Senior Practitioner - Family Support & Protection, North Essex, Tendring Permanent, Full Time £45,217 to £54,395 per annum Location: Clacton on Sea Working Style: Community-based worker Closing Date: 30th January 2025 Interview Date: 11th February 2025 Essex County Council understand 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. The Opportunity The Children and Families service fosters a culture of collaboration, integrity, and compassion, focusing on the development and wellbeing of children, young people, and their families, while protecting them from neglect and abuse. The service works with partners to provide early help, family support, and effective social work interventions to build resilience and enable a brighter future. A Senior Practitioner manages complex caseloads, provides expert supervision and coaching to colleagues, and deputises for the Team Manager. This role involves leading the team, managing duty services, handling higher levels of risk, mentoring staff, managing performance, and delivering improvements. Building strong relationships with key partners and stakeholders is essential. Accountabilities Provide expert advice, professional supervision, and contribute to practice standards for social workers. Assess complex social care needs and develop support for vulnerable individuals, children, and families. Work within legal frameworks, policies, and guidelines to determine when statutory intervention is necessary. Manage complex caseloads, ensuring accurate and timely data, reports, and presentations. Lead in case conferences, meetings, and statutory reviews, offering a social care perspective. Conduct assessments and plan interventions to safeguard and promote children's welfare. Build strong relationships with Council, partners, and voluntary agencies to support community wellbeing. Deliver expertise in specific practice areas and lead their development. The Experience You Will Bring Qualifications and Experience: Recognised social work qualification (Diploma, degree, Masters, CQSW, CSS) with current registration with Social Work England. Evidence of continuing professional development aligned with relevant frameworks or statements. Significant social work experience with comprehensive knowledge of relevant legislation, regulation, and guidance. Experience mentoring Social Work students and staff, being an expert in professional practice. Experience chairing meetings with clients, families, carers, and multi-agency professionals. Desirable Skills: Building strong relationships with partners, agencies, and the community to achieve joint objectives. Understanding value for money interventions balanced against need. Proven decision-making skills to manage and mitigate risks associated with interventions. To read more about our business area, please visit: Children & Families Please take a look at our 'No Magic' Children & Families video As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we're committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you. Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We're committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We're also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying. 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. As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service 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. If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.teamessex.gov.uk Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Further details can be found on our careers page. Downloads Pay and Reward | Our Ways of Working | About Us | Organisation Behaviours