Job Title: Qualified Children’s Senior Practitioner
Starting Salary: £42,839 per annum + £6,443 pa market enhanced payment progressing to £47,181 per annum + £6,279 pa market enhanced payment* PLUS £1k one off welcome payment* please note this is a non-contractual payment subject to a 3 yearly review
Hours: 37 and Part time 18.5 hours
Location: Base locations in Stevenage (East) and Apsley (West). Whilst you will have a base, each team has a geographic area they cover which will require regular access to a vehicle in order to travel to meetings.
Contract Type: Permanent and Fixed Term
Directorate: Childrens Services
All roles are full time and permanent unless otherwise stated below under ‘about the role’
At Hertfordshire County Council, we believe that the children and young people in our care deserve the best. And that means ensuring the social workers who work alongside them are trained, supported, and highly motivated.
As an innovative authority, we are committed to developing motivational social work practice and you will be trained to work in this way. You will be working at the forefront of best practice to deliver first class support to vulnerable children and families which will expose you to managing complex and diverse caseloads.
By changing our approach to families, they are changing their approach to us and we are managing to keep far more children at home safely with their families.
With dedicated Diversity & Inclusion strategy and focus groups, we promote diversity and inclusion across the delivery of services and within our workforce.
We will offer a stimulating working environment, regular supervision meetings and training opportunities to help you to reach your full potential with the assistance and guidance of our specialist L&D teams.
The pandemic has brought about changes in the way we work and having learnt from this and from feedback from our staff and communities, we are embedding important principles around ‘Our Way Forward’. The overarching vision for Children’s Services is that we work in a ‘flexible and balanced’ way with a focus on ‘continuous improvement’; this is underpinned by a ‘mix and blend’ approach by adopting hybrid ways of working, balancing the need for collaborative workspaces with the right technology for staff to work from home and touchdown areas where this is right for you and for our families.
Each Team is made up of; a Team Manager, Consultant Social Worker(s), Senior Practitioners, Social Workers, Children’s Practitioners and Family Practitioners.
We are looking for experienced Senior Practitioners to join one of the following teams:
- Family Safeguarding (East or West)
- Specialist Adolescent Service Hertfordshire (SASH) (East)
- Assessment (West)
- 0-25 Childrens Disability Service (East)
- Separated Migrant Children (East) – Part time 18.5 hours
- MASH (East)
- Children Looked After (West)
- Joint Police Team (Hatfield) – 6 Mth Fixed Term
As a Senior Practitioner, you will already have highly developed specialist knowledge of Social Work practice. Your advanced expertise and knowledge will help you to take the lead on complex cases within the department.
This is a varied and challenging role where you will have shared responsibility for leading less experience staff. You will have a key role in researching and sharing up to date social work practice alongside creating a clear vision for the future and ensuring the best outcomes for children and their families are realised.
We are pleased to offer sponsorship of eligible roles that met the UKV&I requirements for candidates who currently reside in the UK at the time of application.
It is essential that all Senior Practitioners who apply have the following:
- Qualified and Social Work England Registered
- At least 3 years post qualifying experience
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Knowledge of legislation, guidance, policy, and procedures
- Proficient in the use of Microsoft IT package
- Full UK Driving Licence
- Regular Access to a vehicle
In addition to the above, below outlines team specific essential criteria:
Family Safeguarding:
- Significant senior level frontline experience in a safeguarding team.
- Recent experience of case work in Assessments, Child Protection, Children Looked After and Care Proceedings
- In-depth knowledge of relevant childcare legislation is necessary to undertake work in this role effectively.
SASH:
- In depth knowledge of child development and adolescence, social, emotional and mental health needs.
- Demonstrable awareness of risk factors associated with offending, exploitation, poverty and disadvantage.
- Experience of managing high risk and complex young people.
Assessment:
- Significant experience in assessing children’s needs and undertaking statutory Child Protection enquiries.
0-25 Disability Service:
- Ability to complete robust assessments & to assess risk.
- Ability to work in a relationship-based way.
- Knowledge/experience of working with Disabled Children and Young People
- Knowledge of legislation, guidance, policy, and procedure specific to Disabled Children and Young People
Separated Migrant Children:
- Ability to complete robust assessments & to assess risk.
- Knowledge/experience of working with Separated Migrant Children and of relevant legislation, guidance, policy and procedure specific to Separated Migrant Children.
- Knowledge/experience of working with children and young people subject to or at risk of exploitation including modern day slavery and trafficking.
- Experience of supervising or mentoring less experiences staff (e.g. students or ASYE)
MASH:
MASH triages requests for support for Hertfordshire’s Children and Families.
- You will be a highly skilled and experienced safeguarding social worker as the work is fast paced and requires a high level of autonomous working.
- Some experience supervising or mentoring staff or students.
- Excellent organisational skills to ensure that work is prioritised and completed within the set timescales.
- Effective rapport building skills and ability to demonstrate professional curiosity.
- Sound analytical skills to make robust recommendations and plans.
- Ability to work autonomously whilst being a team player.
- Additional specialisms in areas such SEND, child exploitation or contextualised safeguarding is desirable but not essential.
Due to the multi-agency element of the MASH, this position requires core working hours where you will be expected to attend the Stevenage office two days per week (days are between Tuesday and Thursday) which is non-negotiable.
Children Looked After:
- Experience of care planning, assessments and reviews.
- Track record of working alongside challenging families.
Joint Police:
- Please note this role is subject to additional police checks on appointment.
- Our team is based at Police Headquarters in Hatfield.
- It is expected that you will be on duty rota which may require you to work beyond 5.30pm. On duty days you are required to be in the office.
- You will be completing safety plan with the oversight of JCPIT Team manager and police.
- You will be attending CP and SARC medicals with the health team and pre-assessments with the JCPIT police colleagues.
- Ability to demonstrate sensitivity to cultural diversity, working effectively with families from different backgrounds.
- Ability to handle urgent and often difficult situations while maintaining a calm and impartial demeanour.
This job role is within the Health and Social Care, level 11 job profile. Please locate this via:
Job profiles – Health and social care
To read more about our service and opportunities available visit our Childrens Social Work page
Recruitment timeline: We review all applications on a regular basis with interviews arranged on an ad hoc basis – please check your emails for updates.
Additional Benefits for Social Work roles include:
- Monthly Market Enhanced Payment
- One off £1k Welcome Payment* (terms & conditions apply)
- Lease Car Scheme
- Up to £6k relocation expenses (terms & conditions apply)
- Hybrid working model
- 5 Days additional annual leave entitlement
- SWE Registration Fee paid
As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.
Secondment
This position is open to secondments. If you work for HCC or any other Local Authority and would like to be considered as a Secondment contract, please ensure you complete the Secondment Form as part of your application. If you do not, your application will be considered as a Fixed Term Contract only.
Sponsorship: We are pleased to offer sponsorship of eligible roles that met the UKV&I requirements for candidates who currently reside in the UK at the time of application.
Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.
Safeguarding
This role has been identified as requiring a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.
Driving required
You’ll need to have the ability to drive and/or travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport or a company car to travel to other locations.
English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.
