Job Profile Surrey aims to work alongside families, to respect families and their rights, to work with them in partnership and with their informed consent, to recognise their strengths and help them identify their needs. Our overarching duty is to promote the upbringing of children within their families, where this is compatible with the welfare of the children. Social workers in Surrey will be supported to develop high levels of skill in motivational practice which they will use to help parents identify the aspects of their lives/behaviours that they want to change and provide the help and support families, on a partnership basis, that they need to support them in their change. Specific areas of work will vary depending on the team but will include: - management of triage of contacts to the service to ascertain whether contacts from families, members of the community and partner organisations meet the threshold for a statutory social work assessment of significant impairment of a child’s health/development or significant harm, with appropriate information from referrers and the consent of the family (except when over-ridden by a team manager to protect a child from further significant harm); -to provide an assessment of the needs of family members, their strengths and any risks to children’s health/development or significant harm to the child/ren and develop SMART plans that will meet the needs of family members and reduce risks to children, in conjunction with children and their families and in the most complex cases -to work with partners to meet those needs and monitor progress via child in need and core group meetings involving families, young people and relevant professionals -to chair reviews of children in need cases, strategy discussions, permanency planning meetings and professional’s meetings on complex cases -to conduct complex child protection investigations where a multi-agency strategy discussion considers there are grounds to believe the child has or is likely to suffer significant harm and to involve families in developing plans for change which will reduce the risk of significant harm and keep children in their families wherever possible. -where children cannot be adequately cared for within their families or their families cannot be engaged to access services that would support them to change and the significant harm threshold is reached, to initiate discussions to seek agreement for s20 or initiate planned or emergency legal proceedings to ensure children are protected in line with departmental policy, procedures and relevant legislation. -to work with colleagues in commissioning, fostering and adoption to identify high quality placements for children that will promote keeping children with their siblings and engage in timely care planning so children are placed in stable long-term homes where their health and development as well as education and training needs are supported and they can strengthen their resilience to lead a happy and stable adult life -ensure that social work case records, assessments, plans and documentation for all children and young people for whom the worker is responsible are effectively maintained in line with practice standards and organisational policy and procedure. -foster good relationships with legal services and local family courts to manage efficient and effective Legal Planning Meeting, Public Law Outline and court proceedings where attempts to support children to remain within their families have not been successful. -promote purposeful social work practice, following the service's parenting/group work programmes, and undertake regular clinical and case work supervision that is reflective and outlines clearly the next steps to improve outcomes for children, young people and families. -manage effective communication of practice, service and organisational issues within the team and work collaboratively across other social work teams, services and with partners to provide high-level integrated support to children and families. -ensure that in all aspects of work that the views, feelings and wishes of children, young people and their parents /carers are taken seriously and used to appropriately inform their care plans and development and performance of services. -Academy advanced social workers will lead the induction and training activities for NQSWs who will be based in quadrant teams. They will lead on observing and developing practice, ensuring ASYE programmes and requirements are met and will contribute to the probationary reports required for new entrants to the service, in conjunction with the Principal Social Worker. They will not be responsible for the line management of the NQSWs nor manage their casework as this will lie with the team manager of the quadrant team. They will deputise for the PSW in their absence. Casework Management • Provide high quality relationship based social work services to children and families at tier 4 level of Surrey Safeguarding Children Board’s Effective Family Resilience criteria Advice and Guidance • Provide information, advice and guidance in line with current national legislation and to recognise the need for, and appropriately signpost to other agencies, services or providers. Page 1 Safeguarding • Understand the forms of abuse and neglect that children can be exposed to and differentiate clearly between significant successful. -promote purposeful social work practice, following the service's parenting/group work programmes, and undertake regular clinical and case work supervision that is reflective and outlines clearly the next steps to improve outcomes for children, young people and families. -manage effective communication of practice, service and organisational issues within the team and work collaboratively across other social work teams, services and with partners to provide high-level integrated support to children and families. -ensure that in all aspects of work that the views, feelings and wishes of children, young people and their parents /carers are taken seriously and used to appropriately inform their care plans and development and performance of services. -Academy advanced social workers will lead the induction and training activities for NQSWs who will be based in quadrant teams. They will lead on observing and developing practice, ensuring ASYE programmes and requirements are met and will contribute to the probationary reports required for new entrants to the service, in conjunction with the Principal Social Worker. They will not be responsible for the line management of the NQSWs nor manage their casework as this will lie with the team manager of the quadrant team. They will deputise for the PSW in their absence