An exciting opportunity has arisen for two Practice Managers in the Children Looked After service. The roles are 1x permanent and 1x fixed term for 1 year. The Children Looked After service have reorganised in line with our Practice Model and our CLA social workers now work with children and young people up to age 16, with increased business support and regular clinical guidance and group supervision. At the heart of our work is relationship-based practice, and providing safety and stability for our Children Looked After through building relationships with parents and carers.
As a Practice Manager you will promote and govern excellent practice of the Social Workers you supervise and hold overall responsibility for your clusters culture and case work. As a strategic lead you will provide quality assurance of practice and be responsible for how the team functions to improve outcomes for children and young people.
As a Practice Manager, you will be responsible for leading and governing excellent practice by delivering operational leadership that aligns with the service-wide vision and objectives.
You will work to create conditions for excellent practice in a safe, calm and well-ordered environment for all staff and utilise reflective spaces such as coaching and supervision where the welfare and the safety of children and young people are paramount.
Your knowledge and experience of working within statutory legislation and evidence based social work will enable you to ensure that children and young people are safeguarded, appropriate action is taken and intervention delivered at the right time.
You will actively be measuring the effectiveness and quality of the Motivational Practice model, developing excellent social workers by shaping and leading on quality assurance and culture within your team.
There is a genuine focus at all levels on understanding children and young people’s lived experiences and engaging, supporting, and assisting them to reach their full potential. Central to this will be your relationships with them, their families and carers. You must be passionate about relationship-based practice and committed to developing your own professional skills if you want to join our highly skilled and stable workforce. In return we will offer the formal training, the support, and the culture to bring out the best in your practice.
Our vision for the service is that children and young people are safe, can overcome difficulties and can form secure relationships through their childhood and into their adulthood.
You will be joining a multi-professional team made up of Senior Social workers, Social Workers, CAMHS professionals and social work co-ordinators. You will receive regular group supervision by managers and clinicians trained in DDP, and your line managers and senior practitioners are trained to observe your practice and give you feedback that helps improve your practice skills. You will join an organisational culture where children and young people are at the heart of everything we do and where senior leaders promote opportunities for learning and development of our staff.
Closing date: Wednesday 20th September 2023 at 23:59
Interview date: Wednesday 27th September 2023
Essential criteria
Maximum score 6
E1 Social Work England recognised Social Work qualification and considerable post qualifying experience in a statutory social work setting.
E2 Experience in supervising child and family Social Workers with a mixed-range of skills and experience.
E3 To demonstrate the application of legislation and regulations that dictate the powers and duties of the local authority in safeguarding children in need of help and protection or who are looked after (e.g. child protection measures, pre-proceedings and Public Law Outline)
Essential criteria
Maximum score 22
E4 Demonstrate evidence of developing a culture of learning focused on your staff’s expertise, strengths and developmental needs. Ability to Champion the Motivational Practice Model and facilitate its use with children, young people, families/carers, staff and the wider service.
E5 Demonstrate an ability to maintain a safe, calm and well-ordered environment that is motivating, supportive and efficient. Facilitate reflective practice that pays attention to priorities and pressures and offers constructive and strengths based solutions with, children, young people, families/carers and partner agencies that keep children safe.
E6 Demonstrated evidence of using respectful authority and empathy to build relationships in which you exercise proportionate statutory powers to address risk and maximize the opportunity for children, young people and families/carers to make informed choices. Show evidence of inviting respectful challenge to develop logical plans of action.
E7 Demonstrate ability to debate, discuss, reflect upon and test hypotheses to help make sense of the complexity of children, young people and families’ lived experiences. Make decisions that consider the child’s and young person’s voice for current and long-term outcomes, reviewing these in consultation with families and other professionals.
E8 Demonstrate knowledge of research including indicators of risk and protective factors to children and young people and how you have used supervision processes to implement and monitor effectiveness of interventions.
E9 Ability to lead a small team providing reflective individual and group supervision that safeguards children and young people and helps to improve outcomes for them and their families
E10 Experience of identifying the emotional barriers of supervisees which affect practice and show an ability to support them.
E11 To ensure all reports and plans are of high quality.
E12 Demonstrate ability to effectively allocate work and use practice data and other systems to monitor and improve practice in order to be accountable within legal, regulatory, procedural and performance frameworks.
E13 To provide observation and coaching of direct practice to measure its quality alongside effective case management underpinned by theory and best evidence. Ensuring that child protection is prioritised.
E14 To ensure all HR processes are fully complied with.
Essential criteria
Maximum score 6
E15 Demonstrated commitment to providing a service which respects children and young people’s rights
E16 Deal with difficult situations including complaints and conflict between carers and young people.
E17 Ensure the help provided is delivered is child-centred.
Islington is one of the most vibrant areas of London, with a diverse population, a unique cultural identity and a wealth of open spaces, theatres, museums, cinemas, and galleries.
Our Children’s Social Care services have been rated by OFSTED as Outstanding and praises an “unwavering commitment to improving and enriching the lives of children and their families”
A snapshot of what we offer our social workers:
For more information and a discussion about working for London Borough of Islington, contact our Principal Social Worker Wynand McDonald, Principal Child and Family Social Worker at Wynand.mcdonald@islington.gov.uk.