Senior Practitioner Children’s Disability Service - Stafford and South Staffordshire

Salary:  £37,890 - £41,881 per annum

 37 Hours per week – Permanent

Staffordshire County Council continues to undertake significant investment in its Children’s Services known as Families First.

A rare opportunity has arisen across Staffordshire Families First for a full time (37 hours) Senior Practitioner within the Children’s Disability Service. This post is based in Stafford, Staffordshire.

We have 4 Children’s Disability teams across the county, and they provide specialist services for children and young people with complex disabilities. These are small teams of highly dedicated Social Workers who support each other in the day to day task of ensuring we reach the best outcomes for our Disabled children in a timely manner, enabling them to live their lives to the full. We also are supported by a team of skilled Family Support Workers who assist in facilitating behaviour management work and undertaking direct work.

As a qualified Social Worker, you will be based within a small team of between 8/9 Social Workers. You will work alongside the Team Manager to support the development of social work expertise within the service. You will hold a small caseload of complex cases to retain your practice wisdom, whilst supervising, co-working, mentoring and coaching less experienced members of the team. You will facilitate reflective group supervision sessions alongside the Team Manager to create a team culture that drives high performance expectations within a supportive, learning environment.

The candidate will be expected to be a team player. The ability to engage and communicate with Disabled children is essential and the successful applicant will be committed to ensuring the children on their case load receive the best quality service.

Staffordshire’s Families First is one of the largest Children’s Services in England and as a consequence there are excellent career opportunities for highly motivated and experienced staff to join a ‘Good’ Children’s Service.

Staff are provided with high quality regular supervision, a second to none training offer which equips staff to have the tools to do their job both confidently and competently alongside excellent line management support.

Making sure you are well supported and given the opportunity to develop and progress is a high priority at Staffordshire and is very important to us. We have an excellent staff development programme and good practice is recognised and rewarded.

If you are confident and have the skills and experience to manage a complex caseload and work in a demanding environment then this is an opportunity for you to further your expertise…..so come and join our enthusiastic team.

This Authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

This position is subject to a criminal records check from the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly CRB) which will require you to disclose details of all unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.

To apply for this post click on the ‘Apply’ button below.

By clicking on the apply button you will be redirected to Staffordshire County Council’s online application website. Please note, you are only able to view the Job Description and Person Specification on the WM Jobs board NOT via Staffordshire County Council's online application site.  

To submit your application, you will need to register an account on the website (NB this is a separate login to WM Jobs). 

We collect personal information from you when you register with us to make an application. Information we collect includes name, email address and other contact details. We will use this information to communicate with you generally and to assess your application.

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If you experience any technical issues accessing or completing the application form please contact recruitment@staffordshire.gov.uk

Closing Date: 29^th April 2021
Interview Date: 11^th May 2021

For more information about the role please contact: Liz Holdcroft on 01543 512097 or at elizabeth.holdcroft@staffordshire.gov.uk

Please be aware, only application forms completed online will be accepted. We will not accept CV’s or Word application forms.

Our Values

The County Council has adopted a set of values that seeks to achieve the best outcomes for its citizens, communities and employees.

Our People Strategy sets out what we all need to do to make Staffordshire County Council a great place to work, where people are supported to develop, flourish and contribute to our ambitious plans. 

Our values are at the heart of the Strategy to ensure that the focus is on what is important to the organisation and the people it serves:

• Ambitious - We are ambitious for our communities and citizens
• Courageous - We recognise our challenges and are prepared to make courageous decisions
• Empowering - We empower and support our people by giving them the opportunity to do their jobs well.

Benefits for working for us….

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to a range of benefits including:

• An excellent local government pension scheme
• Generous holiday entitlement from 24 up to 33 days (plus 2 extra statutory days and bank holidays) depending on job role and length of service
• The option to buy up to an additional 2 weeks annual leave
• A range of flexible working options, depending on your job role, which includes agile working, flexible retirement
• Family Friendly Policies - maternity, adoption, paternity and parental leave
• Volunteering Scheme
• Training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• Access to health and wellbeing support (including Occupational Health, Physiotherapy and Counselling Services)
• Eye care vouchers
• Car lease scheme / cycle & car loan scheme / employee car share scheme
• Bus and rail travel discounts