Lead Operational Manager - BSAFE

 BSAFE contextual safeguarding and exploitation Service – Ops manager  

We have a rare opportunity for a highly experienced and tenacious social worker to join Barnsley’s BSAFE contextual safeguarding team as lead operational manager with strategic influence.

§  Do you have a passion for leading and driving practice within services, working with the most complex children-and a resilience to support our practitioners to overcome rejection and pushback, by continuing to ‘be there’ for them?

§  Do you have an ambition to drive delivery within a multi-agency response to complex risk, working alongside Police, social care, youth justice and specialist family practitioners?

§  Are you a highly tenacious leader with significant practice experience of managing teams who support vulnerable adolescents and their families or care givers to reduce risks and support sustainable safe lives?

§  Can you use your experience and acquired skill to lead and inspire other workers from across the partnership, delivering coaching, training and supervision where required?

§  Do you seek practice innovation; embrace multi-systemic responses and the delivery of evidence-based approaches to drive change and to work in an environment that seeks creativity and practice excellence, celebrates endeavour, and sees success through the lens of changes made by service users?

If you see yourself, then we really want to hear from you! 

In BSAFE we work directly with children and their families and the professionals supporting them, providing specialist intervention, advocacy and consultation through a ‘co-allocation’ model. 

A successful candidate will have the determination to further develop innovative, specialist responses to risk for adolescents, practicing within a ‘co-allocated’ model that ensures intensity, creativity and evidence-based responses, directly with young people and across places and spaces our children occupy.   

Despite your social work qualification, you will recognise that the response to contextual harm must see a multi-systemic response that extends past traditional safeguarding responses, but you will also ensure that the work of the team is aligned to statutory models and provides true ‘additionality’.

You will be leading and driving the work with children and their families where the following harm types have impacted their lives, including contexts where the child is also a perpetrator:

• Child criminal exploitation
• Child sexual exploitation
• Harmful sexual behaviour
• Serious Youth Violence and other offending behaviour linked to exploitation

You will be relentless in striving and developing ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ services to children and their families, supporting practitioners to advocate for our children as victims and working alongside our co-located police and YJS partners to respond to those who pose a risk to our children, creating safer communities for our children to grow up in.

More about the role:

§  The BSAFE service is positioned in the Youth Justice and Vulnerable Adolescent Service portfolio, alongside Youth Justice, Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) and Family Group Conferencing (FGC) teams.  However, the team works closely with children’s social care and there is an operational need for ongoing alignment with each social care team.  

§  You will be operational lead for a small team, working alongside a Police sergeant, and you will have responsibility for ensuring the effective planning and oversight of children subject to a variety of plans, supporting your team to work innovatively individually and with partners.

§  Supporting a team who are working with a reduced caseload of young people, enabling intensive and highly flexible evidence-based practice to support the needs of the children and their families. You will advocate the ethos of the work we do, occupying multi-agency spaces and ensuring children are recognised as victims, advocated for and that plans around them include responding to risks in and outside of their homes.

§  You will provide supervisory support and oversight of other staff, giving you much needed experience should you seek longer-term aspirations to move into leadership positions.

§  You will Lead the team with confidence and act as deputy for the Strategy and Service manager across Youth Justice and Vulnerable Adolescent (BSAFE) Services, driving the development and delivery of services and strategies which safeguard children, young people and families, protect the public and promote confidence in the Criminal Justice and Contextual safeguarding responses.

§  Collaboration is at the heart of our culture, underpinned by the shared desire to do what it takes to make our children and victims safe.  The work is challenging and rewarding in equal measure. We will support you to privilege building relationships with some of our most vulnerable young people, working alongside them and their networks to drive effective planning and risk management.

§  In Barnsley, we have a determination to be innovative and further enhance the offer and response for our children through a Child First practice system, that changes lives, and elevates children to seek and achieve their full potential.  

§  In addition, you play a vital role in the wider partnership work taking place to further develop the multi-agency response to exploitation and complex risk at both a strategic and operational level, continuing to nurture relationships with our partners to achieve our shared goal of reducing our children’s experiences of exploitation and making our communities safer.

§  This is a full-time role, that will require flexible working patterns, potentially including outside of core hours and will demand you to be willing to adapt your approach to the needs of children and families.  

What we will need from you:

• To work with the leadership team to develop and drive continuous professional development across the team and within wider children’s services being supported and supportive to the networks around children.
• Take a lead in the operational oversight and delivery of key processes to manage this cohort, including delivery of case consultation; training and skills development for the partnership; group case supervision and quality assurance; co-ordinating mapping and sharing intelligence with police partners.
• Play a key role in workforce development and development of the BSAFE offer, ensuring, under your leadership that staff are supported and encouraged to offer good and outstanding services, that meet children in their contexts and proactively safeguards and supports them.

Required for the role:

• A highly dynamic approach and the ability to thrive when working in a challenging and unpredictable environment
• Strong management experience with a defined track record of developing and delivering robust management oversight to teams, who support children and families impacted by risk outside of the home.  The ability to operate effectively with managers and leaders across partnerships and represent the team and local authority to protect it’s reputation.
• A proven track record of delivering quality services that enable better outcomes for children and their families and safeguards them from harm with experience of through effective leadership of staff and analytical management of data and performance, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children involved with the service, including those with a need for protection and ensure that all aspects of the service are responsive to the needs of victims in particular and the public in general, including the need for protection.
• A recognised social work qualification and registration with Social Work England.
• Experience of working in or alongside multi-agency partners and the Youth Justice service is preferred but not essential. 
• Significant post qualification experience, within frontline social work settings, that enables you to offer coherent input into management decisions
• Experience of supporting and providing supervisory oversight to staff and commitment to supporting the learning and development of others. In addition, the skill and relevant experience to provide case consultation to internal and partnership workers on how to manage and reduce contextual risk
• Knowledge and understanding of key legislation, policy and best practice in working with vulnerable adolescent children with experience and significant knowledge of ‘what works’ in relation to single agency and partnership interventions and activity to reduce contextual safeguarding risks

How we will support you:

§  You will receive regular supervision, appraisal, training and development opportunities, all aimed at promoting positive outcomes for children and supporting your career development and progression, being part of shaping the future of the service and continuing to ensure we work as dynamically and creatively as needed, with this cohort of children, elevating us as a beacon of excellence in contextual safeguarding practices. 

§  We are making long-term investment in our staff to be the future of our service, so we are seeking aspiring leaders and managers who will be a key part of our journey moving forward.  If this is you, we will ensure you receive opportunity for ongoing career development in recognition of the value you add to the service in this highly demanding role!

Here at Barnsley, we live and work by four important values: honesty, teamwork, excellent service, and taking pride in what we do.

As part of our team, you can be assured we will support you in striving for excellence in your work. We prioritise learning and enabling you to achieve your potential so you will have opportunities to increase your expertise and further develop your management and leadership skills.

  

For further information, please contact Phil Drabble, Youth Justice Strategy Service Manager via the following email address: youthjusticegovernance@barnsley.gov.uk

Barnsley is the place of possibilities: We are one service with one goal, working together to build a brighter Barnsley for every child

v  Putting Children and Families First

v  Working together in partnership to deliver joined up care

v  Delivered by a strong and valued workforce