Social Worker - Children in Care 0-16

Job Introduction
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 children aged between 0-16 years.

Our Story:

Halton is a vibrant local authority with a rich history and heritage, featuring two iconic bridges that connect communities across the River Mersey. Located in Cheshire, Halton boasts excellent transport links between Liverpool and Manchester, as well as close proximity to both Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester Airports.

Our progressive community strategy aims to bring about meaningful, long-term improvements that enhance lives. It’s an exciting time to join us as we develop new policies and transform the way people access services.

We are immensely proud that when asked what’s great about working for Halton, the most popular response from our workforce has been ‘our colleagues’. 

Our Team and the role: 

The team is responsible for ensuring that all Children in Care are matched with carers able to meet their needs with a long-term plan of permanency and supported to achieve positive outcomes in all areas.

The children in care service have stable teams of social workers, community support workers and team managers as well as service manager and head of service.

As a social worker in the team, you will be responsible for care planning for children in care 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.

As a permanency service we look to ensure our children in care live within safe, stable and appropriately matched carers/family to meet all of their needs and work towards a plan of discharge where appropriate, long-term matching and/or family finding.

The team also focuses on supporting young adolescents to develop their independence skills and ready them for when they are turning aged 15 years 9 months/16 years when they will transfer to the adolescent service who work alongside our team of personal advisors.

Knowledge and experience of working with children in care and corporate parenting is essential to this role in supporting our children in care, however we have training available and if newly qualified our social academy will support via the ASYE programme*

Hours: 37 per week 

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
Extensive employee benefits platform including discounted shopping, car leasing, gym memberships, wellbeing hub and Employee Assistance Programme.
*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.

Next Steps:

At Halton Borough Council, we want all of our candidates to feel well-informed so if you would like to have an informal chat about this role, please contact Lyndsey Ratcliffe (Service Manager Children in Care) on 0151 511 8594.

Interviews will provisionally take place on 29th May 2025.

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!