Isle of Wight (Hybrid)
Permanent, Full time
Basic DBS check required
Grade 13, £48,062.00 to £51,541.00 per annum + Market supplement
37 hours
37 hours per week
On the Isle of Wight our new Children’s Service Leadership team understand that our social workers, managers and our staff require the right environment to succeed in this challenging, rewarding and important field.
Our vision is ‘creating change together’, using language that cares which drives our values and behaviours to create change - in partnership with our children and families, our dedicated Children’s Service staff, our partners, and community services, to improve the lives of children on the Isle of Wight.
We value and respect the work you do and ensure our social work teams are given the right tools, conditions, support and guidance needed to make real change happen. Are you ready to take your next career step with us one of our two as new Team Managers for Children’s Support and Protection Services. You are a successful manager within children’s social care, you have the skills, but have you considered WHERE you want to be, to make a real difference?
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is in the English Channel, between two and five miles off the coast of Hampshire, separated by the Solent, 11 minutes by Hovercraft. The island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and landscapes of fields, down land, and chines. The island is designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and over half is designated an area of outstanding natural beauty.
However, hidden behind all this beauty, many families really struggle, and we have areas of socioeconomic deprivation and child poverty. Parts have a low paid rural economy reliant on tourism and agriculture, now further affected by the covid pandemic. However, we also have dynamic international high-tech companies, national and local investment, and world class sporting events; making the Isle of Wight a great place to live and work.
On the Isle of Wight, the overall average house price means you get more for your money compared to many other places in the South East. A relocation grant of up to £8k makes buying your first home affordable or moving up to a bigger house achievable. You have 32 days annual leave a year to enjoy all what the Isle of Wight has to offer. In a recent poll with social workers across the South East, work life balance was their top priority when deciding on a job. We will invest in you and your career by providing you with five extra days for you to take to focus on your professional development with our support. We operate a nine-day fortnight which means you get an additional 26 days’ time off in lieu a year.
Our Council has invested further in children’s social care. We have created two more Children’s Support and Protection Teams, making a total of six which have combined our referral and assessment and child in need teams. Due to progression, we are now recruiting a team manager.
The benefits of our redesigned Children’s Support and Protection Service include:
- Less children in line of sight of managers
- Greater capacity to provide management oversight/grip/reflective supervision
- Smaller teams, that can focus on quality assessments/plans – get it right for families first time
- Each team is on duty once every six weeks
Our Resilience Around the Families Team is a dedicated resource with adult mental health professional, adult substance misuse professionals and a team of trained volunteers. Our Family Hub offer is nationally recognised as a trailblazer providing access to a range of targeted early intervention and early help support services including parenting and domestic abuse interventions.
We have a really positive, supportive culture and working environment. Even our agency workers don’t want to leave and if they do, they ask to come back or choose to go permanent as they have said the Isle of Wight is the best children’s social care service, they have worked in. We work to Isle of Wight model which is a strengths-based, multi-disciplinary approach focussed on building resilience in individuals, families, and communities, whilst managing risk and safeguarding children.
Our successful partnership with Hampshire County Council concluded earlier this year, and we now have our own new Director of Children’s Services and two new Service Directors for Children’s Social Care and Education and Inclusion. Our most recent Ofsted inspection found that ‘Senior leaders have been resilient and adaptable in their response and have been supported by additional funding agreed by elected members. There has been investment in and commitment to the early help offer, the chosen social work approach and increasing sufficiency, to provide more and varied options so that children and care leavers can remain living on the island.’
Please get in touch and start your senior management journey with the Isle of Wight today.