Our Looked After Children team has been rated as outstanding by Ofsted in September 2024
Enfield Looked After Children team are seeking confident, imaginative, and dynamic social workers to make a difference in vulnerable children’s lives. We are looking for skilled social workers who are determined to achieve the best for looked after children; to achieve their permanency and help them to meet their full potential.
As a social worker in a Looked After Children's Team, your aim and role will be to support children living with relatives, family friends or foster families or prospective adopters, or older children living in children's homes. You will be responsible for ensuring their safety and support them towards independence, while fulfilling the council’s obligations as a corporate parent. You will be involved in permanency planning for children thorough Care Proceedings and beyond, ensuring their holistic needs are met in their long-term placement. You will be required to prepare reports and attend Court to represent the Local Authority and should be experienced in Court work. Through regular visits, assessments and by reviewing their Care Plan, you will nurture and develop meaningful relationships with children; understand and interpret their wishes, complete high-quality direct work and life story work with children.
You will be supported in this challenging role with regular reflective individual and group supervision. The role is to work alongside other professionals, to ensure that a child or young person receives appropriate care, education and health services, by working alongside other social workers and partnership organisations such as Foster carers, Health Services, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), Education, The Regional Adoption Agency and Independent Reviewing officers.
You will need to hold a qualification in social work and you need to be registered with the Social Work England. If you’re looking for interesting opportunities to further your career, or want to contribute too integrated multidisciplinary working for the wellbeing of children, and if you are a motivated and enthusiastic practitioner then we would like to hear from you; we could be your next step!
For the full job description and person specification please visit our job site.
Contact Details -
If you would like to know more about the role, please contact Sephra Dorsette-Peters on 02081322698 for an informal discussion or to arrange a visit to the team.
If you have any difficulties accessing this information, please contact Andrea Walkerdine at andrea.walkerdine@enfield.gov.uk or on 020 8132 1022.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications have been received. Therefore, we advise that you complete fully and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
We do not see your name or title when shortlisting your application. This is one of many initiatives to build a more talented and diverse workforce. However, if you put your name on your CV or Statement it will be visible to us. For this reason, we ask that you do not include your name on these documents. Please note it is your responses to the Essential/Desirable criteria, as detailed in the Job Description and Person Specification which is available on the job advert, that will determine if you are shortlisted for an interview, therefore we encourage you to always address the essential and desirable criteria in your application/CV.
Enfield is one of the most diverse parts of London, with all the benefits this brings across our communities, culture, heritage and local economy. It also has incredibly diverse landscapes – from the urban centres of Edmonton, Southgate, Palmers Green and Enfield Town, to rural areas and farmland in the north of the borough.
Based in the bubbling heart of Enfield Town, situated in a modern newly designed service hub, the new office is an environment which supports our smart working policy surrounded by small businesses, bars, restaurants, a buzzing high street and shopping centre. Our brand new high-tech multiagency office has good transport links into central London and is easily assessable to the M25, A10 and A406.
We are proud of the services we offer to children and families living in the borough and work with partners to ensure children receive the best start in life. We are passionate about improving outcomes and driving up standards and performance. Ofsted has rated our children’s services as GOOD overall, read the full report here
Our offer to you include:
A rewarding role in an Ofsted rated GOOD children’s services department
Up to 32 days annual leave depending on grade and length of service. You will also get eight public holidays per year and an extra day off at Christmas.
A blend of remote and office based working
Health and leisure discounts and tax-free bikes for work.
Modern purposefully designed working environment in Thomas Hardy House located 5 minutes from the station
A clear career progression pathway, supported by a comprehensive training programme
Smart technology assistance including hybrid video conferencing
Employee Assistance Programme to provide advice and counselling services. This is a free and confidential service available to staff and members of their family.
Enthusiastic and proactive staff network groups
1 month paid sabbatical for children’s social workers