Senior Practitioner - Children and Family Hub, Colchester

The Role

The Children and Families Hub is the single point of access for Children’s Social Care. Its primary purpose is to ensure that children and young people and their families receive early help, advice and support to assist in protecting them from significant harm and promoting their development and wellbeing. The Children and Families Hub does this by identifying the lowest appropriate level of support needed to bring about change, support good parenting and boundaries and promote children’s emotional wellbeing. The Children and Families Hub plays a critical role in engaging parents and professionals in interventions that can bring about change in families and we aspire to deliver an outstanding service to children and families in Essex.

The Senior Practitioner role provides leadership in the team, providing both support and mentoring to newly qualified or less experienced staff and deputising for the Team Manager when needed. They will oversee the review of some child in need plans particularly prior to closure and will have responsibility to lead in a practice area. There will be good opportunities for their own professional development and for being part of developing our team and service. There is an ethos of openness to the development of new ideas, particularly to reinforce our relationship-based focus, both with our service users and within the staff group.

The successful candidate will be expected to bring skill and high standards of social work to their own caseload as well as providing modelling, advice and support to colleagues. They will be committed to systemic, relationship based social work, providing effective, innovative interventions and with the ability to build good partnerships, both with our external partners and within the organisation.

Skills and Knowledge

· A diploma in Social Work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent and registration with Social Work England as a registered Social Worker and be post-qualified 2 years, with an in-depth knowledge of complex cases and application of key legislation / guidance.

· The ability to make clear decisions, to highlight and limit potential risks associated with intervention.

· Proven record of supporting staff members with complex decision making, as well as a desire to develop and become part of the Management Team, as well as modelling good practice, being open to change and ready to innovate.

· Evidence of recent practice at an experienced social worker level, supported by comprehensive working knowledge and experience within the field of practice in Children Services and understanding of related legal processes.

· Knowledge and understanding of child development, relating theory and practice.

· Evidence of continuing professional development and capability of practice in accordance

To read more about our business area, please visit: Children & Families

Please take a look at our ‘No Magic’ Children & Families video

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.

We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles , including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

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If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk

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