Senior Practitioner

Service Care Solutions Ltd – Chatham, Kent

Medway Council are recruiting for a number of permanent Senior Practitioners within the Children’s Services team.
+ £6,000 market premia + £3,000 annual retention payment after 1 years’ service

MAIN PURPOSE OF JOB

Assist the Team Manager in supporting the team in safeguarding and promoting the well-being of vulnerable children and young people through the provision of high-quality social work practice, supporting them to achieve their full potential, living within their family if safe to do so.
Model best practice, sharing learning, and offering a safe reflective space for less experienced practitioners in your team to develop.
Participate in effective partnership working and engagement and work collaboratively with a range of organisations, statutory and voluntary in delivering services to children and young people.
Comply and support others to comply with legislation, statutory guidance and local policies and procedures.
Maintain personal and professional training and development as part of your commitment to continuous professional development, utilising supervision and your annual personal development review plan, to support your growth and development as a practitioner and leader.
As a Senior Practitioner, you will be in a leadership role within the team whereby you may be required to deputise for the team manager, supervise staff, lead in an area of specialism and support the team practically and emotionally with oversight and support from the Team Manager.

Main duties and responsibilities:

1. Manage a reduced caseload within the appropriate statutory framework to a high standard. Your casework will consist of complex and joint casework with less experienced members in the team, where your role will be to oversee practice and support the development of your team.
2. Demonstrate expert and effective practice in complex situations that reflects a commitment to relationship and strengths-based practice, assessing and managing higher levels of risk and working collaboratively with children, young people and their families and carers.
3. Contribute to the learning and development of others in your team, including providing advice and support to less experienced staff on aspects of casework ensuring a high level of practice is demonstrated.
4. Supervise staff within your team including student social workers, newly qualified social workers, family support workers and/or personal advisors. The Team Manager will retain overall responsibility for the team.
5. Lead on an area of practice that is relevant to your service and be an expert in this area, within your service, providing training opportunities, consultation and sharing resources. Where available you should be part of a Medway Safeguarding Children’s Partnership (MSCP) Champions group for your area of specialism.

WORKING STYLE

The work style for this role has been assessed as ‘Hybrid’. This means the post holder will have a flexible work style and be able to work from a variety of locations. There is an expectation that the post holder will be office-based for a minimum of 2 days each week and for the whole week whilst on duty.

If you would like to apply for this role please email your CV to *************@servicecare.org.uk or call 01772 208964.