Social Worker - Children in Care

Care job family overview:

Support and assist the well-being of individuals and groups to assure their protection, security and development.

Safeguarding, protection and care.

Community, residential, day or field settings.

Ongoing risk/needs assessment of and advice for individuals/groups.

Specification of any non-council provision.

Individual or small group emphasis.

May involve personal care activities.

Likely to involve immediate response to client.

Service and Function Context

The overall responsibilities of the service/function are:

Operational children’s services are structured in dedicated function teams in order to improve delivery and outcomes for children, young people and families and to evidence this through performance and achievement of set standards.

The dedicated function teams are:

•    Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)

•    Safeguarding and Assessment Services

•    Care & Placement Services

The Safeguarding and Assessment team is part of our exciting new structure and the team works with some of our most vulnerable children in Wiltshire including children in need, children in need of protection, children who are the subject of family proceedings and a proportion of our looked after children, providing a high quality, efficient and effective social work service to respond to the needs of vulnerable children, young people and their families.

Job Purpose

Post holders will be responsible for:

• Completing assessments, planning, delivering and reviewing focused interventions in a timely manner in order to safeguard and protect vulnerable children and promote positive outcomes.
• Working within and implementing the duties and responsibilities of relevant.
• Child care legislation, associated regulations and guidance and national and departmental policies and procedures.
• Achieving improved “Every Child Matters” outcomes for children and young people.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

To manage and supervise a caseload of approved mainstream and family and friends foster carers across Wiltshire to ensure safe and high quality foster placements are offered and provided to Wiltshire’s looks after children.

To operate within the council policy and keep up to date with social work methods, practice developments, new legislation and procedures, including the Children’s Act 2004, Every Child Matters and Care Matters agenda.

To be responsible for the day to day interpretation of and implementation of statutory duties and departmental policy and procedures in the provision of services to children and young people.

To be allocated work from the team manager or any person delegated to act on their behalf based on eligibility criteria and to hold case management responsibility for this work.

To complete enquiries and assess, the needs of and risks to vulnerable children and young people in a timely manner giving due consideration to the wishes and views of the child and the child’s family. This will include the completion of S47 enquiries, single assessments and engaging service users and other relevant persons in the work base, homes or any other appropriate venue e.g. hospital, school etc.

To take appropriate action to assess and minimise any identified concern or risk to children/young people in accordance with the requirements and timescales of assessment frameworks, child protection procedures and looked after children legislation and procedures.

To draw up and implement, with the child/young person and their family/carers, an appropriate plan to address identified issues and to maximise the participation of service users and carers in this process ensuring that social work intervention is ongoing only when necessary in people’s lives.

To carry out regular reviews of individual plans, record outcomes and formulate revised plans which are outcome focused.

To convene meetings e.g. core groups to assist in the implementation and review of plans for vulnerable children.

To write reports for child protection conferences, planning meetings, looked after children reviews, legal meetings and court hearings and attend these as appropriate.

To have a creative approach to meeting need and to ensure local provision, wherever possible, in order to meet identified need within available resources.

To have a clear understanding of and ability to manage within financial constraints in service delivery.

To work proactively and in partnership with other agencies to plan and deliver coordinated services to children, young people and their families/carers which promotes and focuses on positive outcomes.

To maintain accurate and effective electronic recording of information and action taken in the course of casework.

To understand the need for and contribute to the achievement of team and departmental performance targets in order to achieve positive outcomes for children and young people.

To maintain confidentiality of information acquired in the course of undertaking duties for the department whilst operating in the fullest cooperation with other agencies to ensure that children are appropriately safeguarded.

To contribute to team processes in a positive and appropriate manner, by attending team meetings and undertaking any necessary and appropriate team duties.

To make an active contribution to the development of service delivery through the sharing of knowledge, information and skills.

To take responsibility for personal professional development through the utilisation of relevant practice research/developments, legislation, participative supervision and appraisal processes.

To undertake further training which is consistent with the needs of the individual and the organisation, as agreed with the manager.

To work within an equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory framework. Value diversity within the team and in contact with other professionals, children, young people and families.

Person Specification

Specific qualifications, knowledge, and skills required for this role:

Essential

Have up-to-date knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance in relation to working with, and the protection of, children and young people.

Thorough understanding of the needs of children in care.

Professional social work qualification.

Social Worker England registered.

Up to date knowledge of key child care legislation, policies and practices central to the implementation of a professional social work service on behalf of the council.

Knowledge of “Every Child Matters”, the five outcomes and shared processes.

Knowledge and ability to put into practice a range of theories, models and interventions and to assess impact for the service user.

Knowledge of assessment processes including the contribution provided by other agencies, timescales and their impact on council and Government performance targets and indicators.

Post qualifying experience of direct work with children, young people and families.

Experience of working with children in care, their families and foster carers.

Experience of foster care and family placement work.

Experience of completing assessments, reports and plans for children identified as vulnerable and in need.

Proven record of challenging poor performance and evidence of improving performance.

Ability to give objective timely advice.

Knowledge and evidence of assessment skills, including engaging with users of services, other professionals and agencies to achieve a holistic assessment.

Excellent report writing skills. Proven organisational skills, including the ability to prioritise work, manage own time effectively and meet deadlines.

Ability to keep accurate electronic records.

Ability to contribute positively to the social work team and department.

Takes responsibility for own professional development and commitment to evidenced based practice.

Good IT skills.

Ability to manage competing demands of a caseload.

Effective communication skills, both verbal and written with colleagues, outside agencies and service users.

Ability to identify problems with some complexity and to demonstrate creative approach to such problems.

Ability to develop and maintain effective professional relationships within and outside the department.

Ability to produce reports to required standard on time.

Fluent English.

Desirable

A post qualifying award in Social Work.

A Practice Teachers’ Award.

Training qualification.

Experience of assessment of foster carers or adopters.

Experience of supervision.