Swindon's Emergency Duty Service is the Local Authority's Out of Hours first point of contact for anyone who is concerned about the immediate safety and protection of a child, young person or vulnerable adult. The team is responsible for delivering a high quality and responsive service to children, young people and vulnerable adults. EDS covers a wide spectrum of social work practice. They predominantly undertake a range of assessments and interventions. The majority of EDS work is Child Protection and urgent Mental Health Act assessments. The team works closely with our police and health protection partners, ensuring the provision of an effective comprehensive service. In this role you will lead child protection investigations and assess/support children in need. In so doing, you will act immediately to secure the protection and safety of children including the placement of children in foster care. You should have excellent assessment and prioritisation skills and use these to instigate timely interventions and promote positive outcomes in line with national standards. You will be required to prepare and submit emergency court applications out of hours and represent the Council to ensure the protection and welfare of all children and vulnerable adults., We are dedicated to ensuring that you can progress your continued professional development and access training and learning opportunities linked to the BASW competencies for career progression., We are 12 months into a two-year transformation journey to turn around our children's services and we're proud of what we are achieving. OFSTED has recognised our 'steady and positive' progress and we know things are changing for the better. The improvements we are making are being driven by our dedicated and committed colleagues and new senior leaders. We have cross-party political commitment and additional investment to work with, which we are using to recruit new people to our teams and fund innovative new practice methods - all so we can support our most vulnerable children to achieve their potential. And we know that for our children to thrive, our teams must be able to work at their best. That is why we have invested in creating the very best work environment for our people to thrive. This includes: smaller, more manageable caseloads stable leadership teams a genuine commitment to supervision and group supervision clear training and development opportunities restructured service areas to enhance how the work flows for better outcomes visible leaders and good communication We offer competitive salaries, flexible working because balancing life and home is so important, generous holiday allowances, pension packages and free parking at our Swindon site. Lisa Arthey is our Corporate Director of Children's Services. She explains: "I'm so proud of what we're achieving in Swindon. The key to our success is our colleagues. Their passion, determination and commitment to improving the way we do things for our children and families means we're writing a new story for our communities. It is an incredibly exciting time to join us." Lisa is clear that challenges lie ahead, but speaks passionately about the opportunity to join an authority which has big ambitions for its young people and isn't scared to try new things. We are one of a handful of authorities in the country using the Family Safeguarding Model, which has transformed the way our teams are working with partners, children and families to improve outcomes. As we said, we're a small authority with big ambitions. If you want to work somewhere where you'll really make a difference, where you will be supported to innovate and collaborate, where we really believe in ensuring that our children and their families are at the heart of our service and where you'll go further in your career, join us and Swindon will be better with you."

It is essential that you are an experienced social worker with a minimum of two years post qualification experience in a Child Protection or Mental Health setting; you will need to have SWE registration and hold an Approved Mental Health Professional award., Your aspirations should be limitless and you will be as determined and passionate about Children's Services as we are. As a local authority, we continuously drive forward improvements in our services. We want our Social Workers to be part of our transformation, contribute to improving the safeguarding of our children, and we will make sure you have the full support network and training to do it. Our teams are ambitious and proactive and we are looking for people who will share that ambition and be a part of our journey. Candidates must be fluent in the English language (as a requirement of Part 7 of the Immigration Act - for the effective performance of a customer-facing role).

At Swindon Borough Council, we want our town to be the best it can be. Our ambitious vision in the new Swindon Plan is supported by realistic transformation programmes, with the people of Swindon at their heart. Because that's who we're doing it for - the communities and businesses that make our town great. As part of the Council, you'll support a friendly local authority making decisions with real impact. It's all for better public services. Better processes. And a better quality of life, for everyone. Join us, and Swindon will be better with you. Here in Swindon we have a clear vision and plans to reduce the need for Children to come into our care with our new adolescent offer and edge of care work and we are continually working as a partnership to ensure or children are safe. We're making a real difference to the lives of the children and families we work with in Swindon. Join us and be part of that difference., We have now implemented the Family Safeguarding Model in 2022, a new multi-disciplinary approach that supports a whole-system change to child protection for children up to adolescence, focusing on supporting the needs of children and adults so that children can safely remain within their families. This is a great opportunity to join us now and be part of this pioneering work as we continue to learn from multi agency family work and support more families to look after their children in their families and wider communities., Social Work at Swindon- a new approach

We have an established Social Work & Leadership Academy. The Academy aims to celebrate the best in professional practice in Social Work and Social Care Leadership. The Academy represents an opportunity for us to demonstrate how we support, develop and value the professional disciplines in Social Work and Social Care through a targeted framework of career development and learning opportunities. Your next package

• Relocation allowance of up to £8,000 (eligibility criteria applies)
• Competitive salaries
• Free car parking at our central Swindon campus and easy commuter links to many locations
Please see our Rewards and Benefits offer for more details. As an employee, you will receive a diverse and exciting environment in which to work, encouraging creativity and innovation whilst recognising the need to support ongoing personal development and a flexible work life balance. For Swindon to thrive in the future, we need to lay the foundations now. It's why our regeneration and transformation programmes are already underway. So, you'll be joining us at an exciting time on our journey. We'll look to you to share your knowledge, influence decisions and drive real, positive change. With your contributions, we'll achieve our vision of a prosperous, re-vitalised Swindon together. And you'll be proud to say it was made better with you.