About Us:

Working as part of Children’s Services will provide a challenging and rewarding career. We have high ambitions for the children and young people of Kensington and Chelsea.  We have formed a bi-borough Children’s Services team with colleagues from Westminster City Council. Our services, which include education, family services and safeguarding, have been rated Outstanding by Ofsted, and our drive to be the best doesn’t stop there.  By working with us, you will have the opportunity to make a difference to young people in one of the world’s most diverse cities.

If you would like to play a part in this unique team, please take a look at the vacancies below.

The Role:

We have high aspirations for children and young people in RBKC. We are looking for a vibrant, enthusiastic and experienced social worker to join the Ladbroke North Team, who are currently based at Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall. We are one of six locality teams in RBKC and, similarly to the other teams, we cover some areas of profound poverty along with those of great wealth. Economic difference is matched by a rich cultural, religious and ethnic diversity making for a lively and interesting environment.

We use a locality-based model and work in a "generic way": from referral through to closure (Child in Need, Child Protection, Care Proceedings, Children in Care and Care Leavers). We believe that this model enables us to build strong, supportive and consistent relationships with the families we work with. We use systemic tools and ideas in order to achieve interventions which are deep, more intensive and able to help families engage with our service in a meaningful way in order to make radical and lasting changes in their lives.

At the same time, we recognize the importance of safeguarding being the highest context and our primary responsibility will continue to be to identify and assess risk of harm, to keep children safe and to promote their welfare.

This is a high performing, energetic and creative locality social work team and is made up of seven social workers (including an Advanced Practitioner and Specialist Practitioner), Team Manager, Practice Manager, Family Therapist, Business Support Officer and a Team Coordinator.

The most recent OFSTED inspection deemed our department as being outstanding in all areas. We strive to build on this even more. As a social worker for RBKC you could both benefit significantly from the experience and learning we can offer and help us to change the way we work for the better and further improve outcomes for children. To this end, all our Social Workers are expected to attend our in-house systemic training.

In addition to an extensive training offer, Social Workers receive a Child Protection allowance of £ 2,500/per annum and a free annual travel card for zones 1 and 2.

For more information about the role, please see the full Job Description. 

About You:

• To manage a caseload determined by the Team Manager or Practice Manager.
• To undertake work alone and with others on complex child related cases.
• To participate in a duty system, which might entail operating from another site.
• To participate in regular supervision.
• To participate in team meetings.
• To keep case recordings accurate and up to date in a factual and informative style.
• To ensure all financial transactions are fully written up and accounted for.
• To work in accordance with the Council’s Equal Opportunities statement.
• To work in collaboration with staff in other statutory and voluntary agencies.
• To contribute to the development of the work of the Department (e.g. participation in working parties).
• To attend case conferences and represent the Department at formal meetings, courts, etc.
• To keep abreast of childcare legislation and departmental policies and procedures.
• To undertake other such relevant duties as required by the manager.

Role Requirements:

To provide a high-quality social work service to families and children where the issues can be complex and challenging, through individual casework and/or shared work. To manage risk effectively ensuring that interventions and plans for children deliver outcomes supported by best practice.

Social Worker are expected to undertake responsibility for the following range of work:

• Child Protection.
• Children being looked after by the Local Authority.
• Children and the courts.
• Work with children in need and their families.

All staff are expected to carry out their job in compliance with the Councils Constitution. This means being familiar with the policies and procedures relevant to the job and asking for information and advice if you are unsure of the correct course of action. The Council’s Constitution is published on the Internet.

We work in partnership with Hampshire County Council (HCC) who deliver many transactional services on our behalf. Although most communications will be from HCC, all selection and appointment decisions will be made by RBKC. Certain services are shared across more than one Council area to nearby neighbouring Authorities. This enhances delivery and reduces costs. Your recruitment information will advise if your remit extends beyond RBKC.

We will primarily contact candidates by e-mail throughout the recruitment process, please monitor your email junk / spam folder as our system generated emails may be allocated to these folders by your email settings.

We engage our staff with a variety of learning types including face-to-face and virtual learning because we want to ensure our staff understand our values and behaviours, grow their skills and develop their careers.

Additional information

RBKC is currently inclusively reviewing its pay, reward and benefits framework.

This post is covered by the Fluency Duty, as outlined in the Code of Practice on the English language requirements for public sector workers.

We are committed to promoting equality and respecting diversity and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

We are a Disability Confident Employer – committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible.