Social Worker-First Response

We have social worker roles within the First response, Assessment and Screening team. These are exciting opportunities to be part of a diverse and highly skilled team, we are looking for a passionate, dedicated, and child focussed, social worker.

Our Assessment and Screening Teams are friendly and supportive, with regular supervision and manageable workloads.

The Screening Team consists of Support Workers, Social Workers, Senior Practitioners and Team Managers to respond to incoming worries from professionals and members of the public over the telephone and online.

The Assessment Team has five pods with a Team Manager, Senior Practitioner and Social Workers. The teams hold daily/weekly briefs to drive throughput and performance to promote timeliness and ensure best possible outcomes for families are achieved. We offer flexible working, which is balanced with service needs, demands and delivery.

In the Screening Team, as a social worker you will take part in a duty rota where you will take incoming contacts over the telephone and progress enquiries on contacts received via the phone and online. You will be able to apply a robust threshold consistently and make clear recommendations for next actions within 24 hours. You will have good relationships with our Family Help Triage and partner agencies to support you identifying the right outcomes for children and families. This is predominantly an office-based role but there is flexibility, which is balanced with meeting the service needs and demands.

In the Assessment Team, you will join one of the five sub-teams and work alongside four other Social Workers and a Team Manager. You will have a duty week every five weeks and on a rota for back up with your manager where you will need to be based in County Hall so that you can respond to families requiring immediate safeguarding interventions as well as seeing child in need cases within 5 days of referral. You will also be allocated most of your assessments in this period. For the remaining four weeks, there is flexible working (when you are not on back up duty) and you will be expected to progress complex assessments that have been allocated to you in this time (proportionate assessments within 20 days) and progress your recommendations for timely outcomes for Children, Young People and Families.

In both teams, there is the opportunity to switch roles when the need or opportunity arises.

In Leicestershire we have a fantastic package to provide our workers. This includes the option as a full-time worker to flexible working, celebrating diversity with a range of events throughout the year, recognition of our staff in annual Pride in Practice events, fantastic learning and training opportunities - enabling our staff to develop and progress within their roles and committed wellbeing support.

We are proud of our continuous improvement plan - 'Achieving Excellence through Purposeful Practice' which sets out our key values, behaviours and ambitions. We have embedded the Signs of Safety approach throughout our services and this approach mirrors our values of Aspiration, Being Curious and Collaboration. We are focused on working with families and the networks of family, friends and professionals around children, to work in collaboration to achieve shared goals.

We are committed to our vision of becoming a trauma informed responsive department where we believe we are "stronger together". Our culture is one of partnership, where we look for solutions and recognise the potential impact of trauma on the children and families we work with and on our staff. We will strive to create a safe, compassionate, healing environment demonstrated through relationships based on trust, respect, hope and empathy. We will achieve this through a spirit of curiosity, by nurturing connections through relationships, making a deliberate effort to know and understand people, and by providing hope for growth and recovery.

We support and empower our staff to be the best that they can be. We will give you the support and resources that you need to work in collaboration with children and families.

A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.

For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our policy statement., We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

• Be a qualified Social Worker holding a Social Work degree or equivalent, e.g., CQSW, DipSW (with specialism in children's services) and be registered with Social Work England, hold a valid driving licence and access to a vehicle.


• Extensive knowledge and application of social work legislation, methodologies, social care policies, guidance, procedures and case reviews with a commitment to your continuous professional development.


• Have ability and experience of supporting with service performance and the learning and development of individuals as well as a team.


• You must also understand, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.


• Have experience and understand the importance of multi-agency working and the differing roles, responsibilities, remit and functions of other parts of the wider service and agencies.


• The ability to communicate clearly and accurately, both orally and in writing, with a wide range of people, including representatives from other agencies, using skills of negotiation and persuasion. Have good IT skills, including Microsoft Outlook and Word, and database applications.


• Excellent demonstration of the ability to prioritise effectively across a wide range of competing demands to meet deadlines. Time management skills and the ability to respond flexibly to changing requirements


You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

It's an exciting time to be a part of Children and Family Services at Leicestershire County Council, our staff are at the heart of delivering excellent services to children and families across Leicestershire. Come and join us and make a difference to the lives of children and families in Leicestershire.

Our recent Ofsted inspection praised Leicestershire's work to build "strong and long-lasting relationships" with children and families which lead to many families achieving "positive changes" in their lives. They highlighted an "ambitious and child-focused senior leadership that has successfully created a culture where the experiences and progress of children at the heart of social work practice".