Social Worker or Advanced Social Worker - Family Safeguarding

About the Job

Salary: £44,015 - £56,545 (inclusive of 12.5% Market Rate Supplement and Crawley Weighting Allowance)
Contract: Fixed Term for Maternity/Parental Leave Cover
Working Pattern: Full time, hybrid working 37 hours per week
Location: Crawley

Join our Family Safeguarding East Team in our offered Social Worker or Advanced Social Worker role, and you will be undertaking meaningful evidence-based interventions to facilitate positive change for children and families within a supportive team environment.

We are looking for passionate, motivated, and resilient social workers who are excited by a different way of delivering support to children and families to enable lasting change. You will have specialist knowledge of social work practice and expertise to take the lead in complex situations, with the support of our fantastic small practice teams. You will work within a positive, stable team environment where successes are celebrated and individuals have a fantastic platform to develop and grow their skillsets.

Family Safeguarding is a whole family strengths-based approach to safeguarding children who may be in need of support or at risk of harm. We work with families with children aged 0-18years to help them identify and make real changes, so that they can stay together, and children can remain safely at home. Our teams are co-located multi-disciplinary teams that include specialist adult practitioners from domestic abuse (to support both victims and perpetrators), substance use/recovery and mental health services ensure that families are getting support at the right time.

Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please can you therefore discuss and agree this with your manager before applying for this position.

Rewards & Benefits

At West Sussex County Council we aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where you can achieve your full potential, gain a healthy work-life balance, and are rewarded for the work you do with clear pathways to achieve your future aspirations. A few examples of these include:

• Flexible and hybrid working options within your small practice teams, managed by a Team Manager and supported by Child & Family Workers as well as additional flexible administrative support from Coordinators embedded within the service.
• Regular group supervision and peer learning alongside specialist roles within the team to focus on the most vulnerable children.
• We pay your Social Worker England registration fee.
• Excellent learning and development provisions with 5 CPD and training days per year and access to Research in Practice and Community Care Inform.
• An excellent local government pension scheme
• Generous holiday entitlement of up to 29 days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
• Health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health Cash Plans.

For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Skills & Experience

Just some of the skills and experience you will need include:

• Analyse and interpret complex information and data, being able to prioritise needs and devise plans for intervention and provision.
• Proactively work as a member of the team to make accurate assessments of needs and negotiate and implement effective outcomes.
• Develop strong relationships, working alongside carers, colleagues and external agencies to deliver an effective service.
• Communicate clearly and effectively in both written and oral format, including the ability to explain complicated information to a variety of people and use negotiation and persuasion skills to encourage others to adopt a course of action they may not wish to take.

• A recognised Social Work qualification e.g. Degree in Social Work, Post Graduate Certificate in Social Work, DipSW, CQSW or equivalent as recognised by the relevant professional body.
• Completion of relevant post qualifying training.
• Registration with the relevant professional registration body and maintaining registration with that body.
• Knowledge of theoretical Social Work concepts and practices, with demonstrable examples of dealing with a breadth of complex issues and situations, for example, attachment, impact of developmental trauma and child development, motivational interviewing, relational practice, solution-focussed interventions and systemic working. A good understanding of anti-oppressive, anti-discriminatory and anti-racist practice in social work.
• You will need to be able to travel independently around the county, including to areas that may not be easily accessible by public transport. Pool cars are available.

For a full list of key skills and experience for the Advanced Social Worker or Social Worker role, please refer to the appropriate job description attached when applying.

About Us

Here at West Sussex County Council, we are ambitious for our children and our workforce. We have made great improvements in our service for the children and families in West Sussex over 5 years. You will join us as at a key time on our continuous improvement journey; the service you would be joining has a stable workforce with manageable caseloads and a fully permanent management team. We are proud of the work we do and we are proud to be a supportive and inclusive employer.

That's why we need professionals, like you, who really want to be part of the positive change that is happening for children. Be part of an ambitious ongoing improvement plan and make a significant difference to children and families in West Sussex. There has never been a more rewarding time to join.

For further information about us and about working in Children's Social Care at West Sussex County Council, please visit Careers in children's social work in West Sussex.

Further Information

The reference number for this role is CAFHE05581.

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and complete our application form. In your application form please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills in the appropriate job description) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to Social Work England registration, an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.