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Senior Practitioner - Children and Families Hub

Employer
Essex County Council
Location
England, Essex, Colchester
Salary
Negotiable
Closing date
27 May 2021

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Senior Practitioner - Children and Families Hub

Permanent, Part Time

£40,637 to £49,183 per annum pro rata

Location: Colchester

Closing date: 11th May 2021 - please note this is part time role 3 days per week (Monday to Wednesday)

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

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.

The Role

This role is classed as essential and office based in nature.

The Children and Families Hub is the single point of access for Children's Social Care. Its primary purpose is to ensure that children and young people and their families receive early help, advice and support to assist in protecting them from significant harm and promoting their development and wellbeing. The Children and Families Hub does this by identifying the lowest appropriate level of support needed to bring about change, support good parenting and boundaries and promote children's emotional wellbeing. The Children and Families Hub plays a critical role in engaging parents and professionals in interventions that can bring about change in families and we aspire to deliver an outstanding service to children and families in Essex.

The Senior Practitioner role provides leadership in the team, providing both support and mentoring to newly qualified or less experienced staff and deputising for the Team Manager when needed. They 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 good opportunities for their 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.

The successful candidate will be expected to bring skill and high standards of social work to their own caseload as well as providing modelling, advice and support to colleagues. They 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.

What you will need

  • A diploma in Social Work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent and registration with Social Work England as a registered Social Worker.
  • Evidence of continuing professional development and good IT 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.

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.

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