Priority Candidates will be considered in the first instance
Wigan Life Centre South
College Avenue
Wigan
WN1 1NJ
Salary: Grade 9, £38,626 - £43,693 per annum. Social Worker
Salary: Grade 10 £43,693 - £47,754 per annum. Senior Social Worker
Salary: Grade 10 £43,693 - £47,754 per annum. Advanced Practitioner
37 hours per week
Permanent
Choose to be a Senior Social Worker, Social Worker or Advanced Practitioner with Team Wigan; a local authority who has significantly invested in its social work teams and practice model, allowing our social workers to work autonomously and spend quality time with children and families.
The commitment we made back in 2020, to do everything we can to make sure we have enthusiastic permanent social workers to care for our children and young people, means that Wigan’s Children’s Social Work teams are now made up of over 80% permanent staff, with all of our team managers being permanent, meaning you will get consistent support in your role. June 2024 saw us transition to the Family Safeguarding Model (FSM) and our social workers are already seeing the benefits of this from:
* Significant investment in staffing, with new senior social worker positions created to support career development
* We have 5 substance misuse family workers on our social work teams, making access to adult services quick and easy, as well as and 10 domestic abuse practitioners to work with families
* We will soon have NHS mental health practitioners on our team, making it easy for you to get the families the help they need
* We make sure our social workers have time for impactful one-to-one life story work with our children
* We have a high number of support services within children’s social care, partner agencies and in the local community, including our accessible Family Hubs
* Our caseloads continue to reduce, which our teams tell us they are feeling the benefit of.
Due to investment into senior social worker roles, we have seen internal movement which has created vacancies that we rarely advertise. If you are a social worker that wants to be part of our team that we are sure is well on its way to being outstanding, we would love to hear from you.
Current vacancies include:
Senior Social Worker - Family Safeguarding Team and Duty & Assessment Team
Social Worker - Duty & Assessment Service, Childrens First Partnership Hub*, Family Safeguarding, Fostering and Transition to Adult Social Care Team.
*3 years post qualifying experience required for this role
Advanced Practitioner Family Safeguarding
You can read more about our social work teams in the overviews attached or read more about working in children’s social care at Wigan on our webpages.
To make the application process as simple as possible, all roles can be applied for in the one application. Just let us know which roles and teams you are interested in when applying.
About you:
With everything that we set out to do at Wigan, we always listen to our children and young people. They have told us that they want their social workers to be kind, thoughtful, responsible and flexible; to prioritise them, spend time with them, and strive to help them be happy and safe. So, this is what we want too!
If you are a qualified social worker, like a new challenge, want to be part of implementing new ways of working that we know will make a real difference and have a desire to motivate and empower children and families to achieve positive changes, then please apply.
About us:
Wigan Council has been voted ‘Overall Council of the Year’ at the APSE (Association for Public Service Excellence) Awards. We are signed up to the Greater Manchester Continuous Service Commitment ensuring that your service will be continuous or 'unbroken' between the supporting organisations.
The Progress with Unity plan is a place movement for change for the next decade, bringing a new era for Wigan Borough. It draws on the strengths of our individual organisations, recognising that together we can achieve much more for our communities by delivering on our 2 place missions; create fair opportunities for all children, families, residents and businesses and make our towns and neighbourhoods flourish for those who live and work in them.
We are an improving Local Authority and are proud to highlight that our most recent OFSTED Visit reported that “staff were unanimously positive when speaking with inspectors about working in Wigan Social workers said that they feel valued and listened to and told inspectors that senior managers collaborate with them to find better ways to improve outcomes for children” (May 2023).
We understand that for great social workers to stay with us we need to invest in your career, which is what we will do from day 1. Whether you are an experienced social worker or newly qualified we have a career pathway that will support you to achieve your aspirations.
Here at Wigan, we are proud to support flexible working patterns, when the service can accommodate this. We also take a blended approach to where we work, depending on the work we do. This may include working from home, the office, or the community. We like to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment by giving them the opportunity to access a range of exclusive rewards and benefits click here to find out more about working for #TeamWigan.
Wigan Council prides itself on equality, inclusion and promoting diversity within the borough and aims to recruit a workforce that reflects our diverse communities. We invest in training and developing our staff, in a positive learning environment, and aim to be a consciously inclusive employer. We welcome applications from everybody in the community and would particularly encourage applicants from our underrepresented groups to apply. At Wigan, it is really important to us that applicants demonstrate our Team Wigan behaviours, and we do all we can to make sure that everyone feels like they belong. We have guidance in place to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process.
To be appointed to this role you must be able to prove your right to work in the UK. Please visit the link below to check you qualify to apply. Please note, at present we are not a licenced sponsor. Prove your right to work to an employer: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Prove your right to work to an employer
If you would like an informal chat about this role, please contact our Workforce Development Team, who will be happy to talk to you about the roles available and our fast-track recruitment process can provide an interview within 2 weeks, if you meet the essential criteria. Drop us an email at childrensservicesrecruitment@wigan.gov.uk, letting us know when is the best time to ring you and we will get in touch.
Interview date: To be confirmed
This position is subject to Enhanced Disclosure Procedures plus child barred list check
The employer is committed to safeguarding
To view the details relating to this position, please click the links below: