Job title: Assessing Social Worker (Family and Friends)
Department: Children’s Services
Location: Croydon Council (CR0)
Grade / Salary: Grade 11 - 14; £41,793 - £49,890
Hours of work: 36 per week / Monday – Friday
Contract type: Permanent
“Have you got the passion and drive to make positive changes in the lives of children and young people?”
The Opportunity
Our family and friends fostering team is growing. We are seeking qualified and experienced Assessing Social Workers to join us and work together in driving the service forward.
The responsibilities include the following, so we ask that you have this experience:
Experience of working with children and young people and a comprehensive knowledge of legislation relating to Children Looked After.
The ability to identify and analyse risk, providing a clear evidence base to make clear professional recommendations.
An ability to be able to work directly with the wider public, foster carers and young people, and be able to produce clear, evidence based and analytical assessments.
The ability to assimilate information and present clear, concise summaries and present the information well as high quality reports.
The ability to remain professionally curious while developing effective working relationships while having the confidence to challenge sensitively.
Experience in completing Kinship assessments and Special Guardianship assessments is desirable.
The role will involve you using a range of systemic ideas in your work, including promoting a practice philosophy which seeks to empower service users, build on individual strengths, and develop strategies which support them to understand, manage and respond to risk.
Benefits of Working With Us
Highly competitive salary
A pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 20%
31 days annual leave in addition to Bank Holidays
Accredited Systemic Practice training, years 1 & 2 provided in-house
A range of CPD opportunities
Management development programmes
Manageable caseloads
Investment into your staff well-being
Good management support for practitioners, regular supervision, group supervision led by systemic therapists and access to a clinical therapist to support your work directly.
Hybrid working policy enabling work from home and flexible working approaches to support your work-life balance.
We are looking for confident social workers, who are also:
Qualified and registered Social Workers / Advanced Social Workers who are Social Work England registered, and have completed your AYSE
Experienced in making assessments, implementing plans and delivering interventions
Skilled in managing complex cases and competent in presenting cases in court with demonstrable professionalism and empathy
Your experience of working in a statutory setting is desirable however not essential
Excellent written and verbal communications are essential, so too is a creative approach to getting compelling messages across.
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