Social Worker / Senior Practitioner - Adolescent Safeguarding Team

Posted 3rd Oct, 2024
Location
Kingston upon Thames
Salary/rate
£39,951 – £49,083
Hours
Full-time
Working arrangements
Blended
Contract type
Permanent
Closing date
30th Nov, 2024
About the role

We are offering a £3,000 annual market supplement for this role!

We are enhancing our offer to young people at risk of contextual harm, violence and exploitation in our Specialist Adolescent Service by increasing the number of social workers and creating or maintaining teams dedicated to different areas of specialism. We have the Adolescent Safeguarding Team that delivers statutory social work assessments and plans; the SHIFT practice who deliver long term and robust social work and systemic led services with young people who require this level of intervention; Project X who deliver a range of targeted youth work activities; the ASPIRE team who offer prevention support to children in primary school, those at risk of exclusion and who have been victims of bullying or violence; the Youth Justice Team who deliver statutory services with children in the criminal justice system and the Health and Wellbeing Hub who deliver substance misuse and sexual exploitation interventions. 

We have both Senior Social Worker and Social Worker positions available in our Adolescent Safeguarding Team to deliver timely social work assessments, plans and interventions with children and young people who have been referred due to concerns of exploitation, violence, sexual assault or other harm in the community.

We would be delighted to receive your application to deliver high quality social work with our most vulnerable young people.

 

What will the role consist of?

The team receives referrals for children aged 13 years or older and across a wide spectrum of contextual safeguarding needs, including children who may be persistently missing, have been coerced into sexual or criminal exploitation, have been violent to other children or experienced serious youth violence in the community, at risk due to online activity or grooming, including radicalisation. These children may have additional learning needs or be out of education, struggling with housing needs and may have previous social care involvement and difficult home lives pushing them into unsafe relationships in the community. 

Your role will be to respond to referrals in a timely manner, establishing risk and safety early on in the assessment, arranging strategy meetings when required and carrying out s47 investigations. You will be responsible for holding child in need or child protection plans as appropriate. AfC has a Risk Outside the Home plan available for children at the threshold of child protection but where the risk is predominantly outside the home. You will ensure that visits are carried out as required and that your direct work and any interventions provided by others are meaningful and effective to enable the child to be safe in the community and supported by their family. 

For senior social work positions, you will be expected to support more complex work and develop the team in their delivery of best practice. You would supervise students or newly qualified social workers. 

For further information about this role, please contact Kathy Walker by email kathy.walker@achievingforchildren.org.uk for an informal discussion.

About you
  • Educated to degree level with a social work qualification and Social Work England registration
  • Someone who is passionate about working alongside young people to reduce exploitation and harm in the community
  • To see the stage of adolescence as a time of significant change and opportunity to influence positive self-identity and choices for their best life into adulthood
  • Skilled at identifying risks both in the home and community, analysing information from a wide range of sources to formulate a clear plan of intervention
  • Experienced at delivering direct work with adolescents to support them to identify positive life goals, understand and respond to risk safely and have healthy relationships
  • To work well with other professionals such as the police, schools and health partners and those who can provide targeted youth support, sexual exploitation intervention or substance misuse services to make sure that the best services are offered to some of the most vulnerable young people
About Kingston upon Thames

Achieving for Children (AfC) is a community interest company (a not-for-profit social enterprise) created in 2014 by the Royal Borough of Kingston and the London Borough of Richmond to provide their children’s services. In 2017, the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead joined AfC as our third owner.

We deliver the full range of children’s services for the three councils. Achieving for Children is a great place to work for those looking for a new challenge. Our offer to you includes:

  • A role in an organisation that is supportive

  • An induction offer that starts before you join and includes a welcome event on your first day of employment.

  • 29 days annual leave, increasing to 33 days after two years and 35 days after four years

  • Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension)

  • Hybrid or mobile working and the technology and equipment to facilitate this

  • Positions available in three of the most desirable boroughs in the south - discrete relocation packages are available for selected roles

  • Travel assistance package for business use, including car and cycle mileage reimbursement, annual season ticket loan or business Oyster cards

  • Two days accredited Signs of Safety Foundation Training

  • 12 protected Development Days each year for all staff

  • Access to a huge range of additional professional development opportunities as part of our regional Social Work Teaching Partnership

  • On occasions we are in the position to offer some additional financial payments for particularly hard to place roles in selected service areas of AfC.

If you would like to have an informal chat about working with us, please email recruitment@achievingforchildren.org.uk