Halton is a vibrant local authority with a rich history and heritage, featuring two iconic bridges that connect communities across the River Mersey. Located in Cheshire, Halton boasts excellent transport links between Liverpool and Manchester, as well as close proximity to both Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester Airports. Our progressive community strategy aims to bring about meaningful, long-term improvements that enhance lives. It’s an exciting time to join us as we develop new policies and transform the way people access services. We are immensely proud that when asked what’s great about working for Halton, the most popular response from our workforce has been ‘ our colleagues’. The Designated Social Care Officer will sit within our Children's Services team and lead Halton forward in delivering a creative, and effective service to our children with SEN. About You The DSCO must have knowledge of social care practice in order to provide and quality assure advice about our children and young people, make recommendations about need and provision, and contribute to formulating outcomes. Working with multi-agency teams to develop new processes e.g. knowledge of the national landscape, local structures and processes for children and adults' services. You will have the ability to collect, interpret, and use data to facilitate wider understanding of the needs and resources of the local population, and influence commissioning. You will possess the professional skills needed to build relationships with a wide range of partners, communicating and influencing systems. The right candidate must be able to influence change and persuade decision makers and practitioners, building and maintaining professional networks, seeking learning and information, and keeping relationships with partners and parents effective. The successful candidate will have good problem solving and creative thinking being able to identify opportunities to improve or innovate services or approaches. You must therefore be creative and innovative, with a breadth of knowledge in safeguarding, and understanding of the legal landscape. Our Offer: Aside from working with a great team, our employees have access to a fantastic range of benefits, including: A generous annual holiday allowance starting at 34 days per year (including bank holidays), increasing with long service Membership of our defined benefit, salary-linked Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) with generous employer contributions 3 x Salary Life Cover via Local Government Pension Scheme Investment in your personal development Free Car Parking at HBC sites Flexible working arrangements Car leasing schemes Next Steps: At Halton Borough Council, we want all of our candidates to feel well-informed so if you would like to have an informal chat about this role, please contact Katherine Appleton on 0151 511 6802 Interview date TBC. At Halton Borough Council we want to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce and a vital part of this is to encourage diversity in all respects. We are committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and tailored to best suit the needs and strength of the individual. This includes making adjustments for people with a disability, neurodiversity or with long-term health conditions. If you require accommodations, please reach out during the recruitment process so that we can make this the best possible experience for you – resourcinghalton.gov.uk Please refer to the attached Job Profile for further information about the role and our values. We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the specified date should we receive sufficient applications. If you’re interested, please complete your application as early as possible. We look forward to receiving your application