senior social worker - family support & protection

Senior Practitioner - Family Support & Protection

Permanent

 Full Time

£39,168 to £47,405 PA

Location: Chelmsford

Closing Date: 19th January 2021

Serious about social work? We are…

Essex County Council, Children and Families Social Workers are committed to giving every child and young person the support they need to excel in life and our Social Work teams are at the heart of this ambition.

We want you to come and join our brilliant, creative and passionate teams who are working to create lasting change for children and families across Essex. 

So, we've worked hard to give our Social Workers freedom to practice, time to reflect and space to develop meaningful relationships with families. With the right framework in place to enable their success.

Using systemic and strength-based social work approaches, we deliver high-quality services to families facing the most complex situations in their lives.

Help us to continue enhancing and evolving our service. Be part of a strong team dedicated to delivering systemic, relationship-based social work, and create lasting change for children and families in Essex.

Being a Senior Practitioner with Family Support & Protection.

As a Senior Practitioner you'll be an inspirational leader within the team, with the opportunity to take the lead in a practice area. We'll empower you to put families at the centre of your practice and we'll encourage you to bring and implement new ideas to help enhance our services even further. 

We'll also provide you with the training and development opportunities for continued professional development. Because we're committed to succession planning with our staff. 

About the team

The Family Support and Protection (FS&P) function is a well-regarded frontline team that works across Essex. Working in a high pressured yet dynamic environment, we support families that have long term complex issues and require more than three months intervention. We handle cases in which children are subject to Child Protection (CP) and Child in Need (CIN) plans, and we support children who can no longer live at home or where care proceedings need to be initiated. 

We work in partnership with families and services in the community to achieve positive change within the context of managing risk. We have brilliant Family Centres and a highly-regarded Family Group Conference Service to support us in this. 

Our Benefits

When you join us, you can expect an exceptional benefits package that includes access to a competitive local government pension scheme, up to 29 days of annual leave with the option to 'buy' more holiday, flexible working arrangements, ongoing CPD opportunities and a wide array of staff discounts and loans. 

But more than that, we support our people with a truly progressive workplace that is focussed on wellbeing. With both a Wellbeing Lead and dedicated Mental Health First Aiders, we are on the verge of launching a forward-thinking wellbeing strategy for the entire Council - so you can be sure of a great work/life balance.

What you will need

 * You will be a registered Social Worker with a Diploma in in Social Work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent, and at least two years of experience in Children's Services.

 * With plenty of motivation and great communication skills, you will be comfortable working with children of all ages, plus their parents and carers, and you will ideally have recent experience of Child Protection work, including section 47 investigations and assessments. 

 * With comprehensive knowledge of relevant child protection guidance, regulations and legislation (such as CA1989 and CJA1991) and the legal process, you will have experience of attending court in relation to childcare matters. 

 * On a practical level, you will have strong skills in planning activities and programmes for children, young people and their parents, and you will be well versed in child development, relating theory and practice. 

 The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wide operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential. 

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