Children's Social Worker

Here in Trafford Children's Services our vision is that our teams are offering the right help at the right time, and that at all levels our interventions make life better for children and families. We are ambitious for our children and for our practitioners - and our core value is 'would this be good enough for my child'?

In Trafford our approach is strengths-based, using relational and restorative practice. Our recent Ofsted report referred to our "relational model of social work practice, which is well regarded by the wider workforce, has been successfully implemented."

We believe that a culture and environment in which our managers and social workers can thrive is an essential element of improving outcomes for children and families. To support this, we have invested in a 3-year programme with relational specialists Strengthening Practice to provide ongoing training and enhance our social workers' personal development. Our 2023 Ofsted report recognised this, noting a "cultural shift (that) has been underpinned by a strong training offer to support social workers to develop the skills they need to provide a better service to children".

We are currently recruiting qualified social workers to the following parts of our service and would love to hear from you;

Early Help and First Response This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a service that brings together and aligns our Early Help services with our Front Door of Social Care. These are non- case holding social work roles that are about reaching out into the community, supporting the Early Help pilots, engaging with the Early Help Panels and reach out of the statutory service to enable the right service at the right time to be accessed as early as possible.

Do you have partnership skills? Can you take advice and guidance to another level by stepping out and showing how to bring a plan together, assess risk, draw partners together and enable effective intervention to happen without coming in to CSC. Are you confident in your knowledge of risk, of thresholds and able to engage others kindly, building relationships in the community and making a difference for schools?

Your knowledge and confidence will be useful in supporting the Front Door, taking referrals and working alongside First Response Advisors and partners to share information, identify risk and strengths and facilitating work transfer to the right place at the right time.

Families First (localities) This is our dedicated Child in Need Service where you will work on a locality basis with children and families that require a social work assessment. We have developed a specialised service in this area of work to allow us to strengthen our assessment and planning for children in need and their families, raising the status of children in need and ensuring a consistent approach across the borough. It is also important that social workers in this service are able to build relational partnerships that strengthen our work and enable the step down of plans where it is safe to do so and in the families' timescales.

Roles currently available in the following teams:

· Central (based in Sale)

· South (based in Altrincham)

· North (based in Stretford)

· West (based in Stretford)

Please note all roles are now hybrid meaning a blend of locality-based and home working.

Support and Protect (localities) As we have created a dedicated Child in Need Service, this has allowed us to create a dedicated service to work with children and families when things are escalated to Child Protection in the Support and Protect Service.

Are you passionate about the longer term and complex work of child protection, clear and child focused plans, formal partnerships and risk management? Perhaps you have smart report writing skills, are you skilled as a witness in court? Or maybe you think you have the resilience, and confidence to learn.

Roles currently available in the following teams:

· South (based in Altrincham)

· North (based in Stretford)

· West (based in Stretford)

Please note all roles are now hybrid meaning a blend of locality-based and home working.

Cared for Children and Care Experienced Young people We have brought together our Aftercare service and our Permanence service to create a 'through care' approach dedicated to children and young people who have a permanence plan, who then make that transition to being a care experienced young person.

In this service you will be supporting our cared for children and enabling our teenagers and care experienced young people to tackle the ups and downs, move on in life and achieve their full potential.

Can you offer the care and support that is essential for a child coming out of care proceedings, needing to have a sense of belonging and stability? Do you have the experience to recognise and work with those who have hidden hurt or trauma, pull partners around the child and carer and make the difference that will provide a network of support and guidance? If so, this service is for you.

Vulnerable adolescents We need skilled intervention and relational engagement for some of our most vulnerable children and young people. We need practitioners that recognise the harm that happens outside the home, who can support parents and bring a special skill to working with those young people who need but may not want our help.

Working with GMP and other partners, parents and the community, there is important work to be done in this service, which needs a passion for face to face work and a keenness to learn from our specialist service.

Our commitment to you

We know that when you come to work in Trafford, we have a responsibility to provide you with the right tools and support to flourish in your new role.