People and Place
Safeguarding and Review
Child Protection Conference Chairperson / Independent Reviewing Officer
Ref: 000679
Contract: Permanent
Salary: £45,718 £49,764 per annum (Grade 9)
Hours: 36.66 per week
Location: Rock Street Resource Centre, Rock Street, Oldham, OL1 3UJ
Closing Date: Wednesday 30th April 2025
Shortlisting Dates: Friday 2nd May 2025
Interview Date: Tuesday 20th May 2025
Informal Enquiries: Lisa Spence
Email: lisa.spence@oldham.gov.uk
Why should you work in Oldham?
Officially rated as a ‘Good’ by Ofsted, we are proud of our relentless approach in seeking the very best outcomes for our children and families, and there’s never been a better time to join the team and be part of our success story.
Oldham is a wonderful place of diversity, where people of all cultures come together. This is one our greatest strengths and our social workers enjoy using a breadth of skills and gaining a variety of experiences whilst supporting children and families from diverse backgrounds.
We use systemic practice as our chosen practice model, focusing on building relationships with children and families, understanding the context and family dynamics, and reflectively learning together. 2024 has seen the launch of our new systemic reflective hubs, as our Social Work Academy continues to offer reflective supervisions and tailored support through an innovative 2-year ASYE programme.
We have a strong ethos of ‘Growing our own’, providing a great environment to excel in your social work career.
Our Promises to you:
* A commitment to your continuing professional development through a bespoke learning and development programme
* A variety of career opportunities to progress and develop with us in Social Work
* Regular, quality, and reflective supervision and learning from practice audits with fortnightly training days in each of our services.
* Monthly Supervision with your line manager.
* A permanent and supportive Senior Leadership team
* Full corporate and service induction
* Dedicated support to develop you in your role and opportunities to meet your career aspirations.
You will be rewarded with great benefits:
* Competitive pay.
* Hybrid working giving flexibility for you to manage your diary and offer a better work/life balance.
* 25 days annual leave with the option to purchase additional days, and which increases after 5 years’ service and 10-years’ service.
* Attractive defined benefit pension scheme with a market leading AVC option for additional retirement savings
* Discounted gym membership
* Staff discount scheme for shopping, entertainment, eating-out, eating-in, travel, motoring and more.
* Salary sacrifice scheme, including Cycle to Work
* Wellbeing support, including an Employment Assistance Programme that provides 24 hours access to advice and support.
* Staff recognition and celebration events
* Free Parking linked to essential car user allowance of £500 and mileage at 45p per mile.
Visit Greater.Jobs for more information on Oldham staff benefits.
Our employees say:
“One of the reasons I’ve worked here for so long is because it’s like a family and a listening organisation, where people are encouraged to participate and get involved”.
“Our Social Worker teams are friendly, approachable and professional”.
“We all want to make a difference to the families and children that we work with”.
“Oldham values the person, the families, and the inclusive culture”.
Hear more from our employees and explore our Social Work Academy offer here
Ofsted says:
“Children are well supported by social workers, who ensure that their health, education and emotional needs are met”.
“Staff are tenacious”.
“Children and families in Oldham benefit from a comprehensive range of early help services”.
“There is strong partnership working”.
“Senior leaders promote the participation of cared for children and actively seek their voice in developing and shaping service delivery”.
“Relentless focus on improvement by a strong and stable leadership team, with progress made across many areas of practice,”
Read the full Ofsted report here
About the Role:
As a Child Protection Chairperson you will oversee effective planning for children subject to child protection plans, providing a quality assurance function. You will maintain robust systems for the planning and review of children subject to child protection plans and children looked after by the Local Authority.
You will be available to offer advice to the staff of Children’s Services and other local agencies in areas for which there is a key responsibility.
* To provide independent chairing of multi-agency child protection conferences.
* To monitor the implementation of plans for children and promote good social work practice.
* To ensure that other relevant partners discharge their statutory duties to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children and young people.
* To provide a quality assurance mechanism to ensure that all plans for children comply with national standards, local policies and statutory requirements.
* To provide an independent overview and inspection of other functions within children’s services as necessary.
* To provide challenge to operational and senior managers and to escalate where appropriate if practice has fallen below the expected standard.
* Monitor and evaluate performance, ensuring continuous improvement and compliance with statutory requirements.
* To contribute to the wider development of the service and ensure drive of excellent practice to achieve good outcomes from children, young people and their families.
For full details please refer to the job description and person specification.
What we need from you:
All applicants must meet the relevant criteria, including the right to work in the UK. We are not in a position to accept applications from candidates who require sponsorship.
Oldham Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. All roles require strong commitment to securing good outcomes for children, operating in a supportive environment focused on effective delivery, including identifying and responding appropriately to any safeguarding concerns, ensuring the immediate decision making reflects an analysis of risk and protective factors.
About You:
* We are seeking an enthusiastic person with a minimum of experience at advanced practitioner level, who:
* Holds a recognised social work qualification and registration with Social Work England
* Has substantial experience of working in children’s services, or related areas at senior practitioner level.
* Demonstrates leadership qualities, with the ability to inspire and motivate others.
* Excels in communication, problem-solving, and collaboration with a range of stakeholders.
* Is able to demonstrate an ability to meet the meet the requirements as set out in the job specification.
Our Behaviours:
Our five behaviours support how we work at Oldham, ensuring we all:
* Work with a resident focus.
* Support our local leaders.
* Take ownership and drive change.
* Stay committed to the borough.
* Drive high performance.
Oldham Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
The successful applicant will be required to register to the DBS Update Service to enable the Council to undertake rechecks throughout your employment. The cost to register is £13 and can be claimed back upon commencement to the role but will not be refunded if you do not accept the offer of employment.
If you would like support with this application, an interview or interested in looking at any courses that could help with this position please get in touch with Get Oldham Working - Get Oldham Working registration form - Oldham Council
NB. - Any candidate that meets the criteria of our Guaranteed Assessment Scheme and meets the essential criteria of the role, will be guaranteed the first stage of assessment (whether that is an interview or another assessment, as appropriate).
Our Guaranteed Assessment Scheme supports candidates with disabilities, have previously been in or currently in care, those that are carers, and those who have served in the Armed Forces as a regular, reserve or cadet.
Diversity and Inclusion:
At Oldham Council, we are committed to creating a fair and inclusive workplace that is as diverse as the communities we serve. We aim to develop a culture of respect, where differences are recognised regardless of background. We aim to be an employer of choice by engaging in fair and open recruitment processes and applications are encouraged from all communities across the borough to create a workforce that represents the diversity of our population.
About Us:
Oldham is committed to developing a Co-operative future; one where citizens, partners and staff work together to improve the borough. Anyone joining the council is coming into an ambitious organisation with big plans. We are working hard to build a brighter future for our borough and we need people from a wide range of backgrounds to continue delivering the best for our communities.
The Council has a clear set of Behaviours, which outline how we do business and we share these borough wide with our residents, partners and businesses. Internally we have translated these into five cooperative behaviours which outline the priority areas of focus for all staff at all levels. You can view these Behaviours, along with staff benefits on our Greater.Jobs pages Working for Oldham
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Please note that should a vacancy that has been released for internal or external recruitment be deemed suitable for an at risk employee, it can be pulled back at any point up to the post being formally offered to an external candidate or an internal candidate that is not at risk of redundancy.
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