Team Manager – Kinship Service
Up to £58,893 per annum
Permanent, Full Time (36 hours)
Ofsted Rating: ‘Good'
Are you an energetic and passionate Social Work Team Manager with inspiring leadership skills? Our Family and Friends (Kinship) Service works with family and friends of children and their families, offering a variety of assessment and support. Leading a group of Social Workers as we develop and evolve the service, you will be working collaboratively with your colleagues across the department and with other partners. Your team will deliver high-quality and responsive social work to kinship / connected persons, carers and Special Guardians. Can you inspire, encourage, shape, and develop excellent social work practice to achieve positive outcomes for these children and young people?
About The Role:
Leadership and Management: You will make a major contribution to the delivery of the vision and strategic priorities, by managing the delivery and performance of high-quality social work provision to children and their families across the team.
Regulatory Compliance and Quality Assurance: You need to demonstrate a thorough understanding of social work regulations, ensuring strict adherence to existing policies and practices.
Experience: Do you have proven experience in leading a team on assessing connected persons and Special Guardians during care proceedings, and offer ongoing support to approved connected person carers and Special Guardians?
Performance Management: You will provide effective team management and oversight while encouraging and delivering high-quality and reflective supervision.
Ofsted Rating: You will contribute to maintaining our 'Good' rating from Ofsted for children's services, reflecting the high quality of care provided.
Qualifications and Skills:
We value each staff member in the service and want each and every one to be a leader and champion of exemplary practice. Find out more about our goals, vision, and Outstanding Practice Framework: https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/childrens-social-care-jobs/
If you are a resilient leader passionate about making a positive impact on the lives of children and their families and possess the required qualifications and experience, we invite you to apply for this opportunity to inspire a committed team of Social Workers and join our Kinship Team.
How To Apply:
To be shortlisted your application and personal statement (no longer than 2 sides of A4) will clearly address the criteria in the person specification of the job profile located at the end of this page.
Contact Details:
If you would like to have an informal chat about the role, please contact either Candice Levy on Candice.levy@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk or Elizabeth Souter on Elizabeth.Souter@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk
At Richmond and Wandsworth Councils, we care more about how you work and what you achieve, rather than where you work on any given day. The difference you can make to our local communities is what really matters most to us, service delivery must always come first. We have carefully considered agile ways of working to provide the best experience for residents, stakeholders and our staff. Our agile working strategy actively supports and encourages a dynamic work environment and daily working experience. Agile working helps put the needs of our staff at the centre of everything we do, so if specific flexible working arrangements helps you with this, feel free to let us know.
Your wellbeing and the flexible way in which you can work is and will remain a key priority for Richmond and Wandsworth Councils. We want you to thrive and feel empowered in your work!
We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working including, working from home and other arrangements. Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore. We also offer a generous holiday allowance of 40 paid days (pro rata) including bank holidays and a wide range of learning and development opportunities.
In addition, we offer a comprehensive range of staff benefits such as membership of the Local Government pension scheme, childcare vouchers, new technology scheme, interest-free loans on annual travel cards, discounts with many leisure activities, restaurants, shops and other establishments.
Indicative Recruitment Timeline:
Closing Date: Sunday 24th March 2024
Shortlisting Date: Monday 25th March 2024
Interview Date: TBC
Useful Information:
The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. We strongly advise you to complete your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
Please note that the advertised dates for interviews may change. If they do, we will let you know as soon as possible.
We particularly welcome applications from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our teams, including males.
Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.
Important Information:
This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children. It replaces the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).
Please refer to the Job Profile on the original careers site:
https://careers.richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk/members/modules/job/detail.php?record=6864
Our social workers are at the heart of our success, and we’re looking for Social Workers who share and are excited by our vision. Come and be part of our success.
All children and families deserve an outstanding level of practice, let’s work together to provide them with the very best.
Our shared vision and values to improve outcomes for children and families will drive practice. Our outstanding practice framework will support us collectively to do that. We want to apply solutions to complex problems in the simplest way. Having a robust practice framework will enable a shared language, understanding and value base from which we can all work creatively with children and families to achieve the best outcomes for them.
We know that to recruit passionate, dedicated social workers - where there’s simply more demand than the available resource - we must show our appreciation in more tangible ways. That's why we have put together an attractive package for all our social workers.
In return for your skills, knowledge and experience, you will receive an appropriate starting salary and a friendly, kind, positive and supportive working culture.
We also offer:
Performance related salary progression scheme
32 days annual leave to all employees plus bank holidays
Relocation package for experienced social workers moving to London
Manageable caseloads
Agile and flexible working arrangements
Professional development and CPD opportunities
Regular reflective supervision and peer group supervision
Refer a friend scheme
Welcome payments and retention bonuses for harder to recruit to areas of our services
Social Work Career Pathway Framework
Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment and selection process, please let us know.
We are also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Some posts may be exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to these posts will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
If you have any questions about applying for this role, please get in touch with Simi Sabo on simi.sabo@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk