Senior Social Worker - Duty and Assessment

We have a wonderful Duty and Assessment Team (DAAT) here at Northamptonshire Children's Trust! Duty and assessment is the single point of contact for all safeguarding concerns relating to children and young people in Northamptonshire. Professionals from a range of services that have contact with children, young people, their families and carers, collaborate to ensure immediate and prompt responses; their combined knowledge and expertise keeping children and young people in Northamptonshire safe from harm. With a rotating duty element, the team works at pace, completing robust short-term quality assessments of need, ensuring the right service provision is in place. Skilled social workers in these teams are friendly and confident professionals, who are able to work collaboratively to very tight deadlines, and ensure the child's voice is evident throughout. There are 6 teams within DAAT, each team consists of a Team Manager, Advanced Practitioner, who holds complex cases and supports 5 or 6 Social Workers/Senior Social Workers and a Newly Qualified Social Worker within their team. We collaborate with other professionals to ensure immediate and prompt responses. Their combined knowledge and expertise keep children and young people in Northamptonshire safe from harm. We are supporting excellence in Social Work practice, with a signs of safety based approach, and clear personal development opportunities for the right candidates. What will you be doing? We provide the front line, single point of contact for the public and professionals who are making referrals with concerns for children who are at risk of significant harm or who are children in need. Working with a broad range of agencies and services in our region, you will be responsible for responding to new referrals from professionals and members of the public. You will have the opportunity to work with children and young people on a short term basis after the initial referral until your cases transfer from the DAAT to other teams.

As a Senior Social Worker you will have knowledge of the main issues in relation to your own client group. You will have awareness of the main legislative framework within which the role operates and knowledge of the range of services which are available to children and families and of the organisational framework within which they are provided. Ideally you will have gained extensive post qualification experience of children and families social work within a statutory or voluntary organisation and will have proven ability to relate professionally with children and families evidenced through previous work as a Social Worker. Experience of supporting more junior roles in a social work environment would be desirable as well as knowledge of the range of services which are available to children and families and of the organisational framework within which they are provided.

Northamptonshire Children's Trust was established in November 2020 to deliver Children's Services to the newly established North and West Northamptonshire County Councils. The Trust is wholly owned and funded but operationally independent from the Councils; this provides the organisation with unique opportunities to explore new ways of working and to be more agile and adaptable in its approach to service delivery. We are developing a culture that allows the very highest quality of professional practice to flourish and evolve, delivering at the cutting edge of new innovation.

We are committed to continuous improvement, building a skilled, knowledgeable, and flexible workforce alongside promoting innovation and creativity whilst keeping children, young people and families at the heart of all we do. We really value our workforce and offer you a great benefits package including:

• Highly competitive salaries
• £6,000 Welcome bonus
• Up to £8,000 relocation allowance
• Retention bonus
• Social Work England registration costs
• Flexible working practices, including home working, flexi time and job share
• The opportunity to personally contribute to improving the service
• Monthly high quality supervision
• Up to 28 day's annual leave plus bank holidays (with service rises to 32 days plus bank holidays)
• Opportunity to buy back up to 5 weeks of additional holiday each year
• Subsidised local authority Pension Scheme
• Additional 12 weeks of maternity leave at 50%
• Employee discount schemes
• Signs of Safety training
• An onsite academy delivering a variety of learning & development opportunities
• Heavily subsidised city centre parking
• Regular engagement opportunities with the CEO