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Social Worker – Children Looked After

Management Grouping: Children’s Services

Location: Bexleyheath

Salary: £36,348 – £46,551 (Inclusive of Choice Flexible Benefits of £2,598 pa)

Contract: Permanent /36 hours per week

Closing Date: 21 May 2023

Job Reference: CSC0000503

“Bexley is a safe and supportive place to work with highly creative work undertaken by a skilled and well supported workforce – Ofsted 2018”

The Council, its staff and partners, were delighted in August 2018, when Ofsted judged the overall effectiveness of children’s social care services to be ‘outstanding’! We were especially pleased that our investment in frontline practitioners and managers was recognised. We have been working hard to create an environment where social workers can do the work they came into the profession to do - to support and help families to stay together where this is in children’s best interests and it is safe enough for this to happen.

Ofsted judged that we provide strong management oversight of practice, that we have a well – embedded practice framework to enable meaningful family focused help, that we offer clear progress in career pathways, a talent management scheme and a nurturing environment to enable social work to flourish. We believe deeply in relationship based practice and ‘Signs of Safety’ is the vehicle enabling us to do this respectfully and in collaboration with the people we are trying to help.

Our established family engagement group, FL.A.RE (Family Learning, Advocacy & Restorative Engagement), and children in care forums Positive Journeys, Positive Journeys Seniors and Bexley’s Young Director support us with practice development and delivery. Front line practitioners have the opportunity to learn from our children, young people and families, and be part of this work.

We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to grow, develop and progress whatever stage of their careers they are at. We offer a comprehensive range of training and professional development opportunities including access to research, group and e-learning, coaching and group supervision. Practitioners are invited to contribute to our learning and development offer in Bexley and to enhance Continuing Professional Development, there is opportunity to co-design and deliver training if this is of interest. We invest in our staff so they can invest in the children, young people and families we support.

Here in Bexley, we recognise that our greatest asset is our workforce. Staff well-being is important to us and you will have access to our weekly staff well-being drop in sessions, our Employee Assistance Programme and our corporate offer of emotional and physical well-being sessions.

If this sounds exciting and reassuring, get in touch with us. Our workforce is stable with a high level of permanent staff but we are always looking for practitioners wanting to practice confidently as part of our team making a difference for families and children.

Do you think you have what it takes to join our team of excellent, creative and dedicated social work professionals?

Looked After Children and Permanence Service

This service has 3 teams with responsibility for all looked after children, care proceedings and young people who we are helping prepare to leave our care or move into our dedicated Leaving Care Service. Wherever possible we support young people to return home to their family and securing permanence for young people is central to the work we do. As such you will work closely with our adoption and fostering teams. The allocated social worker is responsible for working with a range of partners to secure the best possible outcomes for our looked after children. We have an active Signs of Safety Implementation group and we will support and encourage you to work creatively in order to secure positive outcomes for young people. We are passionate about the work we do and if you want excellent support and supervision and if you care as much as we do about supporting the aspirations of looked after young people then this is the service for you.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service

Make Social Work at Bexley a profession that is yours to own and in return we can offer you:

• Modern, well-equipped, energising working environment that supports team working and collaboration, in the centre of Bexleyheath
• Professional supervision
• Mentoring/coaching
• Opportunities for flexible working with excellent ICT facilities
• Bexley has a flexible and generous package to support you moving to work in Bexley. We will pay up to £8k which you can use as you wish, e.g. to pay a deposit or mortgage, to meet housing costs, fees and other expenses
• Career progression pathways and varied training opportunities to support continuing professional development
• Signs of Safety training and the opportunity to become an SOS Practice Lead
• Opportunity to engage in our Leadership Programme
• Reimbursement of Social Work England registration fee
• Our Choices Benefits include a lease car or cash options to the value of £2,598 per annum
• Excellent local government pension scheme
• 31 days annual leave per year (plus bank holidays) & annual leave purchase scheme
• MyChoice Staff Benefit Scheme – Includes cycle to work scheme, access to high street shopping vouchers and online discount codes.

View more about our employment deal here.

Your Application:

• Closing Date for your application: 21/05/2023
• CVs will not be accepted unless they are submitted with a completed application form.

This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

This post is considered by the authority to be a customer-facing position; as such it falls within scope of the Code of Practice on English language requirement for public sector workers. The council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the