4 days per week (0.8 FTE) Grade 8
Grade 8, £37,038 - £44,814 per annum, pro rata (£46,8587 unconsolidated maximum), depending on experience and qualifications.
Welcome and Retention Bonus:
£1000 paid in your first month salary and £1000 paid at the end of your 1st completed year in service
£2000 paid after your 2nd completed year in service
£3000 paid in your 3rd completed year in service and every completed year thereafter.
Whole package totals up to £47,857 (including Retention Bonus)
We are looking for a confident and experienced Social Worker to join our team. You will work alongside multi-disciplinary professionals in a co-located Therapeutic Hub which offers therapeutic support to the children, young people and families open to Children's Services, as well as expert advice to the practitioners supporting them. The team makes use of their specialist skills to offer time-limited, direct interventions to children and families to improve outcomes as they relate to emotional and mental wellbeing and parenting.
The core role of the Social Worker will be to focus on completing comprehensive Court directed parenting assessments of parents whose children are subject to care proceedings; exempt from the other day-to-day responsibilities that a Social Worker may perform. Using social work, therapeutic and trauma-informed theories and knowledge you will provide a specialist opinion on the capacity and skills of the parent(s) being assessed, as well as an insight into their trauma, capability as parents and their ability for change. For this, you will follow a bespoke 12-week parenting assessment model that has been developed by the Therapeutic Hub. As these assessments are intended to be multidisciplinary in nature you will benefit from the input of the other expertises within the team, and so it is essential that you possess the skill of being able to integrate and analyse complex information from a variety of sources and to meaningfully use it to formulate an analysis and onward intervention plan. You will be provided external clinical supervision to assist with this.
A secondary element of the role is to contribute to the development and then co-delivery of some of the group work programmes that are being developed by the Therapeutic Hub. These will run periodically throughout the year and will serve as an alternative to some of the one-on-one work that our practitioners undertake.
Finally, some of the wider elements of the role are as follows and align with the responsibilities of other members of the team. You will offer support and advice to social work colleagues in respect of the care needs of children on your caseload, which includes the development, implementation and evaluation of their placement plans. You will contribute to the development of the social care workforce by delivering training and/or co-facilitating group supervision. You will offer case consultations when appropriate on matters relevant to your skills and expertise.
This is a rare and exciting opportunity to be part of an innovative and developing service. We are a friendly and supportive team staffed with passionate and aspirational practitioners and we are looking for an exceptional individual to join us and to make a real difference in the lives of children and young people.
We are seeking a confident, self-motivated and skilled Social Worker who has substantial experience of post-qualifying practice (at least 2-3 years) and who has completed their Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) or equivalent. You will have significant experience of working under the Public Law Outline and in providing evidence based and analytical assessments to the Court. You will have a high level of empathy and skill working directly with parents and their children who are likely to have experienced complex trauma and an array of adverse experiences, and you will have a high level of professional integrity and accountability in representing the work you undertake including within Courts. You will hold a recognised diploma or degree in Social Work and be registered with the Social Work regulator (currently Social Work England). A working knowledge of relevant legislation, current national guidelines and policies as they relate to mental health and children's safeguarding are essential.
Ideally, you will have also undertaken some training in mental health or a therapeutic discipline, but regardless it is essential that you have knowledge of trauma-informed practice, attachment theories, the impact of developmental trauma and of the different modalities appropriate to working with children and adults.
As the successful candidate will be working within a multidisciplinary and multidimensional model, you will need to have the necessary communication skills to work closely with both external and internal professionals to provide the best possible therapeutic care for the young people in receipt of the therapeutic service. Excellent communication, organisational, and written skills are essential as is the ability to speak confidently and with accountability about your work. You will have a willingness to learn new skills in new areas.
Sutton combines a high quality of life, green and spacious, with distinctive town centres providing access to jobs and culture the capital has to offer.
Ofsted rated us as ‘Good’, with 'Outstanding' leadership, in December 2021. However, we have not rested but continue to strive to do more for families, strengthen practice and bring innovative ways of working across our systems.
As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across - however big or small - will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.
In addition, we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff, supported by our IT infrastructure, including Google Chromebooks and Google Apps.
Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:
Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
Flexi-time (Please note, this applies to roles at grades 1-9 only)
Comprehensive learning and development programme
Local and national discounts for shopping, eating out and leisure activities
Interest free season ticket loans
Local Government Pension Scheme
Car parking scheme
Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
Zip car scheme
Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
Subsidised gym membership
Interested in working in Sutton? Hear from our staff below on why they think Sutton is a great place to be a Social Worker.
If you have any questions about applying for this role, please contact recruitment@sutton.gov.uk