Greater London (On-Site)
Permanent, Full time
No DBS check required
£50,000 - £74,999
FULLTIME
SENIOR SOCIAL WORKERS – CHILDREN’S – CHILDREN IN CARE
£55,574 - £58,607 (includes market supplement)
Hybrid role supporting children and families
Closing date: 30/01/2025 at 23:59*
Job Description
JOIN US AND BUILD A FAIRER NEWHAM
ABOUT THE JOB – SENIOR SOCIAL WORKER, CHILDREN IN CARE (CiC)
Social Work in Newham is underpinned by a culture of Systemic and Restorative practice with high quality relationships at the heart of our approach. Senior Social Workers (SSWs) in our Children in Care service work closely with children and young people who are in the care of the local authority, through care proceedings, placements, to eventual transfer to leaving care services or ideally returning to family.
Senior Social Workers have a vital case holding role delivering high quality practice to best serve our children and families, whilst supporting lesser experienced colleagues. SSWs will potentially take on responsibility for supervising social work students on placement at Newham so we welcome Practice Educators, though this is not essential for this role. You’ll be joining an experienced and friendly service, where progression is a genuine possibility; we’ve seen two Senior Social Workers make the upwards step to Assistant Team Manager, and one Assistant Team Manager to move up to Team Manager in recent months.
We value our Senior Social Workers and understand the importance of supporting your learning, development, and wellbeing. We have a bespoke support offer through our very own clinical service; and our embedded systemic family psychotherapist assists with interventions where this may benefit children and young people in our care.
Newham’s commitment to our children in care was recently emphasised by us making being care experienced a protected characteristic – find out more about this by clicking here.
ABOUT YOU – SENIOR SOCIAL WORKER, CHILDREN IN CARE
We’re looking for experienced, confident social work practitioners; you likely have at least 3 years’ post qualified experience (or more) and experience of working effectively within a diverse, urban community. You will have experience of working in a service focusing solely on looked after children, and will be able to comfortably discuss the positive outcomes you’ve achieved for children and young people if shortlisted for interview. You’ll be confident and have a firm understanding of court work and proceedings, and be pro-active and energetic about travelling to meet our children and young people within their placements.
Newham is committed to our workforce being representative of the families we work with, to enhance cultural competence and adjust our practice to suit the individuals we serve. We are looking for colleagues who share our values and are passionate about tackling disproportionality wherever they find it and building a Fairer Newham. You will have a genuine interest in a restorative, relationship based practice model, drawing on systemic thinking to inform your approach to building effective relationships with children, families and communities.
You will be a qualified social worker who is registered with Social Work England with experience of working in statutory services in the UK.
WHY WORK WITH US?
We’ve been working hard to make Newham a great place to practise social work.
- A commitment to addressing disproportionality wherever we find it.
- We’re a GOOD local authority focused on reaching excellence.
- We offer genuinely flexible/hybrid working as long as children and families are supported.
- Stability: 100% of our Senior Managers and 71% of Team Managers are permanent.
- Our firmly established practice model, Circles of Support, was recently nominated for the prestigious MJ Award for Innovation in Children’s Services and allows systemic, restorative practice to flourish.
- Career progression is possible with Newham; we have promoted 30 internal colleagues in 2023 and 38 colleagues in 2024 within children’s social work.
- Social Care Academy – 50+ social workers have studied for systemic higher education with us since 2020. Our Academy offer received significant praise from Ofsted.
- A competitive salary package with a market supplement that rivals capped agency pay.
- Oyster card/parking permit for business use.
- Wellbeing service, leisure and discount benefits
- Travel season ticket loan, cycle scheme, Local Authority pension.
TO APPLY
To apply please submit your CV and a supporting statement (1-2 sides of A4) through our online recruitment portal.
Shortlisting decisions will be based on candidates' relevant experience and suitability for the role in line with the person specification, as described in their supporting statement and CV.
Closing date: 30/01/2025 at 23:59
If you have any questions about the recruitment process or want to discuss joining Newham Children’s Services with one of our managers, please contact our Recruitment Team.
Additional Information
We are committed to creating an inclusive, anti-racist environment for all. When you apply for a job at Newham, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. If you share our vision and values, and you bring the experience and skills we need, that’s all that matters to us.
The London Borough of Newham has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
Please attach your supporting statement, explaining in no more than x2 A4 sides why and how you meet the criteria for this role.
We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.
The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found by https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.