Brief Description of job role and department:
As a social worker in the London Borough of Sutton your role will be to act as an officer of the Local Authority and execute statutory functions ensuring that individuals are safeguarded and supported to achieve positive outcomes.
You will work in partnership with people, other professionals and agencies and intervene to safeguard individuals, promote social change, maximise independence and provide appropriate information and advice about third sector and universal services which support positive outcomes.
You will have the ability to apply professional curiosity and use social work theories and knowledge to formulate and test hypotheses reaching a professional judgement 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 be able to effectively balance the protection of individual rights against the need to use professional authority and accountability effectively to safeguard vulnerable individuals.
You will uphold the profession and act a representative of the Local authority in a variety of forums.
About Us
Deliver service activities and manage caseloads to ensure intended outcomes for customers and the Council are delivered within agreed service standards.
Identify and implement improvements in own work area in order to deliver continuous service improvement and improved outcomes to customers.
Liaise with customers to review service requirements and resolve problems.
Keep up to date with changes in policy/legislation/contractual requirements in order to ensure service delivery is effective and complies with appropriate regulations.
These roles would be regarded as “front line” service delivery roles. Here, role holders are directly accountable for performance, often through the direct control of significant resources or through managed contracts. These roles may also deliver some of their results through collaborative working with co-producers or other third party agencies.
At the lower levels, operational managers may oversee a department or team and at the lowest levels, direct contact with service users will be a common feature of roles in this job family. At the higher levels, they may be in charge of a department, large operational area or the management of significant contracts and may be ultimately accountable for ensuring compliance with statutory obligations.
About You
Hold a social work qualification and be registered with the relevant regulatory body and be responsible for maintaining the requirements as set out by that body to remain registered as a social worker.
To have 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 case recordings are up to date.
Be highly organised, able to work within a performance management framework, be able to produce timely, high quality work, using various forms of information technology to ensure that you are compliant with legislative requirements, statutory standards, local policy and protocols, practice directives and reflects social work frameworks.
Be legally literate and remain up to date with emerging case law to inform practice within the relevant practice area, including upholding the principles of human rights, equalities and practicing in a culturally competent manner.
To be able to apply social work theory, models, best practice and methods to practice with a specific focus on systemic and strengths based approaches and a good understanding of human development throughout the lifespan.
To work in partnership with individuals applying professional curiosity, critical thinking, analysis and evidence based research to form a professional opinion and translate this into professional documentation and plans to address identified risks and support independence.
Be able to use professional power and authority in an appropriate and proportionate way ensuring that individuals are safeguarded and their rights protected.
Be able to collaboratively work with and be informed by individuals, colleagues, partner agencies and communities ensuring that voice, wishes and preferences of the individual at the centre of the intervention is explicitly recorded and taken into account when making professional decisions and judgements.
Be able to demonstrate reflective practice and identify own limitations, bias or tensions and seek supervision, advice or guidance where necessary
To Practice in accordance with the professional code of ethics and uphold social work and council values at all times, including be responsible for acting on identified continuing professional development needs
Demonstrable willingness to participate in training and staff development relevant to the role and to take advantage of learning opportunities and apply learning. High degree of competence in use of IT.
Carry out all duties in accordance with all the council and directorate policies and procedures, implementing and promoting and ensure that members of staff within the team are complying with these standards.
Ensure all health and safety standards are adhered to for the relevant work area.
Apply equality and diversity policies in the workplace.
Ensure all health and safety standards are adhered to for the relevant work area
Sutton combines a high quality of life, green and spacious, with distinctive town centres providing access to jobs and culture the capital has to offer.
Ofsted rated us as ‘Good’, with 'Outstanding' leadership, in December 2021. However, we have not rested but continue to strive to do more for families, strengthen practice and bring innovative ways of working across our systems.
As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across - however big or small - will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.
In addition, we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff, supported by our IT infrastructure, including Google Chromebooks and Google Apps.
Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:
Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
Flexi-time (Please note, this applies to roles at grades 1-9 only)
Comprehensive learning and development programme
Local and national discounts for shopping, eating out and leisure activities
Interest free season ticket loans
Local Government Pension Scheme
Car parking scheme
Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
Zip car scheme
Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
Subsidised gym membership
Interested in working in Sutton? Hear from our staff below on why they think Sutton is a great place to be a Social Worker.
If you have any questions about applying for this role, please contact recruitment@sutton.gov.uk