Practice Improvement Consultant – Children Services – Croydon Council
Salary: Grade 16 £58,692 - £60,819
Permanent – 36 hours per week
Hybrid working
Job Purpose
The Policy and Practice Improvement Consultant provide expertise, challenge and support to the Heads of Service and Service Managers in order to improve practice across the Children’s Social Care division. The successful candidate will play a key role in developing and implementing our Practice Improvement Plan. They will lead on the implementation of learning from quality assurance activities to improve service delivery with an unswerving focus on outcomes for children, leading professional development and training sessions for staff to embed this into day-to-day practice.
About You
We are looking for an experienced and appropriately qualified professional that is able to demonstrate their knowledge and experience.
Qualified Social Worker and up to date registration with Social Work England
Substantial leadership experience working in a statutory children’s social care setting.
Substantial experience of making sound professional judgements on the quality of practice in high risk/high complexity cases.
Successful experience of providing management and professional supervision/development to social care staff at all levels including Team and Service Managers and Heads of Service.
Up to date knowledge of developments in national policy, legislation, statutory guidance and standards regarding children’s social care.
Ability to engage and develop effective professional relationships with children and families and involve them in service developments and improvement activities.
Ability to analyse information and produce quality case/service reviews and audits and recommend SMART areas for improvements.
Apply theoretical frameworks and evidence-based models of practice, research & theory in practice and service development/improvement.
Communicate to a high standard verbally and in writing and producing and presenting high-quality analytical reports to a range of forms.
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