Job Description
Children, Education and Justice Services
Senior Practitioner - Social Care Direct
Waverley Court
Salary: £44, - £52,
Hours: 36 per week
Social Care Direct is the first point of contact for children, families and professionals seeking a social work service. Social Care Direct also manages requests for information from other professionals and partner agencies. Referrals are assessed by Senior Practitioners who will recommend and implement initial social work interventions, through a screening process.
Social Care Direct has expanded to provide a direct service to children and their families who require support. The Team works with Children in Need, who are not subject to Child Protection Investigations, or statutory measure of care.
Main duties will include screening referrals and passing requests for services on to Locality Practice Teams and other Children and Families services where appropriate, liaising with other professionals, families and identifying appropriate initial interventions. The post holder will also work in partnership with Customer Service Advisers, Health and Social Care and Emergency Social Care colleagues. The post holder will also be required to undertake short term direct (face to face) assessments on a city wide basis.
All applicants will be able to evidence clear assessment skills using current research and models of practice; excellent communication skills with children, families and other professionals, both written and verbal; resilience to work and achieve positive outcomes in what is a fast-paced environment; willingness to develop services ensuring best practice.
For informal enquiries please contact:
This post is regulated work with children and/or protected adults under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act. The preferred candidate will be required to join the PVG Scheme or undergo a PVG Scheme update check. Where an individual has spent a continuous period of 3 months or more out with the UK in the last 5 years, an Overseas Criminal Record Check will be required. You will be required to provide this check. An unconditional offer of employment and commencement in the post will be subject to the outcome of both these pre-employment checks being deemed satisfactory.
As part of our goal to improve our organisational culture and create a great place to work together for the people of Edinburgh, we want to make sure that we’re bringing the best people into our roles, not just in their skills and experience but also in their approach to work.
To help achieve this, we’re changing the way we interview and assess candidates by moving from a competency-based interview approach to a behavioural and technical (skills for the job) based approach. This new way of interviewing will allow us to assess how you think and how you would bring Our Behaviours of Respect, Integrity and Flexibility into your ways of working.
We're committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits that a diverse workforce with different values, beliefs, experience, and backgrounds brings to us as an organisation.
You can find out more on Our Behaviours web page