Social Worker
London Borough of Newham, Stratford, Greater London
Social Worker
Salary not available. View on company website.
London Borough of Newham, Stratford, Greater London
- Full time
- Permanent
- Onsite working
Posted today, 21 Dec | Get your application in now to be one of the first to apply.
Closing date: Closing date not specified
job Ref: a861e4f3404d4e9eb8d033025935b5f2
Full Job Description
- Our children, young people and families have told us time and time again that having to retell their story to multiple social workers is exhausting - so we have listened. The new service will enable the same practitioner to build a relationship with the family from initial contact and assessment until we reach the best and safest outcome for the child.
- This consistency in support provides a relational opportunity to work in a genuine partnership with families as they develop meaningful plans from the outset, with a social worker they know and trust.
- We anticipate that in time the new service model will continue to strengthen the stability of our social care workforce, made up of practitioners who are dedicated to making a lasting difference to the families they work with and building a Fairer Newham.
- We envisage that the streamlined support and accurate assessments that a single practitioner will make whilst supporting the family through the social care system will help families earlier and before crisis. What will the Family Support and Safeguarding (FSS) service look like? The FSS service consists of four services and twenty teams, supporting families from first point of contact and assessment and throughout any subsequent longer term intervention (e.g. referral to partners, CP, CiN) until the best, safest outcome is for the child is attained. Two of these teams will work exclusively with children and families whose lives are influenced by disability or SEND to ensure that we retain the expertise necessary to support these families. Where proceedings are necessary court work is moved on to our Children in Care service. Social workers in the FSS service are caseholding and will be on duty 1 week in 16; we hope this will be a welcome change for social workers who are used to busy assessment services, and a positive CPD opportunity for practitioners whose experience is mainly in longer term work. We have appointed an additional duty manager to support colleagues for the first few months of the service to ensure implementation is smooth. There will also be CPD opportunities for senior social workers to line manage and support lesser experienced colleagues, students, and NQSWs; bridging the gap between family facing practice and management whilst enhancing their CVs.
We're looking for conscientious, considerate and empathetic social workers who are committed to working relationally with families whilst putting every child's welfare, potential, and future at the heart of their work. Newham is committed to our workforce being representative of the families we work with, to enhance cultural competence and adjust our practice to suit the individuals we serve. We are looking for colleagues who share our values and are passionate about tackling disproportionality wherever they find it and building a Fairer Newham. You will have a genuine interest in a restorative, relationship based practice model, drawing on systemic thinking to inform your approach to building effective relationships with children, families and communities. We'd love to hear from social workers who are keen on learning and growing with us over a number of years and as an employer we've been working hard to provide the development our practitioners need and want. Our Academy offer has been commended by Ofsted and we promoted 38 internal colleagues in children's social care in 2024. We are looking to work with qualified, registered social workers who have experience in either assessment or long term work with families. The most important thing for us is that our social workers are dedicated to securing the best and safest outcomes for our children.
As part of our commitment to building a Fairer Newham we are reimagining the way that we serve the families that we support. We are realising positive change by combining our Assessment and Intervention social work services into our new Family Support and Safeguarding Service. This new service will enhance the family led, relational values that are already at the centre of our practice and will continue the evolution of our firmly embedded Circles of Support practice model. We're keeping children at the heart of everything we do whilst improving the overall experience of the families, partners, and social workers in our sphere. We want to be at the forefront of evoking positive change in the sector and we're looking for experienced, committed, relational social workers to join us and help build on our success. Above all, we want to do the best for Newham's children and families., Aspirational, creative, diverse with huge potential - Come to Newham! Our goal is to become a children's 'social work centre of excellence' by 2023. We're implementing an ambitious programme of improvement to Children and Young People's (CYPS) social care practice and processes that will radically change the way we work with families and each other in Newham. We are creating a positive culture of trust, nurture and collaboration built in an environment of high support and high challenge. We're investing £millions in our workforce, this includes recruiting social workers, practice leaders, Heads of Services and a director of clinical practice, who will lead a team of systemic practitioners. We have appointed a permanent Corporate Director, a Director of Operations and our first Children and Young People's Commissioner. All this targeted investment also means vulnerable children in Newham's care will be safe, well looked after and thrive as they move into adulthood - it will also be a first class environment to flourish as a social worker. The new, stable senior leadership team want you to join them on this challenging but exciting improvement journey to become a centre of social work excellence for our borough's children. We are offering social workers a clear four year career pathway, competitive salary package, a new social work academy and restorative practice model. We want our staff to feel fully equipped and supported to move into the phase of their professional career development whether it's working on the frontline, progressing into leadership and management or transferring to academia. Newham is a vibrant and developing part of East London with a flourishing youth population. The borough also has the most diverse population in the entire country with more than 100 languages. There are new homes being built across Newham and the Council has a target to build over 1,000 new homes by 2022, all of which will be at social rent levels. We were one of the six London Boroughs to host the magnificent 2012 summer Olympics. Our legacy from that phenomenal event is the London Stadium home to West Ham Utd and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which hosts the London Aquatic Centre, Acelormittal Orbit and is surrounded by award winning parkland. Stratford is a major transport hub to other parts of London, East of England and Europe (Eurostar). If you are passionate, curious, motivated and care about making a sustainable difference we want to hear from you!