Social Worker - Children Looked After Service

An exciting opportunity has opened within Children Looked After, where our vision for the service is that children and young people are safe, can overcome difficulties and can form secure relationships through their childhood and into their adulthood., As a Child and Family Social Worker you will be responsible for working with children in need of help and protection or looked after children, 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 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 wellbeing.

Working for Islington:

Islington Children Social Care was rated by OFSTED as Outstanding in March 2020. The Children Looked After teams are well resourced and enjoy a stable and supportive workforce. You will be joining a multi-professional team made up of experienced managers, Senior Social Workers, Social Workers, Young Person Advisors, Mental Health Social Worker, CAMHS professionals, a UASC specialist and Social Work Coordinators.

We take pride in providing a learning environment where staff can develop and our controlled caseloads, safe working practices, a culture of strong supervision and excellent training opportunities enable a supportive working environment for all staff. We offer dedicated training, coaching and supervision to develop your skills. We have opportunities to consult with clinicians on cases and offer a range of appropriate support services in-borough for our children and young people.

Our children, young people and their families are at the heart of everything we do and the development of our practice model allows us to them towards their version of meaningful and sustained changed. Islington's Motivational Practice Model provides an integrated care, safeguarding and change model, which includes Motivational Interviewing skills helping to build meaningful relationships and promote safety, collaboration and purposeful change.

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 workers that you supervise, the professional network as a whole and families we work with, supporting a process of change.

Our practice model is further complemented by Trauma-informed practice (including Dyadic Development Practice), as we believe that by better understanding the lived experiences of those we are here to serve, we are better positioned to engage, support and assist children and young people to reach their full potential.

Relationships are also central to achieving the very best outcome for our children, young people, their families and their carers. We work closely with our fostering team and placements service to support our carers in offering a trauma informed approach to care, and to offer stable placements where our children and young people can achieve their potential. Therefore, relationship based practice is key to our approach.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities:

You will be responsible for managing the specific set of tasks relating to statutory and non-statutory case responsibility for children in need of help and protection, and in public care with the support of an appropriately qualified supervisor.

Islington is looking to recruit three experienced social workers who are motivated, passionate and able to work with children and young people sometimes in challenging circumstances. You will be trained in Motivational Interviewing and Trauma Inform Practice to ensure sustainability of practice across the service., As a social worker, you will need to hold a qualification in social work, a clear criminal history and you need to be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council. You will bring the principles of dignity, respect, empathy, and a strength based, collaborative approach to service delivery. You will need to be able to work within a team as well as use your own initiative., You will have excellent knowledge and understanding of child development milestones, issues impacting children, young people and families and be able to apply this to your complex case work. You will have an awareness and curiosity of indicators of abuse and neglect and how to lead child safeguarding process. You will have a good understanding of the law and the family and youth justice systems.

You will be skilled at building effecting relationships with children, young people and families to keep them safe, bring about change and improve their outcomes. You will have the ability to co-work cases with less experienced colleagues whilst also managing your own complex caseload.

You will have excellent communication skills with children, young people and families as well as with carers and professionals taking into consideration equality and diversity and life experiences and the meaning behind behaviour. You will also have excellent skills when it comes to writing case notes, reports and assessments, including analysis, decision-making, planning and review.

You will be part of developing a culture of trauma-informed practice that helps to improve the quality of relationships with children and young people, through Motivational Practice. You will also be able to support your colleagues to enhance their own communication, written and direct work skills and increase their own knowledge through coaching, mentoring and team sessions.
Please ensure you address the person specification fully, referencing how you meet each specification in turn as fully as possible.

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.

Watch our video to hear more about our mission and how you can help us achieve it from the Leader of the Council, Cllr Kaya Comer-Schwartz.
Recruitment information
It is the policy of Islington Council that no user of service, present or future employee or job applicant receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of their sex, perceived or actual sexual orientation, marital status, race, religion or belief, age, creed, colour, nationality, national origin, ethnic origin, or disability, or on the grounds of their association with someone in one of these groups; nor is disadvantaged by any conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justified. We welcome applications from Black and Minority Ethnic candidates and acknowledge our responsibility to mitigate against racial discrimination.
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 safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expects all staff, and volunteers to share this commitment. Some posts are subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.