Children's Social Worker - Family Safeguarding

ASYE Social worker SO2 - £32,909 - £34,723 and 

Qualified Social Worker - PO2 - £34,723 - £37,261 plus £3,500 market factor 

Experienced Social Worker - PO3: £35,411 - £38,296 plus £7,500 market factor 

Full time - 37 hours per week

Plus Welcome Payment of £5,000 for all experienced Social Workers commencing in post in our Family Safeguarding Service as new employees of T&WC.

Would you like to work for an ‘Outstanding’ local authority – one with an established management team, committed to developing excellent practice and ensuring that our staff receive the best support we can offer?

There has never been a more exciting time to join our service: alongside making a difference to the lives of individuals and families, we have adopted exciting new strengths-based approaches and are passionate about delivering continuous service improvement.

In 2021, we implemented a new approach to Child Protection services developed by Hertfordshire County Council, and began to deliver their innovative and pioneering practice model of Family Safeguarding. Family Safeguarding is a model of system change where specialist adult practitioners are embedded within Family Safeguarding teams of Social Workers.

The intervention supports a whole-system change to a local authority’s child protection approach for children up to adolescence, focusing on supporting the needs of children and adults in order that children can safely remain within their families.

This involves:

• Establishing multi-disciplinary teams where specialist adult practitioners in domestic abuse, mental health and substance misuse are co-located with Social Workers under a unified management structure. This enables a multi-disciplinary whole family response through direct assessment and support from specialist adult practitioners as well as multi-professional group case discussions and sharing of knowledge and skills across disciplines.
• Use of Motivational Interviewing (MI) as a framework for practice for all staff. Staff undergo training and ongoing skills development workshops and follow a structured solution-focussed intervention programme with families which aims to work collaboratively with families and increase engagement.
• Using an electronic assessment workbook which provides a single data tool for all professionals and links to the work programme. This increases ease of information sharing between professionals and reduces social worker time spent recording and sharing information.

Our brilliant practitioners are at the heart of our ambitious approach to improve outcomes for children and families in Telford and Wrekin: that’s why from tailored in-house training to the West Midlands Teaching Partnership, we will ensure that you have access to the best development opportunities.

We value our practitioners and offer staff rewards and plenty of opportunities for personal development and career progression including:

• Free on-site parking
• Full reimbursement of your annual Social Work England registration fee
• Essential car user allowance
• Flexible and mobile working policy - we are well adapted to a hybrid model of working which includes a combination of time spent in the office and at home – our approach is to promote greater level of flexible working around personal and family commitments
• Private lettings are available from ‘Nuplace’ who give priority to social work professionals

Here at Telford and Wrekin Council, we have been judged to be outstanding overall in terms of effectiveness (the only Authority in the West Midlands with this judgement). Here’s just some of the great things Ofsted had to say when they visited us in 2020:

• Children are cared for and cared about
• Social Workers and other staff who support children are very committed and they are exceptionally well trained
• Children are listened to and their experiences are well understood
• Senior Leaders aspire to a service for every child that they would welcome for their own
• Children benefit from a stable workforce which is highly committed and experienced
• Staff experience a wide range of development opportunities

As an example, one of our Team Managers said: “I have been offered a broad array of training opportunities, including specialised supervision training with the Centre for Systemic Practice. I think it would be fair to say that my experience certainly demonstrates that Telford and Wrekin are keen to encourage their Social Workers to develop their practice and career. It is a Local Authority which likes to grow its own.”

If you share our passion for making a difference, we would be delighted if you joined us.

For further information on the role please click on the links below to view the job description and person specification.

We are committed to equality and diversity. Posts working with children or vulnerable groups will be subject to an appropriate criminal records check.

If you think you can meet the challenge and would like to find out more about this role, please contact us by emailing hubprojectteam@telford.gov.uk or calling 01952 385658.

Please note that interviews will be held on an ongoing basis, when suitable applications are received. If you are interested in applying, we recommend that you apply as soon as possible as we may close the vacancy early if suitable candidates are appointed. For more information about working for Telford & Wrekin Social Care, please view our recruitment page: https://www.telford.gov.uk/cscr

Supporting documents
Qualified Social Worker Job Description & Person Specification
Experienced Qualified Social Worker Job Description & Person Specification