As a Social Worker in our Outstanding-rated Access Team, you can make your own powerful contribution to enhancing young lives. This team is the first point of contact for safeguarding referrals regarding children in Westminster. We’ll train you in our systemic practice model, so you can play a key role in providing a holistic response to children and their families. Like us, you’ll see the potential in every contact for life-changing intervention. Talking to families and professionals, you’ll gather and analyse information to make sure children are safeguarded and support is offered at the earliest opportunity.
You care deeply about securing the wellbeing of children and helping families to become more resilient in the care they provide. So you’ll work closely with children and families to develop and implement empowering plans that lead to lasting, positive change. Taking a child-focused approach, you’ll seek the best possible understanding of each child’s lived experience. In this role, you’ll develop your ability to assess and analyse risk, and enhance your understanding of thresholds. This means you’ll be well-placed to make sure children and families get the right level of support. And to help us develop the service.
These are big decisions and you’ll enjoy plenty of support to get them right – from regular reflective supervision with your line manager and group supervision with colleagues, through to support for your work/life balance in the form of flexible hours and the ability to divide your working time between the office and home. You can also look forward to plenty of training and development opportunities. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll feel safe, secure and comfortable to show up to work as your whole self. In a place where opinions are respected, you can really make a difference and define what you want from your career.
Please refer to the Job Description for more information
A qualified social worker, registered with Social Work England, you will ideally have experience of working with vulnerable children and families in a local authority children’s services department. Experience of assessing and engaging families from a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds would prove to be a real advantage in Westminster. The Access Team is often the first point of contact that families have with social care. This means initial conversations can be challenging. So, you will need to be a highly skilled communicator who is able to be open and transparent with families. It’s just as important that you can confidently challenge referrers where appropriate, making sure they have shared their concerns clearly with families. Your communication skills will also help you shape high quality reports and needs-led plans.
Please refer to the Job Description for more information
Interested in working for us? Hear below from our staff on why we think Westminster is a great place to be a social worker.
Westminster is dynamic, multicultural and unique - much like you, our potential employees.
This is an opportunity to work within a family services that has been Ofsted rated as OUTSTANDING since 2016 and with stable inspiring leadership also rated by Ofsted as OUTSTANDING. Caseloads are manageable and you will have the opportunity to genuinely make a difference to families. We are committed to creating opportunities for our staff to thrive.
We believe that everyone has talent. We will coach and mentor our people, taking the time to nurture our own. Staff have several opportunities for career progression within the organisation through secondment and permanent appointments to managerial, clinical and other specialist roles.
We have a culture where our people embrace feedback and are constantly learning. We are continuously striving to set high standards and finding innovative ways to provide a better service to our residents. Our offer to you includes:
Systemic Social Work Practice for Children and Families (Year 1 and 2)
Signs of Safety
Rich training offer through the West London Alliance (various core and additional training)
Supportive, inspiring and reliable leadership
Manageable caseloads and a strong Early Help offer to provide a wide range of resources
Support from our highly skilled clinical team
Competitive remuneration packages
Genuine remote and flexible working options – we know how important this is to you
Smarter Working with new modern technology
Wellbeing service, leisure, and discount benefits (Council scheme)
Travel season ticket loan, cycle scheme, Local Authority pension
Visit our website for more information and detail about working in family services in Westminster.
To arrange an informal discussion with one of our managers, please contact Myriam Ridgway, Senior Business Support at mridgway@westminster.gov.uk