Senior Practitioner Development Lead FS&P

Senior Practitioner Development Lead Family Support and Protection Mid Essex

Permanent, Full Time

£46,574 to £56,027 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Working Style: Community-based worker

We are excited to offer two exceptional opportunities for Senior Practitioners (SP) within Family Support and Protection (FS&P) services who embody the core values of ECC working with families, holding risk and keeping children at home.

For the current Senior Practitioner Development Lead vacancies we would like to explore allocation of a very low caseload SP or possibly non case holding SP to enable them to oversee and support cohorts of newly qualified social workers.

We believe the way to grow and develop a service to be proud of is to create a supportive and learning environment of which these two posts will be vital. It is likely that after 12 months the post holder of the Senior Practitioner Development Lead would revert to a case holding Senior Practitioner, but this will be reviewed after 6 months and again at 12 months.

If you are an aspiring Team Manager or a Social Worker/Senior Practitioner who is passionate about Social Work and want to influence others these are the roles for you.

The Role

Essex County Council understands how important flexibility and wellbeing is for our colleagues working across children's Social Care and that we need to think differently. We have therefore developed a nine-day working fortnight for full time frontline Social Workers within Children's services.

Family Support & Protection (FS&P)

Family Support and Protection work with families that have long-term complex issues. We're talking about where there's a need for more than three months' intervention, and where children are subject to child protection or child-in-need plans, or where children can no longer live at home and care proceedings need to be initiated.

The Senior Practitioner manages a complex caseload and provides expert supervision and coaching for colleagues, to achieve positive change for children, young people and families. The role deputises for the Team Manager, leading the team and management of duty services.

The role requires an experienced social work practitioner, able to manage higher levels of risk, mentor and advise staff, manage performance and deliver improvements. Building strong working relationships with key partners and stakeholders is essential.

Accountabilities

• Responsible for providing a source of expert advice and professional supervision for social workers and contributing to the development of practice standards.
• Accountable for assessment of complex social care needs and development of support for vulnerable people, children and families.
• Accountable for working within the statutory legal framework, policy and guidance and determining when the threshold for statutory intervention has been reached.
• Responsible for managing a complex caseload, maintaining accurate and timely data, reports and presentations as required.
• Participates in a range of case conferences, court attendance, meetings and statutory reviews, pro-actively taking the lead when a social care perspective is required.
• Accountable for conducting assessments and plan responses to safeguard and promote a child's welfare including appropriate intervention as determined by need.
• Builds strong effective working relationships across the Council, with partners and members of voluntary agencies to help people get the best start in life and age well.
• Delivers a high level of expertise in particular areas of practice and leads on those areas, contributing to the development.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

The Experience You Will Bring

• A recognised social work qualification i.e. Diploma, degree or Masters in social work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent, with current Social Work England (SWE) registration.
• Evidence of continuing professional development, aligned to any relevant Professional Competency/Capability frameworks or Knowledge and Skills Statements.
• Significant experience of social work, demonstrating a comprehensive and up to date understanding of all relevant legislation, regulation and guidance.
• Experience of mentoring both Social Work students and newly qualified and experienced Social Work staff, being a subject matter expert in professional social work practice.
• Experience of chairing meetings involving clients, family members and/or carers and other multi-agency professionals.
• Developing strong relationships with partners, other agencies and the local community to achieve joint objectives and offer a supportive framework for children, young people and families.
• In depth understanding of delivery of value for money interventions balanced against need.
• Proven track record of clear decision making in order to highlight and limit the potential risks associated with intervention.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

What you should do next

If you are interested in finding out more about this role, we would love to hear from you. Please apply via the Working for Essex website.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.