Head of Service - Children in Need

Posted 6th Aug, 2024
Location
Ealing
Salary/rate
£74,919 – £79,476
Hours
Full-time
Working arrangements
Blended
Contract type
Permanent
Closing date
27th Aug, 2024
About the role

Why Ealing?

Ealing is one of the most vibrant, diverse communities in Britain – and a fantastic place to live and work. We are proud of everything we do to make Ealing a safe place in which children and young people can flourish.

Things are going well for us. Funding is good, and we are one of the few London boroughs with our own youth centre, in which 11,500 children grow, learn, develop and have fun every year. 98% of Ealing’s Schools are Good or Outstanding. Multi-Agency Partnership work is strong.

We are a borough of innovation, and we are always improving on what we have learned about children’s issues. Our Brighter Futures relationship based practice model is at the heart of our practice with psychologists integrated into our long-term social work teams.

This senior position is crucial to drive forward plans to further strengthen our services to vulnerable children and families in need of help and protection.  Our recent ‘Good’ Ofsted outcome has recognised the progress we have made in Ealing to improve services and we won’t stop there. We are ambitious and want to deliver the very best for Ealing children.

‘Corporate Leaders, including the leader of the council, the chief executive officer and the director of children’s services, share a determination to continually improve the quality of service provided to children and their families. There has been a concerted effort to drive performance and practice standards.

                        Ofsted ILACS report July 2024

 

A Head of Service role with Ealing means joining an aspirational leadership team dedicated to consistent improvement, already on the right track. With strong leadership, manageable caseloads and collaborative multi agency work, Ealing offers a range of development opportunities.

If you are aspirational and unrelenting in your passion to help and protect our most vulnerable children and families, we want to hear from you and welcome your application.

The role

  • In this senior role, you will lead a team of team managers and their teams to provide comprehensive, consistent, timely, quality and effective service to children and families
  • Ensuring that assessments are carried out, are appropriate, planned and delivered to meet the assessed need
  • Ensuring that an appropriate emergency response is available to meet unplanned high-risk need
  • Effective management of a staffing budget
  • Participate in the overall management of the service as part of the Children and Families senior management group, including ensuring effective business planning within a multi-agency partnership framework in relation to strategic planning and service delivery
  • Act as a key leader and enterprising innovator to ensure delivery of new service models and/or ways of working within budgetary constraints.

You will be part of a stable senior management team and be given the time and freedom you need to implement new ideas and keep Ealing’s children at the heart of what you do.

About you
  • You will have substantial experience as a team manager, or a lower level of experience as a team manager and a management qualification
  • You will have the ability to provide expert advice to staff on care planning, support and interventions for looked after children and for young people leaving care
  • Have professional or management experience within multi-agency teams.

To succeed in this role, you must have:

  • Professional social work qualification: CQSW, DIPSW, CCETSW approved equivalent, social work degree
  • Social Work England registration
  • Experience of leading and managing a group of multi-disciplinary teams
  • Experience of managing performance, conduct and professional practice of others
  • Experience of conflict resolution and decision making in a demanding and highly sensitive environment
  • Knowledge and understanding of the research and evidence base for new and innovative ways of working.

To find out more about this post contact Joanne Dempster via DempsterJ@ealing.gov.uk or Caroline Horsley via Horsleyc@ealing.gov.uk to arrange an informal discussion.

About Ealing

More than 360,000 people call Ealing home. Our seven towns - Acton, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell Northolt, Perivale and Southall - are diverse, vibrant and lively communities where over 170 languages are spoken. We will enable you to do the work you care deeply about, and our aim is to deliver the infrastructure that allows that to happen.

Ealing is a great place to come and develop your career. You will be supported in this by colleagues and managers who will provide you with the opportunities to grow, gain experience, confidence and become a reflective practitioner.

Ealing is a richly diverse borough and we benefit from close ties to our communities which enriches our work and continually improves our offer. We are alive to the pressures many of our families are facing and work creatively with families and partners to bring about changes which makes the work that much more energising.

We recognise that to recruit and retain the very best social workers and social care practitioners, we need to bring together all our learning and development opportunities into one place. That’s why we have launched the Ealing Social Care Academy. The academy helps our team connect, collaborate, and engage creatively with internal and external partners and service users.

Watch our film to hear about Ealing staff telling their career stories


More directly we can offer you:

  • Manageable caseloads

  • Clear career progression pathways

  • Opportunities to develop and experience different areas of work

  • Competitive remuneration packages

  • A hybrid approach to working that increases your work / life balance

If you want to find out about this opportunity, please contact our Recruitment lead, Caroline Horsley at: HorsleyC@ealing.gov.uk