Principal Social Worker

£62,199 - £74,774 per annum plus relocation package of up to 25% of starting salary (conditions apply)

We are seeking an exceptional social worker with a proven track record of leading and developing social work practice. 

We are on an exciting transformational journey, designed to improve the experience of the children and families we work with. We offer excellent management support, a recently formed senior leadership team with enthusiasm and ambition to deliver the highest standard of service delivery and excellent, flexible working conditions. In return we are looking for a social worker with substantial social work practice experience. An outstanding communicator and demonstrable evidence of supporting and improving social work practice. Evidence of post qualifying professional development is also required.

As a key member of the Senior Leadership Team the Principal Social Worker is central to our transformation journey. With responsibility for providing strong professional practice leadership across all operational areas of service; from Initial Response through to Care Leavers; and with both strategic and operational influence; you will be essential to the design and delivery of services. Working alongside social workers, other practitioners, Education and Early Help colleagues, you will identify opportunities to improve social work delivery, offer advice and support and provide independent scrutiny of practice and standards. 

You will have lead responsibility for the delivery of a comprehensive evidence based learning and development offer set within a context of restorative practice. You will work closely with our quality assurance colleagues to ensure that practice improvement is informed by the experience of our children and families, audit activity and inspection findings. You will be responsible for relating the views of social workers to senior managers and ensuring the views and experiences of children and families are fully considered in the planning and delivery of social care services.   You will also be required to represent Walsall at regional and national PSW fora.

You will report to the Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care and will provide assurance on the quality of social care practice to the Director of Children’s Services, Lead Member for Children’s Services and, at a national level, the Chief Social Worker.  

If you would like to discuss this post, please contact Kay Child, Principal Social Worker (Interim), on 01922 652710.

• Closing Date: 8 September 2019
• Interview Date: 23 September 2019

Walsall Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. To achieve our commitment, we will ensure continuous development and improvement of robust recruitment processes and procedures that promote a culture of safeguarding amongst our workforce.  Completion of an enhanced Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check is a requirement for this role.

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

Legislation imposes restrictions on political activity for certain local government employees. This position is designated as a politically restricted (sensitive) post as set out in Part 1 the Local Government & Housing Act 1989 and the Local Government (Political Restrictions) Regulations 1990 (LGO(PR)R 1990) [SI 851] and S.30 of the Local Democracy Economic Development and Construction Act 2009.

Working for Walsall

Walsall is a great place to work, with much to offer and extensive regeneration, having recently delivered a newly rebuilt hospital and college, development of the Walsall Waterfront offering new residential accommodation, hotels and leisure facilities and is seeing ongoing investment in its town centre and retail provision.  As an employer we provide an attractive employment package that includes:

• A generous annual leave entitlement offering a minimum 28 days leave per year (increased to 33 days after 5 years continuous local government service) plus 9 concessionary days and in addition to a flexible working scheme that allows up to a further 12 days leave per year
• Access to an award winning pension scheme
• Recent development of the working environment which has created a modern professional space in which to work with improved technology that allows agile working
• Promotion of training and development opportunities to all our employees to help them progress and gain new skills
• A genuine commitment to equality of opportunity for our staff and customers – we aim to employ a representative workforce that reflects the communities we serve