Social Workers, Children We Look After Swindon, Wiltshire, South West England, England
Job description
We have a clear vision and plans to reduce the need for Children to come into our care with our new adolescent offer and edge of care work and we are continually working as a partnership to ensure or children are safe.
About Us
We have now implemented the Family Safeguarding Model in 2022, a new multi-disciplinary approach that supports a whole-system change to child protection for children up to adolescence, focusing on supporting the needs of children and adults so that children can safely remain within their families. This is a great opportunity to join us now and be part of this pioneering work as we continue to learn from multi agency family work and support more families to look after their children in their families and wider communities.
In addition, we have an established and growing our ASYE programme, linked to our Social Care & Leadership Academy, offering mentoring support, fostering a culture of learning and challenge, manageable caseloads and good quality supervision, as we commit and invest in growing our own talent, as well as our experienced social workers.
About the role
The Children we Look After team works with our small group of children who are under 16 years old who have a care plan of long-term foster care or adoption. Children move across into the team after care proceedings conclude and remain with us until they are sixteen. We have manageable caseloads for a full-time worker and we have engaging and supportive Managers at all levels to support practice and professional development.
It is a dynamic role and we need creative and kind Social work practitioners to ensure our children who we look after are cared for, attend regular education and are supported into independence when they are ready. There is lots of opportunities to build meaningful relationships with young people, their Carers and other professionals who will share your passion for doing all you can to ensure our Young people are looked after.
In their own words, Children in care consistently tell us what makes a good social worker is someone that:
- “Actually listen to us!”
- “Does what they said they would do”
- “Tells me what’s happening when it’s happening”
This is just a small example of the qualities that young people expect in an ideal social worker. You can view the full skills and values on our Ideal Social Worker poster here
Our offer to you:
- £3000 “golden hello” payment after one year’s service
- Retention payments of £2000 after completing two years’ service and a further £2000 after three years’ service
- Relocation allowance of up to £8,000 (eligibility criteria applies)
- Competitive salaries
- Free car parking at our central Swindon campus and easy commuter links to many locations
Please see our Rewards and Benefits offer for more details.
About You
Your aspirations should be limitless and you will be as determined and passionate about Children’s Services as we are. As a local authority, we continuously drive forward improvements in our services. We want our Social Workers to be part of our transformation, contribute to improving the safeguarding of our children, and we will make sure you have the full support network and training to do it.
Our teams are ambitious and proactive and we are looking for people who will share that ambition and be a part of our journey.
Candidates must be fluent in the English language (as a requirement of Part 7 of the Immigration Act – for the effective performance of a customer-facing role).
Our commitment to your development
We are dedicated to ensuring that you can progress your continued professional development and access training and learning opportunities linked to the BASW competencies for career progression.
We have an established Social Work & Leadership Academy. The Academy aims to celebrate the best in professional practice in Social Work and Social Care Leadership. The Academy represents an opportunity for us to demonstrate how we support, develop and value the professional disciplines in Social Work and Social Care through a targeted framework of career development and learning opportunities.
Your next steps
Read the role profiles and select the Apply button where you will be redirected to the Swindon Borough Council website to complete our online application process. Clicking the ‘Apply’ button on this job website is not an application, you must register on the Swindon Borough Council website in order to be considered for the role.
Potential applicants are sometimes put off if they don’t meet 100% of the requirements. We think individual experience, skills and passion make all the difference, so if you are a registered practitioner and meet the majority of the criteria, we’d love to hear from you.
For further information about the role, please contact Kate Bohan, Service Manager, at [email protected]
If you are experiencing technical issues submitting your application please email [email protected]
