Newham’s Reset Service consists of two teams, STAY and TEN2. Both teams may take on cases but also work on a co-allocation basis alongside colleagues in the wider service and external organisations, so partnership working is key for Senior Social Workers in the service. Senior Social Workers are expected to provide effective, empathetic, restorative work with families alongside the necessary interventions for children where there is a safeguarding concern. As senior members of the team, Senior Social Workers deliver intensive, time-limited support to children, young people and families who find themselves on the ‘Edge of Care’, where there is an emerging risk of exploitation, where there is risk of extra-familial harm, and where there is a plan for reunification. Our Senior Social Workers are looking to create positive change and enable families to remain together.
Senior Social Workers at Newham are expected to support less experienced colleagues by sharing their knowledge and providing insight into what makes our practice great. Senior Social Workers in Divert will share their knowledge and expertise across the rest of children’s social car eon a regular basis and part of the role is to continue learning and develop specialisms in issues affecting children who are at risk or entering care, or exploitation.
For more information on the Senior Social Worker role at Newham please download the job description or contact Service Manager Michelle Martin:, michelle.martin@newham.gov.uk.
You have at least 3 years’ post qualified experience and an understanding of working effectively within a diverse, urban community. Senior Social Workers in Divert may have different specialisms. We are looking for social workers with considerable experience approaching complex cases positively and empathetically; experience within an edge of care or contextual safeguarding team in a systemic local authority would be hugely advantageous. We are looking for social workers with experience working with children at risk or involved in any of the following: CSE, CCE, Modern Slavery and/or trafficking – ideally within a local authority with a similar profile to Newham (large young population, vastly different cultures and communities, high on deprivation index, inner city – especially inner London).
We’re looking for people who have a genuine interest in a restorative, relationship based practice model drawing on systemic thinking to inform your approach to building effective relationships with children, families and communities.
You will be a qualified social worker who is registered with Social Work England.
We’re a vibrant, dynamic, culturally rich London Borough with a young population and limitless potential. We’re a challenging yet rewarding place for social work practise to flourish and we are steadfastly committed to our workforce being representative of the families that we work with. We are taking coordinated, meaningful and focused action to develop an inclusive culture because we believe this is at the heart of enabling diversity in all respects, including diversity of thought. We are taking positive actions to challenge all forms of discrimination and injustice to help make Newham a fairer and more equitable place for children and families to live, learn and thrive.
We’re building a fairer Newham through investment, co-production and by continuously developing our 'Circles of Support' practice model; centring on systemic and restorative practice and a specialist support offer for our practitioners. Ofsted described Newham as having a positive culture of learning and development and we always try to develop talent in-house. We promoted 30 internal colleagues in 2023 alone, and have put more than 47 practitioners through further education since 2020. We value your development and at Newham career progression is a reality for many of our colleagues.
We understand that social work can be a challenging yet ultimately very rewarding profession that makes demands of you personally and professionally. In Newham we value your wellbeing and we aim to ensure that you have a better work/life balance through a remote working offer when you are not visiting children and families, a modern office space for when you’re on site, a flexible working policy where all requests are considered, and a clinical offer to support you to do your best work.
We’ve been working hard to make Newham a great place to practise social work:
