Job Introduction
Looking for a change? Where you can make a difference to the lives of disabled children and their families?
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Permanent Children’s Disability Social Worker.
We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic Social Worker to join our Stafford and South Staffordshire Children Disability team.
The position is Full Time, working 37 hours a week.
We have four Children’s Disability teams across the County, and they provide specialist services for children and young people with complex disabilities.
We are a dedicated team of professionals who work with disabled children and their families across Staffordshire; providing support and early interventions which have a positive impact on the lives of children and families and empower parents and carers to be confident in their role.
We deliver a restorative practice model that focuses on keeping families together through a community-based approach. If you’ve not worked in this way before, don’t worry – we’ll give you full training to bring you up to speed.
Working with us means collaborating across our different teams, and sharing best practice, knowledge, and experience to continually improve the way we do things. Support is important, as we work in a large county with some diverse challenges – but together we can meet all kinds of needs and demands.
Main Responsibility
As a Qualified Social Worker, you will be based within a team of Social Workers and Family Practitioners. You will be expected to be a team player and contribute to the development of the team and wider Disability Service. We do support hybrid working, with an expectation of two to three days being office based to support the wider team.
This role requires:
An ability to engage and communicate with disabled children is essential.
You to manage a caseload of varying complexity across Children in Need, Child Protection and Children in Care.
Multi-agency working with colleagues across a range of disciplines and services.
Completion of assessments, reports and records in a timely and accurate manner to support planning for children and their families.
Risk assessment and risk management skills to ensure the safety and wellbeing of Disabled Children and their families.
Supporting mediation, crisis prevention and conflict resolution.
Through all this great work you do, you’ll be supporting children and families, with a restorative practice approach, helping them stay together where possible.
The Ideal Candidate
The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:
Have an BA/MA Social Work Qualification, or equivalent certified by Social Work England.
Registration with Social Work England.
Experience of Children's Social Work.
Have a current UK driving licence and access to a vehicle.
But above all, you’ll bring the desire to work with disabled children and their families to give them the right support, at the right time with the aim of keeping families together where it’s safe to do so.
For an informal chat about this role, please contact Elizabeth Holdcroft, Team Manager on either 01785 276800 or email at: elizabeth.holdcroft@staffordshire.gov.uk.
Successful candidates will be notified by 13th November. Interviews are scheduled to take place week commencing 23rd November.
For information, please note that there is currently an ongoing review within Children and Families to realign individual teams and the wider team’s ways of working. As a result, this role may be affected by the review. For further information, please speak to the hiring manager.
Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.
Please note: The minimum essential criteria in the ideal section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes.
About Staffordshire County Council
We are no ordinary county council:
Our Values:
The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.
Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:
We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.
We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.
Our benefits:
We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.
In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire
Our recruitment process:
As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities
As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.
As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.
