Senior Social Worker

Location

Newham, Greater London | United Kingdom

Job description

SENIOR SOCIAL WORKER

LEAVING CARE SERVICE

£54,083 – £57,116 (includes market supplement)

Hybrid role – Newham Dockside E16 2QU

Closing date: 17/03/2024 at 23:59

WE ARE NEWHAM

It’s a great time to join our Leaving Care service, with the dedicated support provided by Newham to care-experienced young people being highlighted following our  recent focused visit from Ofsted (January 2024). Ofsted acknowledged that Newham has continued to provide effective Circles of Support for our care-experienced young people since our 2022 ILACS inspection, and is now providing services that encapsulate young people’s holistic needs, taking the necessary steps to support young people towards independence at a pace which is comfortable for them.

Why join Newham's Leaving Care Service?

Great colleagues, outstanding leadership, diligent partnership work and a stable service.

Ofsted stated that ‘workforce stability has helped ensure that the needs of most care-experienced young people are met’ , and praised ‘highly determined and committed staff’ who know their young people well and ‘ work diligently with partners.’ The partnership response to sharing information was singled out for particular praise and was described as ‘impressive, pioneering and well-defined.’

Leadership was described as Outstanding in 2022, and there was further commendation for Leaving Care management following January’s focused visit: ‘Leaders and managers at Newham know their service well. Staff enjoy working in Newham and feel well supported by visible and caring managers and senior leaders’.  

Care–experienced young people are at the heart of what we do.

Care-experienced young people ‘are actively involved in the improvement of services’  and are represented at boards, meetings and through contact with senior leaders; ‘their voices are listened to and acted on and used to inform decision making for the future.’

Our Circes of Support focus on listening to a young person, and plans for care-experienced young people at Newham are ‘sensitively written, with care-experienced young people incorporating their views and aspirations’. You can find out more about our practice model, Circles of Support,  here.

There has been significant investment to help support our care-experienced young people.

This includes The Cove, our dedicated meeting, training, work and leisure space for care-experienced young people. Activities including EET, cooking lessons, financial wellbeing and sexual health – as providing an opportunity to connect with peers and acting as a respite centre catering for essential needs.

We recognise the importance of and value your role as a social worker.

We understand that social work can be a challenging yet ultimately very rewarding profession that makes demands of you personally and professionally. In Newham we value your wellbeing and ensure that you have the support needed for a better work/life balance through a remote working offer; a pleasant, modern office space for when you are in the office; a flexible working policy where all requests are considered, and a clinical offer to support you to do your best work. We value career progression and look to develop our own, with 30 qualified social work promotions across Children’s Services in 2023 alone.

For an informal discussion please contact Leaving Care Service Manager, Leigh-Anne Elliott: [email protected]

ABOUT YOU  

We’re looking for practitioners who have a genuine interest in a restorative, relationship based practice model drawing on systemic thinking to inform your approach to building effective relationships with care-experienced young people and their communities. You will be a qualified social worker who is registered with Social Work England, with experience working in a statutory leaving care service and a strong working knowledge of all relevant legislation relating to looked after children and care-experienced young people.

Your experience includes working with care-experienced young people within a diverse, urban community – it is essential that you have an understanding of the issues, concerns, and aspirations of care-experienced young people and how as a practitioner you can support them towards living fulfilled, safe and independent lives.

TO APPLY

To apply please submit your CV and a supporting statement (1-2 sides of A4) through our  online recruitment portal .  

Shortlisting decisions will be based on candidates' relevant experience and on candidates' suitability for the role in line with the person specification, as described in their supporting statement and CV.

Closing date: 17/03/2024 at 23:59

Interviews: ASAP following the closing date

If you have any questions about the recruitment process or want to discuss joining Newham Children’s Services with one of our managers, please contact our  Recruitment Team .

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

We are committed to creating an inclusive, anti-racist environment for all. When you apply for a job at Newham, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. If you share our vision and values, and you bring the experience and skills we need, that’s all that matters to us.

The London Borough of Newham has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Please attach your supporting statement, explaining in no more than x2 A4 sides why and how you meet the criteria for this role.

We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.

The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found by .

The London Borough of Newham is located only 5 miles east of London. It is well positioned with access to all major networks in London and the south east. It is well connected by public transport with, bus, tube and DLR. When the Crossrail service opens it will call at Custom House close to our council offices and also Stratford station and from there to central London. The London City Airport which serves major European cities is located at Royal Albert Dock. Newham has the youngest overall population in the country. It was one of the six host boroughs for the 2012 Summer Olympics and contains most of the Olympic Park including the London Stadium. It has a thriving arts quarter with the Theatre Royal Stratford East offering excellent entertainment for all the family. There is the University of East London which has two campuses in Newham, one in Stratford and another next to the regenerated Royal Albert Dock. It also has a large Westfield shopping Centre in Stratford which has all the major retailers there. 

Newham has a large housing regeneration programme that will build over 1,000 new council homes by 2022.

Job tags

Salary

£54.08k - £57.12k per annum