Team Manager

You will be leading a creative, supportive North locality team working with Children and Families. The team is established with a mix of newly qualified and senior social workers. You will be supported by our other amazing Team Managers across the North of Durham, Social Work Consultants, and the extended senior management team. We have a really strong training and development offer including an inhouse leadership and development programme. A recent Team Manager said, 'she has enjoyed the supportive culture from her peers and other Team Managers.' In this role, you'll be responsible for the day-to-day management of the work held within the team, working closely with your social work consultant to ensure that effective support and high-quality services are being delivered to our children and families and work is being produced to a good standard. This is a wonderful opportunity for someone who is wanting to play a key role as part of our management team and who wants to make an impact on outcomes for children, young people, and their families. As Team Manager of a Families First team, you will:

• Create an environment where social work will flourish, and where your team put children and families at the centre of everything they do
• Support the team to embed Signs of Safety as a model of practice so that:
• The quality of relationships is central to the practice of the team
• The team robustly assess risk
• The work of the team with parents, children and young people is collaborative, timely and intensive, and supports families to find their own solutions
• The team challenge constructively
• The team use strength-based language
• The team are clear about what good looks like for each child
• Lead by example, showing integrity, creativity, resilience, and clarity of purpose
• Develop and maintain positive relationships, and be visible and accessible to your team, to children, young people, and families, and to other professionals
The following principles guide our work:
• Ensuring the child's journey and their voice remains central
• Providing help at the earliest opportunity
• Supporting and promoting community resilience through the provision of locally delivered services in local communities, which make sense to families
• Delivering evidence-based interventions with a focus on safe escalation and de-escalation of cases
• Signs of Safety model of practice
You may be required to work at any locality to meet service need changes., Removal, lodging and separation expenses may be available to the successful candidate if at the time of application for appointment their place of residence is outside the administrative area of County Durham and more than 30 miles in a straight line from their new administrative centre, along with a number of other criteria for eligibility. HYBRID WORKING Durham County Council currently operates a hybrid working policy where a model of 2 days in the workplace and 3 days at home/remote will apply. This model is pro-rated for part time roles and arrangements are at managers discretion, alternatively you can work all of your contracted hours within the workplace if you prefer. EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION We are a proud equal opportunities employer and recognise that a diverse, talented workforce brings new ideas and new perspectives, which will facilitate growth and improvements to services. We are committed to ensuring that our employment policies and processes are fair and equitable to all. We welcome job applications from everyone, and successful candidates are considered only on their skills and ability to do the job. As a Disability Confident Leader, we encourage applications from disabled people and provide support throughout the recruitment process. Take a closer look: https://www.durham.gov.uk/article/26899/Equality-diversity-and-inclusion-in-our-workforce

We would love you to be brave, curious, flexible, nurturing, decisive and a wonderful communicator., To apply for this role, you need to be social work qualified, registered with Social Work England, and have considerable post qualifying experience. Previous or current leadership or supervisory experience will be an advantage.

We are passionate about social work in County Durham. We are committed to providing a culture where good practice can flourish. We ensure our social workers are highly supported and encourage flexible working to achieve a good work-life balance. You will benefit from a range of training opportunities and professional development through personalised induction, professional supervision, and mentoring. Take a closer look: https://www.durham.gov.uk/childrenssocialwork, We offer generous rewards and benefits that are designed to help you perform at your best:
• Competitive salaries and 27 days holiday per year rising to 32 days after five years continuous local government service.
• Option to purchase up to 10 additional days annual leave per year.
• Excellent work/life balance through schemes including job sharing, compressed hours and flexi-time (allowing up to 13 flexi days per year).
• Hybrid working (home and office working).
• Excellent contributory career average Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). Plus, top up options - Salary Sacrifice Shared Cost AVC scheme and standard AVC scheme for members of the LGPS.
• Wellbeing Portal and access to an Employee Assist Scheme.
• Wide range of learning and development opportunities including professional qualifications, coaching and mentoring.
• Employee Benefits Portal and Lifestyle Savings Scheme (discounts across a host of major retailers).
• Discounted DCC gym membership.
• Staff networks run by staff for our staff, including Race Equality and Diversity, Disability, LGBT+, Armed Forces, Carers, Menopause.
• Trade Union membership.
• A range of other salary sacrifice schemes such as car leasing.
Rewards and benefits are subject to individual terms and conditions. Take a closer look: https://www.durham.gov.uk/article/26895/Rewards-and-benefits