Senior Practitioner – Young People Service 16+ – Children – Croydon Council
Salary: Grade 15 (£52,116- £54,129)
Permanent – 36 hours per week
Welcome Payment – £10,000
Retention Payment – £2,500
Hybrid working
Job Purpose
We are looking to recruit a social work qualified senior practitioner into our recently transformed 16+ service. The service supports Children in Care who are aged 16-17 and Care Experienced adults aged 18-25. This is an exciting time to join Croydon as we have recently reconfigured the service to create smaller teams with additional management support. We are also working with our multi-agency partners to create dedicated specialist support for our young people, including from Health, Adult Services, Housing and Education. We are looking for social worker who have experience of working with young people who are in Care and Care Experienced. The role will include practice development and supporting newly qualified social workers within the service.
Essential Requirements
Significant post-qualifying experience of multi-agency working, risk management, care and permanence planning, ability to analyse complex circumstances and formulate appropriate intervention plans.
Experience of delivering high quality direct and life story work within a systemic practice framework to increase outcomes and care planning for our young people, to enable them to move into independence with better outcomes.
We are looking for creative and highly motivated experienced social workers who consistently ensure that young people are central to their intervention.
Experience of working with children in care and supporting them to progress effectively to adulthood with appropriate skills for independence.
Ability to create and maintain relationships whilst applying appropriate challenge to advocate for young people.
Experience of supporting less experienced social workers is desirable, for instance qualified practice educators.
Qualification in or experience of working within a systemic practice framework including use or facilitating group supervision to achieve high quality outcomes.
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