To achieve this we try to keep a resolute focus on workloads. Our current workload average is 13.3% per full-time Social Worker.

We have introduced Family Safeguarding Model, where Social Workers work alongside specialist adult practitioners with the aim of keeping children safe in their families through providing timely help, protection and support. The model has been in place for over a year and we are really starting to see the difference, with Ofsted reporting that they saw exceptional practice from social workers, which helps children’s experience improve and supports families to make positive improvements in their lives.  As a result of this, our numbers of children supported by a child protection plan have reduced by half and children entering care have reduced by 30%. This is just one of a number of new and innovative approaches we are implementing to do things differently.

We have significantly improved our workforce stability, and we would like you to join our increasingly settled, permanent staff group. Our staff tell us things are improving, in our 2021 Health Check Survey 93% of staff said they feel positive about working for Walsall. Feedback was that this was especially because we have a small community feeling here in Walsall, and staff feel part of a team and supported by their managers and Senior Managers.

For our Social Workers to be able to support children and young people and keep them safe, they need feel safe and supported. We have just launched a new Workforce and Wellbeing Strategy to put wellbeing at the heart of everything we do. As part of this we are trialling clinical supervision for our Social Workers and Team Managers in partnership with The Child Psychology Service, as part of an enhanced wellbeing programme for all staff.

We have a comprehensive career development offer; from our ASYE programme which is considered an example of good practice, to our core offer for all Social Workers and our Practice Educator and Team Manager Programmes, there are lots of opportunities to develop and progress your social work career. As practitioners gain experience, they are also able to access specialist training: for example in becoming Practice Leads with the Centre for Expertise in Child Sexual Abuse, completing Achieving Best Evidence training, or ongoing Restorative Practice coaching.

We offer flexible working, with a hybrid approach of home working and office based working to maintain our team support and culture.

Our staff are our biggest resources and we want to invest in them! We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including retention payments for Social Workers in key frontline practice roles in Duty and Assessment and Family Safeguarding Teams. These start at 10% of annual salary after 2 years working for us, increasing to 12% after 4, and 14% after 6 years.

This is a great time to join us – get in touch to find out more: PracticeDevelopmentHub@walsall.gov.uk

The Role

Senior Specialist Social Worker

Experienced Social Workers are the beating heart of what we do. You are practitioners with knowledge and skills to provide children, young people, families and carers with the very best help and support. In Walsall we want to keep our experienced Social Workers in practice, and we want to do this by offering the right progression and support opportunities. We have created this new Senior Specialist Social Worker to support this.

The Senior Specialist Social Worker is a progression opportunity that reflects the type of a workload that a practitioner manages, and the development of their knowledge, skills and experience, including an emerging specialism in practice.

Senior Specialist Social Workers will be based within teams, and work with children, young people and families under the guidance of the Team Manager and Senior Practitioner for that team. Senior Specialist Social Worker will be experienced members of their team and services who draw on their knowledge and skills, and especially their specialist interests, to support others. In return, they are able to able to access specific training and development opportunities in their specialism(s), and will be encouraged to participate in development work in those areas.

To apply for this role, you should be able to demonstrate your practice experience to a more senior level, and your ability to manage a varied workload. In addition you should have begun to identify an area of developing specialism that you can bring to your practice and contribute to your service.

We are currently advertising for a small number of Senior Specialist Social Workers across the following areas:

• Duty and Assessment
• Family Safeguarding
• Disabled Children and Young People
• Corporate Parenting

View Job Description & Employee Specification

Closing date for applications: 30 June 2022

Walsall Council takes seriously the responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all the children and young people entrusted to our care and it is our expectation that all staff will share this commitment. Completion of an enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check is a requirement for working with children and young people. Applicants appointed to posts that require an enhanced DBS clearance must declare any periods of time that they have lived, studied or worked abroad and be prepared to provide an Overseas Criminal Records Certificate (OCRC) or a Statement of Good Conduct (SOGC) relating to anytime they were overseas.

The post holder must have a social work qualification or equivalent and must be registered with the Social Work England.

This post is covered by the Government’s Code of Practice on the English Language Fluency Duty for public sector workers.  The post holder will be required to communicate verbally with customers and provide advice and/or information in accurate spoken English.