Job title: Consultant Practitioner
Service: Young Croydon
Department: Children’s Services
Location: Croydon Council (CR0)
Grade / Salary: Grade 15; £49,890 - £51,903 + £5,000 welcome payment
Hours of work: 36 per week / Monday – Friday
Contract type: Permanent
“Have you got the enthusiasm and drive to lead exemplary practice for children and families supporting the needs of our community?”
Job Purpose
These are specialist roles focused on preventing and protecting children and young people from exploitation in all forms. We have created three new roles to work alongside case holding social workers in our Family Assessment Service: Social Work with Families and Children in Care & Young People’s 16+ Services.
The Consultant Practitioner would be responsible for supporting practice development via leadership of elements of casework, individual and group coaching, reflective supervision’ quality assurance and workshops in the specific area of expertise.
The post holder would be required to directly support the delivery, and contribute to the delivery of, positive safety and well-being outcomes for children in need and their families, where extra familial arm is a key concern.
Driving continuous development of Systemic Practice in social work alongside other theoretical frameworks and practice methodologies.
In parts of the practice system holding a small caseload of high complexity / high risk cases
Benefits of Working With Us
Highly competitive salary up to £51,900 plus a welcome payment of £5,000
A pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 20%
31 days annual leave in addition to Bank Holidays
Accredited Systemic Practice and Supervision training.
A range of CPD opportunities
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.
The council promotes a hybrid working where the role allows plus a high-quality office base from where direct work is delivered from.
Why Join Us
In Croydon, our Children's Services has an established Systemic Practice model, experienced leaders, and high support for practitioners. Croydon people and staff are diverse, and we celebrate difference through focus on anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice. We are committed to delivering excellent social work practice and services to our children and families.
As well as this we also offer the following:
Our teams consist of experienced Social Workers at various levels
Join a highly diverse workforce
Reflective supervision is actively promoted and supported.
The ethos at Croydon is very much about working together to make positive change
Caseloads of Social Workers are very manageable enabling managers to know children well & ensure high standards of practice
You will join an established team who can help you settle in and offer their expertise
We are looking for Consultant Practitioners, who also are / have the follow:
Qualified Social Worker registered with Social Work England
Substantial experience in statutory social work practice with evidenced expertise in the are of extra familial harm / contextual safeguarding.
Foundation level systemic practice qualification (desirable)
Practice Educator or Practice Teacher qualification (desirable)
Advanced training in evidenced based approaches to assessment & intervention relating to extra familial harm.
Experience of delivering evidenced based interventions with children and families improving outcomes related to extra familial harm.
Building effective trusting relationships with children, families, and other professionals.
Ability to assess the needs of children, adults, and families holistically and analytically, in high risk and high complexity cases, applying the Assessment Framework and other relevant frameworks and tools.
To make sound professional judgments (in cases of high risk / complexity).
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