Job title: Service Manager; Social Work with Families
Department: Children’s Services
Location: Croydon Council (CR0)
Grade / Salary: CSRA £68,967 - £75,544 + £1,500 retention payment
Hours of work: 36 per week / Monday – Friday
Contract type: Permanent
Job Purpose
In Social Work with families, we are proud to work with children and families and support them to make changes that improve their lives. If you are ready to lead a service that provides quality services to children, this is an opportunity to consider.
We are developing our Social Work With Families (SWWF) service overall and we will deliver our services lead by four Service Managers. Following the successful promotion of the Service Manager to the Head of Service role in SWWF, we are now looking for a replacement to join our SWWF Service to continue to build on the progress already made. As a successful Service Manager, you will be managing and developing the Locality Teams.
The Service Manager will be the lead for the full range of professional functions. All Service Managers work with the Head of Service to lead and manage a skilled workforce that delivers children’s social care services to children in need and need of protection, including care proceedings to our most vulnerable children and families.
This Service Manager position is a full-time, permanent position. You will need to have Safeguarding experience along with the current knowledge of Legislation, policies and procedures. You will need to be committed and have the drive to match ours.
Your responsibilities as the Service Manager include but are not limited to:
Manage, lead and develop the service
Effective management of performance and targets set
Identify staff learning and development needs
Manage and develop and continuously review services
Benefits of Working with Us
Highly competitive salary plus retention payment of £1,500
A pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 20%
31 days’ annual leave in addition to Bank Holidays
A range of CPD opportunities to support your development
Accredited Systemic Supervision training
Manageable team caseloads
Investment into your staff well-being
Regular supervision, and access to a clinical therapist to support your work
Our Edge of Care Service works alongside social work teams
Qualified and registered Social Worker who is Social Work England registered
Experienced in making assessments, implementing plans and delivering interventions for children in the relevant service area of the child’s journey.
A clear commitment to services working in partnership with families and creating positive change in young people’s lives.
Demonstrable experience of leading and managing statutory interventions that are relevant to this service area and role (including high risk and high complexity work), and that deliver high quality performance and good outcomes for children and young people.
Able to lead, think, plan and manage strategically and systemically, as well as operationally.
Able to manage, plan and control delegated budgets.
Experience of developing high quality services within a statutory setting, with a particular focus on contextualised safeguarding.
Experience of developing a highly motivated, high achieving and stable work force with a positive, “can-do”, customer-centred culture.
Please read the job description and person specification attached and if you require additional information contact Mandeep Gill at Mandeep.gill@croydon.gov.uk
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