There is currently one permanent post and one 12-month secondment (maternity cover) post to which we are recruiting, The Senior Social Worker role blends frontline practice alongside the opportunity to support practice development within your team and across the service. As a Senior Child and Family Social Worker you will be responsible for working with complex cases of children in need of help and protection or looked after children and care-leavers, whilst maintaining the focus on safeguarding. You will work directly with the child or young person and their family or carer to build empathic, purposeful relationships that facilitate meaningful and sustainable change as well as stability in placement and permanency for children. You will confidently model motivational trauma informed practice. You will be available to your team in sharing your experience and support Social Workers in alignment with Islington's Practice model through coaching, consultation and co-working. You will lead on developing areas of practice. You will share and exercise the organisational practice ethos which places Motivational Practice and trauma-informed practice at the heart of working with families. You will be ambitious for every child to reach their potential in all aspects of their development including education,health and emotional well being. Main duties of the job As a Children and Family Social Worker you will bring experience of assessing risk and making plans to safeguard and care for children. Additionally, you will be responsible for progressing plans for sustainable change with families, stepping up to care proceedings or stepping down to targeted services where necessary, ensuring plans for all children are in place that provide for their safety, stability and permanency. You will be accustomed to employing social work principles such as dignity, respect, empathy, and strength based collaborative approaches to service delivery. You will understand the impact of trauma on children and their families, and the implications of this for their ongoing needs., Retention bonus, Zone 1-2 Travel Card, protected case load,specially designed core training package, professional developmentopportunities, regular reflective supervision, practice evaluation, Local Government Pension Scheme and generous holidays, flexible working arrangements,an experienced management team, and a great working location in Islington., Islington was rated as Outstanding by Ofsted in March 2020. Ofsted has reported "Children in Islington benefit from services that have gone from strength to strength... Senior leaders and members of the council demonstrate an unwavering commitment to improving and enriching the lives of children and their families. This is evidenced by the significant and sustained investment in children's services, and by the wide range of highly successful initiatives that are having a positive impact on children and their families, whatever their level of need. Highly skilled and experienced staff listen carefully to children to understand their needs and ensure that plans are effective". What is Motivational Practice? Motivational Practice is Islington's Practice Model. There are core elements that underpin the practice framework that provide a set of skills around how to communicate in a helpful way with families that leads to a plan for change.Empathy underpins any form of effective work with people and motivational practice aims to build effective working relationships with families being able to identify their own reasons for change. What Islington Will Offer You:

• Protected caseloads and reduced bureaucracy will allow more intensive work with families; more frequent visits, and the opportunity to build transformative relationships and undertake more direct work.
• A specially designed core training package to deliver goal based interventions, use evidenced based tools, develop reflective and thoughtful risk assessment, and to measure progress.
• Availability of an intensive multi-disciplinary service to enhance social work intervention where the concerns for the child are high risk.
• Social workers will receive regular reflective supervision and practice development opportunities to enhance their own professional effectiveness.
For further information or for an informal conversation about the post, please contact

Are you interested in professional development opportunities and the ability to practice to the best of your ability within a supportive,innovative Outstanding Local Authority? If so, Islington is looking to recruit enthusiastic and talented Senior Social Workers to our Children in Need Service., Motivational interviewing (MI) skills are the cornerstone of social work practice in the Children Services in Islington. In order to help us select the best candidates, Islington have developed a two-stage interview process, with the first stage being an opportunity to test out applicants' MI compatibility. Candidates are not required to have advanced MI skills, rather we are seeking to identify those who have the capacity to learn and develop these skills with the advanced training and feedback. Further details will be provided to all candidates who are shortlisted and offered an interview.

Islington is a place rich with diversity and culture. As a council our sense of purpose couldn't be clearer: we serve. It's in the logo. We are committed to challenging inequality in the borough and as one of the largest employers we know that to look after the place and the planet, we have to look after our people. Together we can change the future. We are determined to create a more equal Islington, where everyone who lives here has an equal chance to thrive. To do this, everyone who works at Islington Council lives by a set of values which guide us in everything that we do: collaborative, ambitious, resourceful, and empowering. They spell out 'CARE', which is what we think public service is all about., Islington Council operates a guaranteed interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum criteria and we are committed to providing support to applicants who request reasonable adjustments to be made during the recruitment process and throughout their career with us.

We are committed to challenging inequality in the borough and as one of the largest employers we know that to look after the place and the planet, we have to look after our people. Our staff benefits include:
• Up to 31 days leave per year, increasing to 36 days after five years of local government service
• A range of flexible working arrangements to maintain a healthy work-life balance, as well as a 35-hour working week
• Learning and development opportunities to maximise your potential
• Competitive pay and a commitment to paying all staff the London Living Wage at minimum
• Excellent local government pension scheme
• Cycle to Work scheme and discounted gym memberships
• Local discounts from restaurants, shops, health and beauty therapists, and more!