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Job Description
Organisation: Leicestershire County Council
Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, LE3 8RA
Worker Category: Fixed Location Worker
Salary: £47,694- £52,155 (plus market premium) per annum (pro rata for part time)
Working Hours: 37 hours Per week
Contract Type: Permanent
Closing Date: 9th January 2025
Interview Date(s): 17th January 2025
Would you like the opportunity to join an 'Outstanding' rated Local Authority?
We take the right action, at the right time for Children in Need of help and protection in Leicestershire who receive a timely and proportionate social work response to manage risk and meet needs.
We are ambitious for children, young people, their families and for the workforce that supports them. Our commitment is to make Leicestershire the best place for children and their families to thrive.
About the Role
Our First Response Service is based at County Hall. We have Screening, Duty and Assessment Teams with Team Managers, Senior Practitioners and Social Workers in each team.
This position is predominantly based in one of the sub-teams within the Screening part of the service but you are expected to work across the service as needed.
At our 'front door' there is an effective and timely response to contacts from professionals and members of the public, to ensure that children's needs are met at the earliest opportunity.
Management oversight of the front door is thorough, and decision-making is evident throughout a child's journey at the referral and assessment stage.
When children are at risk of immediate harm, prompt action is taken to understand their circumstances and to better safeguard them. Decision-making is proportionate and leads to appropriate actions, including the decision to undertake child protection investigations. We are confident that there are timely responses to non-immediate safeguarding issues too.
A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.
Assessments are timely, comprehensive and of good quality and written to the child, with immediate safety planning and actions put into place at the earliest opportunity. Risks are appropriately identified during the assessment stage, and this leads to coherent plans that better promote children's safety and well-being.
First Response has a strong service-learning framework to know what is working well and what areas for development should be targeted, this is a fluid framework responding to current trends and themes. Managers take part in regular quality assurance and audit activity and this supports a culture of high challenge, high support where there is access to regular reflective supervision.
We have strong leadership in Leicestershire and the Team Managers in First Response work together, supported by Senior Leaders who are visible.
We are committed to our continuous improvement in First Response and achieving excellence through purposeful practice and we challenge ourselves to ensure that we are providing the best possible service to the Children, Young People and Families of Leicestershire.
Come and join us!
Are you experienced in leading a Social Work team to improve the outcomes for children, young people and their families? Are you committed to continuing to support us delivering outstanding services to children and young people?
We are looking for someone who has a robust understanding and application of thresholds, identifying and responding to risk and harm and is able to support and lead a small team of Social Workers and newly qualified staff. You will know what 'good' looks like and be able to quality assure and drive good practice and leadership. You will need to be able to confidently work on your own initiative as well as part of a small group of managers. We need can-do, resourceful and creative managers to support the development and delivery of a busy front door and assessment service in line with the policies and procedures of the Department and within regulatory and statutory guidelines.
About You
To apply for this post, you must have:
* Social Work degree or equivalent, e.g. CQSW, DipSW (with specialism in children's services), approved by Social Work England and evidence of continuing professional development.
* Experience of statutory childcare social work, including Child in Need, safeguarding, child protection and care proceedings.
* Experience of supervising staff and/or social work students.
* Management experience.
* Experience of using performance indicators to monitor and improve performance.
* Ability to analyse information to reach sound decisions, often under pressure, and take responsibility for their outcome and regular reporting to the Service Manager.
* Understanding of and commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.
Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.
Interested in Flexible Working?
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below.
For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:
Jo Searle - Service Manager or Lorna Nolan - Assistant Service Manager
Email: Joanne.Searle@leics.gov.uk Tel: Jo - 0116 305 3909 / Lorna.Nolan2@leics.gov.uk Tel: Lorna - 0116 305 6561
How to Apply
Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.
To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.freshdesk.com/support/home.
By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.
About Us
About Leicestershire County Council
Leicestershire County Council is a Disability Confident, Menopause Friendly, Mindful Employer, Fostering Friendly, Forces Friendly, and Cycle Friendly organisation. In August 2021, we also signed up to the Race at Work Charter. We are strongly committed to promoting equality and opportunity, championing employee wellbeing and investing in staff training and development.
Our aim is to work with communities and partners to deliver public services that make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone. Our employees play a key role in supporting this goal and helping us deliver the vital services we provide to the people of Leicestershire.
For further information on what it's like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please refer to the following:
Our Recruitment Process
Our Organisational Values
Our Employee Benefits
Working for Us
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