Assessing Social Worker (Kinship Team)

The Kinship Assessment Team has a secondment/maternity cover vacancy for a part time assessing social worker to complete Initial Viability Assessments within out Kinship Assessment Team. This post is for 15 months from January 2025. As a team we are committed to achieving the very best outcomes for our children to have the opportunity to remain in the care of their birth family (where-ever safe to do so) - through the completion of comprehensive and analytical Friends and Family assessments (both initial viability assessments and the full Form C Kinship/SGO assessments)., We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

We are recruiting social workers who have at least 2 years statutory social work experience including safeguarding, direct work and the completion of high quality assessments. Our team are committed to creating a safe, compassionate and reflective environment demonstrated through relationship based practice built on trust, respect, support and empathy. We achieve this through a spirit of curiosity, by nurturing connections through relationships, making a conscious effort to know and understand people, and by providing hope for growth and recovery. We support and empower our staff to be the best that they can be. We will give you the support and resources that you need to work in collaboration with children and their families. In return we can offer flexible working, supportive and approachable manager, continued professional development, as a great team who are welcoming and encouraging. A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.,

• A Social Work degree or equivalent, e.g. CQSW, DipSW (with specialism in children's services), and hold two years recent post-qualification experience of working in a statutory setting including Safeguarding, Court and Pre-proceeding work.
• A proven experience of coordinating multi-agency work to support children using formal outcome focused plans, and experience of applying an evidence-based approach to practice, such as the Signs of Safety approach.
• An in-depth knowledge and ability to apply relevant policies appropriate legislation government guidance and best practice in all aspects of social work including LSCB procedures - with specific awareness of the Fostering Regulations and guidance.
• An awareness of the cultural, racial, linguistic and religious background of children, young people and families and how to build effective responses into service delivery. You will need to comprehensively assess, anticipate, and support carers to manage risk, developing child focused therapeutic parenting skills to achieve positive outcomes for children to remain within their birth family - where-ever safe to do so.
• A proven ability to communicate (both verbally and written using Microsoft Office and database applications relevant to the department) thoughtfully, confidently and with purpose across all levels of service users (including children, young people, parents/carers, colleagues and other multi-agencies and professionals), sustaining engagement with people in fluctuating circumstances and capacities.
• Have comprehensive knowledge of the factors and influences which can impact on families and children achieving positive outcomes including child development, attachment and neglect, and parental factors such as substance misuse domestic abuse and mental health.
• Use your initiative, be able to prioritise, and offer flexibility to manage competing workloads and deadlines to ensure effective team working, with an ability to travel to locations throughout the County (and where needed across the country) working outside of office hours when required
You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion. In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process., Disability Confident About Disability Confident A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.