Social Worker / Advanced Social Worker – Children Looked After 0-16 Court and Early Permanence Team – Croydon Council
Salary: Grade 11-14 (£44,019 - £52,116)
Permanent – 36 hours per week
Welcome Payment – £10,000
Retention Payment – £1,500
Hybrid working
Job Purpose
Croydon’s Service for Children looked after are developing our focus and specialism for children who are likely to have plans of Adoption, following the conclusion of care proceedings. We are committed to ensuring that these children can be with their growing up families, forming positive attachments, at the earliest possible opportunity. Experience and research is clear that reducing delays and achieving early placement, provides the best foundations and opportunities for these highly vulnerable children to form positive attachments with primary carers, and as a result, achieve the best possible outcomes with growing up families and throughout their childhoods. If you are an experienced Social Worker, particularly in court work, and are looking to specialise in this area of work with our youngest children then this role could be for you. Croydon are committed to providing high quality, timely practice for our children on the adoption pathway. We are seeking experienced Social Workers, skilled in all areas of family assessment work in care proceedings, and in completing Child Permanence Reports. If this sounds like you then we would like to hear from you. You will be a highly skilled communicator, in all forms, with meticulous detail and confidence in writing reports to multiple audiences, especially to children. You will be attuned to and have experience of empathic engagement with birth family members, in sharing sometimes challenging narratives. As a Children looked after Social Worker, you will work within a structure of 4 CLA Teams, aligned to 4 Team Managers. You will work closely with our Regional Adoption Agency, Adoption London South. The role will involve you using a range of systemic ideas in your work, including promoting a practice philosophy which seeks to empower service users, build on individual strengths, and develop strategies which support them to understand, manage and respond to risk.
Candidates will need to demonstrate exceptional experience, knowledge, skills and ability to work in the court arena and instruct legal colleagues. You will be able to work with a complex and diverse range of needs and risks; and making effective and timely decisions around permanency.
Candidates will need to demonstrate and ability to work positively with partner agencies and ability to develop collaborative working relationships with children and their families.
Candidates will need to have good knowledge and understanding of legislative framework, relevant research and national developments, and policies relating to children’s social work in this area of practice. As a Children looked after Social Worker, you will be line managed by a CLA Team Manger.
Essential Requirements
Social Work England registered
Working knowledge of national policy, strategy and developments regarding children’s social care, and areas that impact on children’s social care, relevant to this role.
Managing a small caseload of complex care proceedings and children on the adoption pathway.
Exceptional written skills, to enable high quality court reports and assessments.
Ability to manage competing priorities.
Ability to engage positively and collaboratively with parents/carers, understanding the needs/risks to children and identifying appropriate routes to permanency.
Engage effectively with multi-agency partners and being able to gather high quality information and evidence, to assist with decision making around permanency.
Good analytical skills
Good threshold decision making.
Ability to work as part of a team and contribute to team and service development.
Home to 94,000 children, Croydon is a truly unique place to practice social work. We are a borough with big ambition, grit, and determination. Children's social care was judged ‘good’ in our last Ofsted inspection.
Our systemic practice framework places emphasis on relationships as key to supporting change for families. We make sense of the world through relationships, focusing on the whole family system and thinking about our own part in that too – what we bring, our own family stories and beliefs, how we use ourselves in the work that we do. Our practice model is all about collaboration - with our families, networks and partners; being open to challenge and ensuring our practitioners are highly trained in a variety of intervention approaches. Our established clinical service will support you to grow your own systemic practice within the service, providing accredited training, co-working and direct work with families.
For an informal chat about working in Croydon, contact Agata Stolowska at agata.stolowska@croydon.gov.uk