social worker Thetford, England
Job description
Social Work Assistants
CF Social Work are recruiting Social Work Assistants (SWAs) across London and the South-East of England. We are a busy service with a steady flow of incoming support requests, and due to an increase in demand we are now looking to expand our team of SWAs.
CF Group is an innovative and forward thinking company, whose range of services are developed to meet the current and emerging needs of children, young people and their families, as well as the commissioning teams, schools and social workers who support them. Established and managed by education and social care professionals, our services are responsive, reliable, and adaptable. The field team are safely recruited, inducted and trained to provide a high standard of care and support, overseen by competent and confident managers across the company.
Why Social Work Assistant work?
At CF Social Work we understand that practitioners make the decision to work for us for lots of reasons, including wanting to manage the volume of work they are undertaking, being able to work completely flexibly and allowing time for other commitments/work, and to build and refine their report writing skills. In addition, despite being based in Ipswich, CF Social Work provide SWAs to a number of Local Authorities across the South East, meaning you are able to work at a distance from home you are comfortable with. We also offer a travel allowance should you want to cover work away from your home area. Our dedicated SWA project team are here to help, offer advice around safeguarding issues, and liaise with referrers for all the relevant paperwork and materials, meaning you have more time to focus on practice with families and don’t need to worry about chasing resources!
Working with CF Social Work as an SWA also means having the opportunity to take part in and support Reverse Residential Assessments (RRAs), a pioneering assessment tool designed by and trademarked by CF Social Work. This flips the model of residential assessment on its head. Instead of families being asked to leave their established support networks to move into environments to be assessed that don’t necessarily reflect the real world; the support, assessment and supervision is provided to the family in their own homes, often for 24 hours per day, which gives a true reflection of the ongoing risk, strengths, prognosis for change and safety for the child. This is done in partnership with our Independent Social Work service and is an exciting area of social work that is growing in popularity with families, LA’s and courts. As well as our exciting RRA work, we support families with Contact, Family Support, and Reunification of children back to their parents care.
You don’t need to be a qualified Social Worker to be a Social Work Assistant, we consider any previous experience in supporting children and vulnerable people. Many of our Social Work Assistants have built their knowledge and experience allowing them to move forward in achieving a Social Work qualification, however we also understand that this path is not for everyone and career development is discussed within our 121 supervision sessions with your line manager. Working as a Social Work Assistant means working on a zero-hour basis but may in time lead to a contract of employment, subject to performance. The working hours vary according to the requirements of the case; these can vary from short welfare checks to 6–12-hour shifts, or a 24-hour shift which could include a sleep in or waking night shifts. This does offer you flexibility in telling us when you are available to work.
The impact of our work
We are proud to have been part of numerous positive interventions in family’s lives. We have supported children to stay within their birth families where it is safe to do so, supported parents to build their ability to care for their children, been instrumental in reunifying children from care back to their birth families, and we advocate for those we support. We ensure that our practice supports clear and quick decision making for children, and ensure our work is delivered on time, every time. Some recent words used by families we have supported to describe our work are: ‘Effective, Professional, Respectful, Helpful, Unintrusive, At ease, Clear, On Point, Listened’. We are proud that social workers, lawyers and families we have supported remember the quality of our interventions and come back to us to request other support work in the future.
Our offer of support
· All newly appointed SWA’s are offered a high intensity of coaching and mentoring within their first few months completing work with us. In addition, all SWA’s have access to a qualified and experienced CQC Registered Manager and Social Work Service Manager to discuss any issues, worries, or barriers they may have on a specific piece of work. Each new worker is assigned an individual mentor to lean on for support and to learn from.
· At CF Social Work, we have a dedicated and supportive team who deal with the day to day admin and liaison with LA’s, court parties and others to allow you to focus on the face to face practice with families.
· Hourly rate of £12 as well as expenses incurred.
· Travel Budget
· Robust, strengths-based QA process designed to ensure the quality of all of our reports, while offering guidance and suggestions to our practitioners for their own professional development.
· Guidance from the Social Work Service Manager to resolve any issues or disputes that may arise when undertaking any piece of work.
Requirements for this role:
· Must drive and have access to own transport with business class insurance and be able and willing to travel when required – travel time and mileage are paid as part of this employment.
· Skills: you must have computer skills to input information and access to a computer.
· Preferred: Relevant qualifications in the field of health and social care or a willingness to work towards them.
· DBS Check
· Experience of working with children and/or vulnerable families.
· Sound knowledge of safeguarding processes, procedures, and a commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children including babies, young people & vulnerable adults.
· Excellent communication skills, particularly the ability to engage with children and their parents whilst providing invaluable parenting support and coaching.
· Sound knowledge of what good enough parenting looks like and to support parents in meeting their children’s needs, whilst maintaining the ability to advise and support parents/carers on a range of topics relating to child development, learning and behaviour.
· Ability to prioritise and organise workload to meet deadlines whilst working independently and effectively.
· Experience of working with individuals with a variety of needs and supporting people who are experiencing adverse circumstances
· Experience of working with families from diverse backgrounds, taking into account age/disability/sex/gender identity/pregnancy and maternity/race/religion or belief/marriage and civil partnership/ sexual orientation/adverse life experiences/impact of poverty etc. An ability to engage people from all different backgrounds and in all different circumstances and settings.
What our SWA’s say
“I would say I feel very at ease asking for help and even though a lot of it is lone working I never really feel alone with the support of the office”
“Since working for CFSW, I have had so many memorable moments. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to make a difference to people's lives, it is so rewarding!”
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Here at CF Social Work we are passionate about high quality practice for children and families and we know that good relationships lead to good assessments, effective interventions, and better outcomes for children. If you are passionate about supporting and safeguarding children, we would love to help you start your journey with us. Alternatively if you are already completing a similar role but like the idea of having the support of a service such as ours, we would like to hear from you. If you would like a confidential conversation about this role prior to applying please do not hesitate to contact our team on 01473 725794.
CF Social Work is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and students to share this commitment.
Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Zero hours contract
Salary: £12.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Flexitime
Schedule:
- Flexitime
Application question(s):
- How many years experience do you have working with children or vulnerable people?
- Are you looking for full time or part time work?
- Are you able to work weekends?
Licence/Certification:
- UK drivers licence (required)
Shift availability:
- Day shift (preferred)
- Night shift (preferred)
- Overnight shift (preferred)
Work Location: On the road
