Social Worker - Children in Care and Care Leavers

Social Worker: Children In Care 16+ Team

Do you have a passion to make a difference to the lives of children in care?

We are interested in hearing from both experienced and newly qualified Social Workers who would like to join our Children in Care Team working with adolescents including unaccompanied asylum seeking separated children.

Our Team:

The team is responsible for ensuring that all Children in Care and Care Leavers are supported to achieve positive outcomes and support them in planning to build their lives as young adults ready to leave care and live independently.

Your Contributions:

As a social worker in the team you will be responsible for care planning for children in care aged predominantly 16 and 17 years of age ensuring they are safe, happy and achieving their aspirations and goals. You will work closely with our partner agencies to deliver high quality care and support to our children and young people.

The team works closely alongside the care leaving service with the Personal Advisors, Independent reviewing managers and outreach workers.

The team specialises in conducting brief enquiries and age assessments where necessary for those children seeking asylum and age assessment training so experience within this area is desirable not essential, as age assessment training is provided to all social workers within the team.

The team focus on those older adolescent children who need specific support in preparing them for independence when they turn 18 years of age and transfer from a Social Worker to a Personal Advisor.

Young people transfer from frontline teams at the point of a permanency plan being agreed either within court or via section 20 Southwark judgement for homeless 16/17 year olds alongside unaccompanied asylum seeking children and transferring from within the service from the Children in Care wider team already with a plan of permanency.

Our Offer:

Aside from working with a great team, our employees have access to a fantastic range of benefits, including:

• A generous annual holiday allowance starting at 34 days per year (including bank holidays), increasing with long service
• Membership of our defined benefit, salary-linked Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) with generous employer contributions
• 3 x Salary Life Cover via Local Government Pension Scheme
• Investment in your personal development
• Free Car Parking at HBC sites
• Flexible working arrangements
• Car leasing schemes

Next Steps:

Here at Halton we are committed to supporting Social Workers to achieve their aspirations and you will have real opportunities for further promotion and training, as the Council is keen to develop advanced practitioners and also future leaders.

Halton offer a nurturing ASYE programme for newly qualified workers through our Social Work Academy. This includes a protected caseload, dedicated time for study, a tailored training package and additional reflective supervisions. You will be allocated an ASYE assessor who works alongside you and your line manager to ensure you are supported throughout your first year in practice and beyond.

For experienced workers we offer the opportunity for progression and continued professional development which includes a focus on your development including opportunities to become a practice educator, work with our local universities on delivering course material to student and progression to advanced practitioner. We have strong links to our local Universities and we offer specialist training and membership of Research in Practice. We aim to support you throughout your career whether you want to progress through a specialism, management pathways or teaching.

To apply for this post you must be a qualified social worker ideally with post qualifying experience within a statutory children’s social care setting, along with knowledge and understanding of working with children in care and care leavers and our key partners as a corporate parent. Full Social Work Qualification is required. In addition, this post is subject to Enhanced DBS Disclosure, a UK driving licence and access to a vehicle is required and Social Work England Registration.

For an informal discussion about this post, please contact Lyndsey Ratcliffe (Service Manager Children in Care and Care Leavers) on 0151 511 8594

Interviews will be held: 13/2/25

At Halton Borough Council we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce and a vital part of this is to encourage diversity in all respects. We are committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and tailored to best suit the needs and strength of the individual. This includes making adjustments for people with a disability, neurodiversity or with long-term health conditions. If you require accommodations, please reach out during the recruitment process so that we can make this the best possible experience for you – resourcing@halton.gov.uk

Please refer to the attached Job Profile for further information about the role and our values.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applications. If you’re interested, please complete your application as early as possible.

We look forward to receiving your application!