Assistant Team Manager

About us at Hounslow

We’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be.

We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough. With brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before.

About our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We live by five core values: Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock.  All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in “Harness the Mix”.  It's about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds. We serve a diverse community; we have a diverse workforce and we are committed to being an inclusive employer.

We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias.

As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates.  There’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form.

Our Benefits

If you join us, you’ll have access to a range of employee benefits.  Read more about these on our website.

About the Role

This is an exciting opportunity to be the Assistant Team Manager for Hounslow’s Children with Disabilities Team. 

In this role you will undertake the management and supervision of a team of social workers and Family Support workers undertaking assessments and interventions with children and their families within a Family Help framework.   Your extensive practice knowledge and skills will support practitioners working with some of the most vulnerable children and young people in the borough.

At all times we strive to hear and listen to the voice of the child, adapt our interventions and engagement with disabled children and endeavour to place their views central to our assessments and planning. You will support practitioners to ensure children and young people’s plans are child focused and help them achieve outcomes as set out in their EHCP.

You will see some excellent parenting in very difficult circumstances, but you will also recognise the increased vulnerabilities of children with disabilities and will understand how to protect and safeguard children where necessary. 

You will support managers and social workers in ensuring children receiving packages of support meet assessed needs and are regularly reviewed.  You will support the management of a resource panel ensuring local authority resources are managed effectively.

You will contribute to the CWD service plan for the year and use quality assurance audits and dip samples to provide assurance the team is meeting the needs of disabled children and their families, functioning well and achieving its ambitions.

We have recently been inspected by OfSTED and are judged overall as Good and as we develop our next three year plan this is a great opportunity to continue to build and contribute to the leadership of the team and wider department.

About the Team You’ll Be Working In

The children with disabilities team provides social work services to children with disabilities and their families.  It is a rewarding and fast paced work environment where you will be supported by experienced managers to deliver Family help services to the diverse community of Hounslow.

The children with disabilities team sits within the Children and Adult Services directorate and consists of a social work team, a short break team, a Family Support team, and our business support officers.  We have close working relationships with the SEND EHC team, Childrens Community Nursing Team, our local schools, and NHS therapy services.

We are based in the council’s main office, Hounslow House, in the heart of Hounslow and serve all residents of the borough.

About You

If the points below resonate with you, we would want you to put in an application:

•      You are a compassionate and thoughtful manager able to hear and act upon the voice of children with disabilities.

•      You are excited at the thought of being innovative in your approach to working with children with disabilities and leading a team through a process of change as we undertake to embed the changes identified in the SEND and AP Improvement Plan, Childrens National Framework, and the Family help model.

•      You have experience of managing key social work functions such as child protection, child in need, or children who are looked after.

•      A knowledge of disability social work is not required as we can teach you the relevant legal frameworks and practices.

•      We are a fast-paced service, and you will be able to manage a duty system and be comfortable with undertaking s47 and other safeguarding activities.

Read more about the work you’ll be doing in the Role Profile.

Qualifications:

•          Diploma or higher in social work

•          Registration with Social Work England

Essential for The Role:

Enhanced DBS

When Interviews Will Be Held and Who to Contact

The key information you need about the role should be in the role profile, but if you have any further questions about the role, please contact Phil Hopkins:

Email: Phil.Hopkins@Hounslow.gov.uk

Interviews for this job will be held during week ending 28th February 2025.

Closing date is 17 February 2025.