Duty Senior Practitioner - Assessment & Intervention

Permanent, Full Time

£40,637 to £49,183 per annum

Location: Harlow

Closing date: 1st June 2021

Interviews will be held on 7th June 2021

Children and Families is recognised as a service in which social work can develop and prosper, with a culture of collaboration, integrity and compassion; promoting development and wellbeing of children, young people and their families; protecting them from neglect and abuse. Working together with partners delivering a range of early help, family support and effective social work interventions which build resilience, remove barriers and enable children and young people to look forward to a brighter future.

Assessment and Intervention (A&I)

These teams are the gateway through which children, young people, parents/carers and other agencies gain access to Children and Families services. Assessment and Intervention undertakes incoming assessments and short - term intervention work with families; working with children from pre- birth up to a child's 18th birthday.

They focus on children in need (CIN) and their families, offering three months' intervention. They also deal with S47 child protection enquiries and work jointly with the police and other partners in assessing immediate risk for children that come to our attention. A&I primarily transfer cases into Family Support and Protection Teams should families require longer-term intervention, or if the children become subject to a child protection plan or come into care of the local authority. If following an assessment and brief intervention the family do not require a social work service, they could be stepped down to Family Solutions as part of our Early Help Offer.

The Role

As a Senior Practitioner you will provide leadership in the team, providing both support and mentoring to newly qualified or less experienced staff and deputising for the Team Manager when needed. You will oversee the review of some child in need plans particularly prior to closure and will have responsibility to lead in a practice area.

There will be opportunities for your own professional development and for being part of developing our team and service. There is an ethos of openness to the development of new ideas, particularly to reinforce our relationship-based focus, both with our service users and within the staff group.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Diploma in Social Work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent.
• Must have a practice educator qualification. Experience of supporting and mentoring ASYE's through their first year in practice.
• Social Work England Registration as a registered Social Worker.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• IT/Word Processing Skills.
• Evidence of recent practice at an experienced social worker level, supported by comprehensive working knowledge and experience within the field of practice in Children Services.
• Preferably with experience of Child Protection work including section 47 investigations and assessments since the implementation of the Children's Act 1989.Considerable, recent experience of communicating with children of all ages and working in partnership with parents and/or carers.
• Experience in planning activities and programmes for children, young people and parents.
• Experience of Court work in relation to Child Care matters and have an understanding of the legal process.
• Detailed knowledge of current legislation pertinent to Child Protection (e.g. CA1989, CJA1991), Guidance and Regulations.
• Knowledge and understanding of child development, relating theory and practice.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wide operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

As part of employment with Essex County Council should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please visit: https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is proud to offer an excellent benefits package to all its employees. For more information please use the following link: https://www.workingforessex.com/working-here/pay-reward/

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people as diversity is key to our success.

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email or call us on 0333 013 5888. Lines are open Monday to Friday between 08:30 - 16:30.