Trainee Social Worker (Integrated Degree Apprenticeship)

Cheshire West and Chester Council brings a fresh and energetic approach to providing top quality services for its many customers and communities. West Cheshire is a place where everyone can Thrive – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money and Empowerment.

Are you looking for the opportunity to become a qualified Social Worker, to obtain this degree without the fees or loans and all whilst you are getting paid to work with children and families?

Have you got experience of working alongside children, young people or their families to be the best they can be? Are you passionate about advocating for people who need extra help and support?

Then this exciting opportunity is for you!

We are delighted to release our new and highly-sought-after Trainee Social Worker positions in Cheshire West and Chester’s Children’s Social Care service.

If you are committed and passionate about advocating for people who need extra help and support, to make a difference in children and young peoples lives, then this is an unmissable opportunity for you. We are looking for passionate, hard-working and committed people who want to work with our most vulnerable children and young people but are also committed to their own continued learning and development by securing a Social Work qualification.

At Cheshire West and Chester Children’s Social Care we seek to support our children and young people to achieve the best outcomes and we do this by putting them first. We have a culture of learning, development and ongoing practice improvement to ensure we enable practice to empower and support families to make positive and sustainable changes in their lives. We work within our multi-agency practice framework of Our Way of Working, using a Trauma Informed approach of understanding and responding to children and their families, and using Motivational Interviewing to illicit and empower change.

We have been judged as Good by Ofsted in our 2015 inspection and retained Good most recently in 2019. We are proud to work in ways that continually develop and improve services for children and families. We invest in our workforce and in the development of our staff as we know that they are our best asset for achieving excellent practice.

Whilst you will study one day a week, you will be employed as a trainee social worker, working alongside qualified social workers carrying our assessments, implementing and reviewing plans, writing reports, working creatively with children and their families to motivate and bring about change to improve the safety and wellbeing of children.

You will need to have some experience of working with vulnerable people, including children and young people, and have the necessary skills to undertake this role and the learning required. This includes demonstrating empathy and understanding, active listening, good communication and written skills. An ability to understand the legal framework we work within is desirable but you will learn about this as you become immersed in social work practice.

In return, Cheshire West and Chester offer the integrated degree apprenticeship programme which will see you finishing three years of study for a degree in social work starting in September 2023, with no tuition fees and no student debt.

What to do next…

This is a staged application process. Successful applicants will be supported with their University application for an Integrated Social Work Degree. Following application and university assessment process the successful candidates will progress to be offered a fixed term contract for the duration of the 3 year programme. The position of trainee is dependent on successful completion of each academic year and overall programme. At the end of the programme and upon gaining your qualification, you will be offered a permanent Social Work post within one of our frontline social work teams in Children’s Social Care.

This is a full-time post at Grade 7, the salary starts at £26,845 per year, rising up to £27,852 in year 3.

For an informal discussion please feel free to contact:

Helen Doyle (Recruitment Lead) [email protected]

Pip Rees (Principal Social Worker) [email protected]

Louise Irving (Workforce Development Lead) [email protected]

We have Teams meeting session for those interested to join and find out more about the apprenticeship on 11th April 2023 at 2pm – details and link Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 355 553 763 949
Passcode: Mb6u5P

Please note that this job is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

To find out more information about what it is like to work for Cheshire West and Chester Council including our rewards and benefits please see www.cwcrecruitment.co.uk

No candidate will meet every single requirement - if your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you!

Cheshire West and Chester Council are committed to equality and diversity in employment. Please see the Equality Policy for more information.

Cheshire West and Chester Council have adopted a Local Living Wage for our employees which means that all employees will receive a minimum of £10.90 per hour for all contracted hours.

For any technical enquiries please email [email protected] and quote job reference number in all correspondence.