Social Worker / Advanced Social Worker – Social Work with Families (SWwF) – Children – Croydon Council
Salary: Grade 11-14 (£44,019 - £52,116)
Permanent – 36 hours per weekWelcome Payment – £10,000Retention Payment – £2,500
Hybrid working
Job Purpose
We would welcome you to come and work in a vibrant and culturally diverse community, that supports our social work staff to deliver excellence in their practice. We want Social Workers to join us that are motivated to strengthen families, putting children at the centre of everything that we do.
Social Work with Families brings together people working for children who are subject to child protection plans, children in need, and Children Looked After. Children who may be in the Public Law Outline process, or Court proceedings. We work in a small Locality service, with your Team Manager, Business Support Officer and colleagues who will support you to use your skills and knowledge to create the best possible outcomes for children and families in Croydon.
The London Borough of Croydon is innovative from the work environment, computer systems to our practice. It’s a great place to work as a social work. Croydon has a growing population which benefits from good transportation systems and wonderful restaurants. It’s right time to be joining us; we are embedding systemic practice and the investment that we have received is enabling Social Work with Families to have a manageable caseload, business support integrated in our structure and unqualified practitioners supporting child in need, and social workers to do the direct work with children
This is an opportunity to grow your skills; be apart of a supportive community that will develop your career, as well as, make a difference in shaping the way we support children and families.
Essential Requirements
We are looking for confident Qualified social workers, that are Social Work England Registered and that have completed their ASYE and who can demonstrate their skills, resilience and experience in:Making relationships to create changeIdentifying and working with our families’ strengths.Managing complex casesSkilled in managing complex families and competent in representing children in court demonstrating empathy and maintaining professionalismYour experience of working in a statutory setting is desirable however not essential. Working directly with children, young people and their families evidencing multi-agency partnerships with a robust understanding of thresholds of need.Excellent analytical and writing skills and the ability to incorporate our systemic practice model which builds on families’ strengths with a focus on protective factors.Effective time management skills to deliver within expected timeframes.
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