Team Manager – Children with Disabilities – Croydon Council
Salary: Grade 16 (£57,201 - £59,328)
Permanent – 36 hours per week
Welcome Payment - £10,000
Retention Payment – £5,000
Hybrid working
We are seeking a qualified and experienced Team Manager to join us and support our extremely talented team of Social Workers to driving the service forward. You will lead and manage performance of a team and foster a culture of continuous learning and reflection of practice that inspires staff to give their best in their roles.
To lead and manage performance of a team of social workers and foster a culture of continuous learning and reflection of practice that inspires staff to give of their best in their roles.
Introduce, embed and continually improve at team level, the quality of social work consistent with established models of good practice.
To provide professional advice to staff, colleagues and partners for the area of responsibility.
Ensure that assessments and plans for children are robust, evidence-based, progressed in a timely way, are effective in keeping children safe and are outcome focussed.
Allocate cases effectively in terms of matching the risk / complexity of cases with the skills, experience and professional development needs of social workers. Prioritise the deployment of staff resources and ensure practice is operating in accordance with the thresholds of Croydon’s early help and staged intervention model. Ensure compliance with statutory requirements and Croydon practice standards in respect of the protection and well-being of children, including looked after
children and young people. To embed and develop the outcomes focussed framework and culture across the service that demonstrates measurable improvements in the stability, well-being and safety of children and families allocated in the Team. Contribute to the development and introduction of a quality assurance framework for the service and use the findings to drive continuous practice improvement in the Team.
To manage and contribute to projects that deliver service improvement, working to recognised project management principles and methods. To maintain up-to-date knowledge of research findings, legislation, statutory guidance and policy developments relevant to the service area.
Essential Requirements
Qualified Social Workers who are Social Work England registered
Working knowledge of national policy, strategy and developments regarding children’s social care, and areas that impact on children’s social care.
Able to lead improvement in social work practice at an operational level through effective performance management
Evidence of leading and managing operational change effectively
Able to lead and manage in an operational area dealing with high risk and high complexity in a way that delivers good safeguarding and well-being outcomes for children and families.
Experience of managing and/or supervising childcare social workers in an area relevant to this particular service area with evidenced results of continuing practice and good outcomes for children.
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