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Senior Practitioner - Family Support & Protection

Employer
Essex County Council
Location
England, Essex, Clacton-On-Sea
Salary
Negotiable
Closing date
15 Oct 2020

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In Essex County Council we are "Serious about Social Work".

Having won the Best Social Work Employer of the Year and been awarded 'Outstanding' by Ofsted this is an exciting time to join us. As if that wasn't enough, Essex has also been announced as a Partner in Practice by the Department of Education, and the Essex Social Care Academy (ESCA) is the only Local Authority team in the country to be accredited by BASW as a CPD provider.

We have invested in our workforce and created a positive environment for our social workers to make a difference and achieve change for our most vulnerable children and families through direct relationship-based social work practice.

We have supported our staff to have an understanding of systemic theoretical framework and models underpinning our interventions; to have access to the right tools, equipment and resources; and also the right supervision, training and learning opportunities they need to be strong practitioners.
Your Team

The Family Support and Protection (FS&P) teams work with families that have long term complex issues, require more than three months intervention, and where children are subject to child protection or child in need plans or where children can no longer live at home and care proceedings need to be initiated. FS&P Social Workers work is varied, working with families and other services to achieve positive change within the context of managing risk.

What you can bring

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.

Our benefits

We're proud to offer an excellent benefits package to all our employees, including a local government pension, flexible working arrangements, generous annual leave and a range of discounts and loans. Find out more about our benefits .
What you will need

Along with a diploma in Social Work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent, and Social Work England registration as a registered Social Worker, you will be expected to bring skill and high standards of social work to your own caseload, with a comprehensive working knowledge and experience within the field of practice in Children Services.

You will have experience of planning activities and programmes for children, young people and parents, and strong evidence of your knowledge and understanding of child development, relating theory and practice.

You will have experience of court work in relation to Child Care matters and an understanding of the legal process, with knowledge of current legislation pertinent to Child Protection (e.g. CA1989, CJA1991), Guidance and Regulations.

Ideally, you will have 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.

You will be committed to systemic, relationship based social work, providing effective, innovative interventions and with the ability to build good partnerships, both with our external partners and within the organisation.

Crucially, we know that there is more to life than work. We are a motivated and enthusiastic team - but we want you to find an exceptional work/life balance. As such, you will be encouraged to make the most of our commitment to flexible working arrangements.

At Essex County Council, we seek the best talent from the widest pool of people - diversity is key to our success and we want to hear from every part of the community.
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.

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. A DBS check is mandatory for all our roles.

If you have any queries regarding this role, or require anything further, please contact the Recruitment Team on 03330135888

Essex

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