Senior Support Worker - D-BIT Service

Permanent, Full Time

£24,395 to £31,131 Per Annum

Location: Basildon

Closing Date: Monday 3rd February 2025 at 11.59pm

Here in Essex, we continue to raise the bar about practice and our investment in our workforce is second to none. It's an exciting time to join us having received our 2nd Outstanding Ofsted rating in a row.

This vacancy can accommodate a newly qualified social worker.

Interview date: Wednesday 12th February 2025.

The Role

This role with the D-BIT Service is Mon- Fri, but as a Senior Support worker joining the team you will work flexibly with children and their families, mostly within their homes and in their communities.

We work with families at times that are helpful for them, most Solution Focused sessions therefore take place with families in their homes in the afternoons and early evenings.

You may be required to undertake planned work on occasional Saturdays where it is a best fit for families. There is an expectation to work from the office when not visiting families, some home working can be discussed with the manager.

The Opportunity

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.

Senior Support Workers work within a frontline service, working collaboratively with Qualified Social Workers to deliver bespoke, targeted intervention work, in accordance with the care plans, to vulnerable children and families. This also encompasses supervising Family Time. This work will normally be time limited, with measurable impact and meet the assessed needs.

Educated to Level 3 or with activity based alternative experience, in a social care setting, you will be passionate about engaging with and providing direct support in the community, building strong working relationships with partners to jointly deliver improved services.

Accountabilities

• Responsible for supporting social workers to implement safety plans and monitor care plans, and write reports where required, which deliver interventions for children and families.
• Responsible for maintaining high standards of professional practice which contribute to continuous improvement across the service.
• Responsible for highlighting issues and implementing plans to safeguard a child.
• Building strong, effective relationships with the service users, providing practical advice and support, where necessary and deemed appropriate; enabling children and families to sustain change and function effectively within the community.
• Work collaboratively across the service, with internal and external professional partner agencies, to ensure improved outcomes for children and families.
• Provide information and advice in relation to involvement/accessing of third party agencies relevant to the needs of the service user (e.g. benefits agencies, immigration, and housing).
• Participate in meetings, reviews, case conferences and court hearings to provide information, insight, and evidence.
• Writing effective reports which could be used in professional meetings, forums, and court.

The Experience You Will Bring

Essential:

• Experience of working in a supportive relationship with children, young people, and families
• Ability to work in line with Essex Safeguarding Childrens Board procedures.
• NVQ Level 3 - Caring for Children and Young People or equivalent qualification or work-based experience.

Desirable:

• Experience/Knowledge/Interest in the Solution Focused approach.
• Have an understanding of issues that can impact on children and families - e.g., poverty, disability, and bereavement.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider 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 the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.