Court Social Worker - Children's Social Care

Posted 31st Oct, 2024
Location
Sutton
Salary/rate
£40,755 – £50,574
Hours
Full-time
Working arrangements
Blended
Contract type
Permanent
Closing date
30th Nov, 2024
About the role

This is an excellent opportunity to advance your career in social care by developing your parent assessment skills, report writing and knowledge of court work.

We've got an exciting opportunity for confident and skilled Court Social Social Workers within Children’ Social Care at the London Borough of Sutton. Our objective is to deliver the best outcomes for children and young people. 

Your responsibilities will include:

  • Conduct thorough assessments and evaluations of the children and families involved in family court and care proceedings.
  • Provide counselling and advocacy for the children and families, ensuring the best interests of the children is key to all decision making.
  • Work collaboratively with judges, solicitors, and other court officials to prepare comprehensive reports and present findings and recommendations.

As a Court Social Worker, you will play a crucial role in assessing the needs of families and individuals engaged in court proceedings, where our cases are connected to Children Looked After or living at home. You will provide essential support, collaborate with legal professionals, and advocate for the best interests of the children and their families. This will include the undertaking of all tasks associated with working with Children under statutory frameworks, whilst ensuring compliance with Court direction, and providing the Court with child-focused evidence, analysis and well-informed care plans. You will play an intrinsic role in working directly with the children and young people, ensuring their wishes and views are heard, respected, and relayed to the court.

Are you ready to progress your career? We are committed to supporting your development as you embark on your journey with Suttons Children Social Care service.

About you

Sutton’s Court Team provides a specialist service to Children within care proceedings, working closely with Courts to secure their safety and wellbeing through the means of permanency. The Borough prides itself on engaging with children and young people, and this is no different in the Court team with the expectation of staff undertaking direct work with children to elicit their voice and to give age-appropriate clarity and reassurance. 

Supporting our social workers with their career development is a priority for us. Our offer to you includes: 

  • Manageable workloads, regular supervision, and through annual appraisals. 
  • Opportunities to develop skills by undertaking a variety of assessments including viability, parenting and together and apart assessments.
  • Sutton works with Kingston University and regional partners as part of the Developing Together Social Work Teaching Partnership (SWTP) to provide staff with a wide range of pre- and post-qualifying education opportunities to promote continuous learning and development.
  • Staff are given the opportunity to attend conferences, and workshops and have access to research and practice resources to support their ongoing professional development.
About Sutton

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.

Our offer to you

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