Consultant Practitioner

You will be responsible for a caseload that will requires the application of high levels of practice standards and quality. You will work closely with managers at all levels to identify areas of practice that may require additional support, research, innovation or application. You will be responsible for the supervision, support and development of ASYE and student social workers in the team and for leading peer supervision and development, including coaching and mentoring for less experienced social workers. This role offers an exciting opportunity to shape and influence social work practice to children identified as being at risk., You'll work in a friendly and collaborative environment where we are committed to delivering positive outcomes.
We have a strong training and developmental pathway.
All team managers are permanent staff.
Opportunities to strengthen leadership and coaching skills as part of a focused group of Consultant Practitioners supporting high quality practice.

Inclusion and Diversity

We want Brighter Futures for Children to be a great place to work and to ensure that our children, young people and families are represented in leadership roles and positions of power. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and those of Other Ethnicities, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our children, young people and families so that equalities and justice remains at the heart of everything we do.

Asking for Adjustments

Brighter Futures for Children is committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions.

If you would like us to do anything differently during the application, interview or assessment process, including providing information in an alternative format, please let us know.

Social Work qualification and registration.
Understand and application of legal, social, economic and ecological knowledge social work practice., 3 years post qualified experience.
Ability to analyse complex information and plan, review and implement care plans.
Ability to organise and deliver a complex set of tasks.
Ability to actively engage in own development and to support the development of others.
Sound understanding of ICT with good keyboard skills., 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.

Together for Families (TFF) Service is an exciting new development for Brighter Futures for Children and has been introduced in order to improve services for children in Reading, and to help achieve the vision that is to help every child have a happy, healthy and successful life. Further to this, our service pay credence to the five underlying principles of trauma informed practice - safety, choice, empowerment, trust and collaboration.

There are 9 x Together for Families Teams and the Academy within the Service, who will work with children during S.17 (Children Act, 1989) single assessments, S.47 child protection investigations, as well as working with children subject to CIN Plans, CP Plans and CLA. The expectation for all social workers within the TFFs is that children will remain allocated with their social worker for the duration of the child's case being open for CIN/CP support. This is to ensure the relational-based social work practice that is one of the key aims of the BFfC practice model, with much fewer transitions for children and their families. Support to families in the Service will also be provided via evidence informed and timely programme of support delivered via Family Support Workers and specialist adult practitioners in mental health and substance use - with the aim to ensure an effective trauma informed 'whole family' response to needs and risk for children.

There are numerous opportunities for training and development at BFfC and we have secured excellent training for all our staff through Research in Practice and established a sound partnership with the NSPCC. We value our staff and want to support them in their progression with us.