The Slough Children Looked After (CLA) Teams are looking for passionate and dedicated Senior Social Workers who want to make a real difference to the lives of our children. You’ll receive exceptional management support, flexible working, bespoke training opportunities and a chance to do things differently. We’re proud to have created a place where Senior Social Workers can flourish and develop to their fullest potential and feel listened to. Our young people are looking for Senior Social Workers who are honest, approachable and can be themselves. If this sounds like you and you’re looking for a challenge, we’d love to hear from you. Our CLA teams work with children from 0 to 18 years of age whose care plan is to achieve permanency via adoption or long-term care. As a Senior Social Worker in the CLA Teams, this provides an opportunity for you to develop good relationships with children and young people and have a positive impact on their lives. You would have an allocation of children and young people with whom you care plan, safeguard and support to achieve their best potential. You would also have the opportunity of working with Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and be supported to develop your skills and knowledge in completing age assessments. We, as a Service, actively listen to the child’s voice and promote children and young people’s choices, safety and fulfilment. For this role, you’ll need to be a Social Work England registered social worker with a professional social work qualification, or equivalent, and have significant demonstrable experience of working within a busy service. Main Accountabilities Promote and safeguard the wellbeing and interests of the child/young person at all times and through all aspects of work Be responsible for managing a complex and independent workload, ensuring legislative requirements are met to a high standard and within required timescales Act as a senior professional, using knowledge and experience in a specialist area and from own professional experience to provide advice, support and ‘critical friend’ challenge on cases to colleagues to support them in their work Take responsibility for a student working in Slough Children First (SCF), carrying out their supervision alongside the Assistant Team Manager (ATM) Be willing to work towards the Practice Educator Professional Standards for social work, especially stage 2 Management of the team duty rota Take a strong role in team meetings so that they are efficient and effective, leading team meetings as required in place of the ATM and Team Manager (TM) Thoroughly assess, critically analyse, plan and implement suitable interventions for complex cases that fulfil statutory regulations, instigating proceedings and taking cases to court as required whilst effectively managing risk at all times Produce concise, well-structured assessments, plans and reports, clearly recording and reporting analysis and judgements and ensuring that all recommendations are followed Where cases are to be transferred to another service or partners, ensure that there is a clearly recorded transfer plan Maintain accurate, up to date, evidence-based records safely and confidentially, in line with statutory requirements Work with children, young people and families/carers to develop effective relationships through meaningful and purposeful direct work, actively seeking and understanding their needs and views to promote their participation in decision making and inform practice in assessment and planning in individual cases Work in partnership with colleagues and other agencies to deliver accessible and effective services, empowering parents and carers to develop and maintain safe parenting practices, chairing meetings to a high standard to achieve outcomes for children Be responsible for own individual performance in line with national standards, service and team specific performance indicators and actions required to address areas for improvement Be responsible for own professional development keeping pace with national, regional and local policy initiatives and within specialist area, attending training to maintain professional development and ensuring the receipt of regular supervision Participate in and learn from routine observation, review and auditing activity conducted by the TM and ATM to secure the highest possible standards of social work practice Develop and maintain effective internal and external working relationships to achieve ensure resources are available to achieve optimal outcomes for children and young people, ensuring a joined-up approach to relationships to other team members and managers Represent SCF’s values, leading by example in the delivery of these and setting a positive culture within your team, service and SCF; challenge behaviour when it is not aligned with our values and take appropriate action; support a professional in a respectful and child-focussed environment which supports SCF’s vision Ensure all interventions are conducted within an anti-discriminatory framework, and take into account issues such as race, gender, sexuality, disability etc, and deliver appropriate services to the diverse communities of Slough Provide cover for the work of other team members as required, undertake specific projects, and other additional duties as required Person Specification Professional Social Work Degree or equivalent (Essential) Social Work England Registered (Essential) DBS Check (Enhanced) Significant post graduate demonstrable experience (Essential) Professional Standards (Essential) Knowledge and Skills for Child and Family Social Workers – issued by DfE (Essential) Ability to write reports to a high standard (Essential) Understanding of children and families legal framework and assessment process (Essential) Understanding and experience of child protection procedures (Essential) Current UK driving licence (Desirable) Access to own vehicle (insured for work purposes) (Desirable) Postgraduate qualification in relevant Social work discipline (Desirable)