Children's Qualified Social Worker

Our family are usually the people closest to us, those we care most about. Family life is not just about legal ties - it goes far deeper than that. It concerns our most important biological, social and emotional relationships. We hold the value that children and young people are best cared for by their birth families and extended networks, and this underpins our 'family first' ethos. Where this cannot be achieved, we seek to ensure that children and young people's relationships are maintained in line with their best interests. Birth parents and extended networks are included within the decision-making processes and we provide alternative care which is nurturing and which fosters a sense of belonging. There has never been a more exciting time to join our service: alongside making a difference to the lives of individuals and families, we have adopted exciting new strengths-based approaches and are passionate about delivering continuous service improvement. Here in Telford & Wrekin, we implemented a new approach to Child Protection services developed by Hertfordshire County Council, and began to deliver their innovative and pioneering practice model of Family Safeguarding. Family Safeguarding is a model of system change where specialist adult practitioners are embedded within Family Safeguarding teams of Social Workers. The intervention supports a whole-system change to a local authority's child protection approach for children up to adolescence, focusing on supporting the needs of children and adults in order that children can safely remain within their families. This involves:

• Establishing multi-disciplinary teams where specialist adult practitioners in domestic abuse, mental health and substance misuse are co-located with Social Workers under a unified management structure. This enables a multi-disciplinary whole family response through direct assessment and support from specialist adult practitioners as well as multi-professional group case discussions and sharing of knowledge and skills across disciplines.
• Use of Motivational Interviewing (MI) as a framework for practice for all staff. Staff undergo training and ongoing skills development workshops and follow a structured solution-focussed intervention programme with families which aims to work collaboratively with families and increase engagement.
• Using an electronic assessment workbook which provides a single data tool for all professionals and links to the work programme. This increases ease of information sharing between professionals and reduces social worker time spent recording and sharing information.
Our brilliant practitioners are at the heart of our ambitious approach to improve outcomes for children and families in Telford and Wrekin: from tailored in-house training to the West Midlands Teaching Partnership, we ensure that our workforce have access to the best development opportunities. Here at Telford and Wrekin Council, we have been judged to be outstanding overall in terms of effectiveness (the only Authority in the West Midlands with this judgement) for the second time! Here's just some of the great things Ofsted had to say when they visited us in April 2024:
• Children and families in Telford and Wrekin continue to experience exceptional social work practice when they are in care and as care leavers.
• Participation is a real strength and children's and families' involvement is threaded throughout service developments.
• Social workers know their children well and have developed effective relationships with parents.
• The virtual school is a significant strength in Telford and Wrekin.
• Care leavers benefit from an extremely comprehensive and generous local offer.
• Corporate parenting is a strength in Telford and Wrekin.
• The stability of the experienced workforce creates the perfect environment to benefit children and care leavers. As a result, social workers maintain relationships with children who know them over many years, which contributes to children's feeling of belonging.
• Staff enjoy working in an environment where senior leaders are visible, and they feel valued.
There has never been a more exciting time to join our service after the recent publication of our Ofsted Inspection!

Children and young people are at the heart of all we do. The qualities that are important to them are:
• Understanding that there are layers to a person, a practitioners ability to see the person as a 'whole'
• The ability to practice care and kindness
• Being able to really listen to children and young people - what are their views, hopes, aspirations and worries?
• The ability to communicate well
  
  We've implemented a new system from Monday 4th March which will improve your candidate experience!, Telford & Wrekin Council is an award winning council, and we were recognised as Local Authority of the Year 2022 at the Municipal Journal Awards, and the Association for Public Service Excellence Council of the Year in 2021.
At Team Telford we work hard to protect, care and invest to create a better borough and our employees are at the heart of everything we do. Having the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles allows us to deliver the excellent services that residents and businesses on the borough expect from us. Our friendly and passionate teams are trusted by leaders and managers to deliver this ambition. We invest and nurture our workforce and support our employees to develop and thrive. The better we are the bigger difference we make to the people we serve.

£40,148 - £42,686
• per annum (Salaries include market factor where applicable)
Children's Experienced Social Worker - Family Safeguarding £44,836 - £47,721
• per annum (Salaries include market factor where applicable)
ASYE - SO2: £34,834 - £36,648 per annum Plus Welcome Payment of £5,000 for all experienced Social Workers commencing in post in our Family Safeguarding Service as new employees of T&WC. Full reimbursement of Social Work England registration fee, We value our employees and offer staff rewards and plenty of opportunities for personal development and career progression including:
• Competitive rates of pay
• Automatic access to a secure, flexible and tax efficient Local Government Pension Scheme
• Staff benefits and discounts including salary sacrifice schemes
• Free on-site parking
• Generous leave entitlement (24 days rising to 32 days) plus 8 bank holidays and an additional concessionary day
• Free access to our employee assistance programme and confidential counselling
• Flexible and mobile working policy - we are well adapted to a hybrid model of working which includes a combination of time spent in the office and at home - our approach is to promote greater level of flexible working around personal and family commitments
• Private lettings are available from 'Nuplace' who give priority to social work professional
Find out further information about working at Telford & Wrekin Council including our full list of benefits. Please note that Telford & Wrekin Council do not hold a sponsorship licence for visas. Attached documents 2 - Qualified Social Worker - FINAL.pdf 3 - Experienced Qualified Social Worker - FINAL.pdf, In return we also offer a great range of benefits including competitive salaries, flexible working hours and work arrangements, employee discounts, salary sacrifice schemes, a local government pension scheme and generous annual leave entitlement. At Telford & Wrekin Council, we know that having a diverse workforce is key to providing the best possible services to our community. We celebrate having a diverse and inclusive culture where people are able to be themselves at work, and everyone has a voice and we know we are stronger and better connected as a result. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and where our data shows that specific groups are under-represented within our workforce, our adverts will actively encourage applications from these groups. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, committed to recruiting and retaining people with disabilities or other health conditions. You can find out more about this and our 'guaranteed interview scheme' here You can also read more about our Recruitment and Selection Policy and Recruitment of Ex-Offenders here and the Transgender & Non-Binary Inclusion Policy commitments here