About the Role
Children's Social Worker - Court Team
Welcome and Retention Bonus:
£1000 paid in your first month salary and £1000 paid at the end of your 1st completed year in service
£2000 paid after your 2nd completed year in service
£3000 paid in your 3rd completed year in service and every completed year thereafter.
Whole package totals up to £47,857 (including Retention Bonus)
Social Workers within this service area are able to work flexibly between home and work to meet the needs of the service whilst recognising the benefits that a hybrid model of working can bring.
We are looking for confident and skilled Social Workers to work in the Court and Adoption Service. Our objective is to deliver the best outcomes for children and young people.
Social Workers within the Court and Adoption Service are responsible for cases relating to children subject to proceedings who may either be looked after or living at home. Your role will include the undertaking of all tasks associated with working with Children under statutory frameworks, whilst ensuring compliance with Court direction, and providing the Court with child-focused evidence, analysis and well-informed care plans. You will play an intrinsic role in working directly with the children and young people, ensuring their wishes and views are heard, respected, and relayed to the court. It's a great time to join Sutton as we have introduced a Special Guardianship Team and Therapeutic Support Workers to manage SGO and Parenting assessments to support all Social Workers within the Courts Team.
Your knowledge and experience will allow you to apply social work theories to formulate and test hypotheses in reaching a professional judgment and decision. You will produce a good standard of professional documentation relevant to your service area and be able to prioritise your workload and work within defined timescales. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to the role and you will be required to effectively balance the protection of individual rights against the need to use professional authority and accountability effectively to safeguard vulnerable children and young people.
About Us
The London Borough of Sutton “is uncompromising in its focus on improving quality of frontline social work” – Ofsted
London Borough of Sutton works closely with Kingston University and regional partners as part of the Developing Together Social Work Teaching Partnership (SWTP). The partnership offers staff a wide range of pre and post qualifying education opportunities to promote continuous learning and development. This includes staff being encouraged to support the practice education of Social Work students and those in the assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE). Staff are also given the opportunity to attend conferences, workshops and have access to research and practice resources to support their ongoing professional development.
Our Team
Sutton’s Court Team provides a specialist service to Children within care proceedings, working closely with Courts to secure their safety and wellbeing through the means of permanency.
The Borough prides itself on engaging with children and young people, and this is no different in the Court team with the expectation of staff undertaking direct work with children to elicit their voice and to give age-appropriate clarity and reassurance. Supporting our social workers with their career development is a priority for us.
In Sutton we ensure that our social workers have manageable workloads, regular supervision, and through annual appraisals you will have the opportunity for career development and progression. Court Social Workers will also have the opportunity to develop skills by undertaking a variety of assessments including viability, parenting and together and apart assessments.
About You
The successful candidates will be an enthusiastic and motivated individual with a caring and calm approach. You will demonstrate empathy when dealing with sensitive situations and strong interpersonal skills using different ways of communicating. Showcasing the ability to assess and record a child's needs, applied through evidence based practice to justify decision making. We welcome applications from experienced child protection practitioners with a clear ability to write comprehensively, speak with clarity and are able to deliver analysis based on evidence and research.
Our culture of strong, accessible and supportive management will provide you with good regular supervision and the opportunity to take part in case discussions.
In addition, We would expect the successful candidate to demonstrate the following competences (not limited to):
You are a Qualified Social Worker with a Social Work degree or recognised qualification and registered with the relevant regulatory body Social Work England
Have completed the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE)
Have a good level of experience of working in a children and family settings and have managed a complex case load
Hold the relevant skills, knowledge and aptitude to ensure that all vulnerable people are safeguarded from abuse and that all statutory functions, local policy, procedures are adhered to in a timely manner and documented accordingly.