About the Role:
London Borough of Tower Hamlets are seeking a Senior Social Worker to join the Family and Support Team.
Contracted Hours: 35 hours (Full-Time)
Key Responsibilities:
- To provide high quality casework and service to vulnerable children and families, ensuring social work practice is in the best interest of children.
- Safeguard children, and improve outcomes for children in terms of their health, education, social and emotional wellbeing. This involves providing a service to users that ensures that assessments, care plans and actions are in place to promote the longer term safety, welfare and well-being of children and young people, enabling them to maximise their life chances.
- Provision of social work services, working with individual service users, providing early help, undertaking assessments, interventions and reviews, in line with professional frameworks and National Performance indicators and other relevant local and national guidance, for children in need, those subject to child protection and criminal justice processes, looked after children and care leavers and their carers; providing advice, assistance, counselling and other forms of personal assistance with the aim of empowering, enhancing and protecting individual welfare.
- Contribute, as an active member to a positive team culture, to achieve the objectives of the service, working with Restorative Practice as our overarching analytical practice framework.
- Be a positive role model for children and families and build partnerships with others to work collaboratively.
- Prioritise and respond to requests for assistance, establishing sufficient information about the needs of clients so as to be able to determine the level of risk and the nature and type of
support required. - Maintain accurate case records to include information and analysis, and fulfil national timescales, procedures and statutory duties in line with national and local policies, practices and procedures.
- Carry out assessments of needs and risk, and liaise with other specialists and agencies as necessary, and enable them to be involved and contribute to the process.
- Ensure that assessments, planning and interventions pay particular attention to individual needs, strengths and wishes, and include critical reflection and analysis, aims, and options
to achieve change. Develop and progress care plans as necessary, ensuring that care plans include clear statements of purpose, change, outcome and impact for child and family social work. - Undertake at all times to work respectfully and collaboratively with service users, and take into account the views of children, young people and their carers and to facilitate inclusive
practice to ensure participation is achieved. - Initiate, chair and participate in reviews, cases conferences and other professional meetings, and provide reports as required. Undertake court work as required.
- Negotiate with users, carers and internal and external partners concerning the methods to meet the needs identified by each assessment. Plan services to meet individual needs in cooperation with children and families; to form trusted and effective working relationships with relatives, carers, friends, health and colleagues from other agencies [e.g. education, health, police, employers, and housing].
- Assist and enable users and carers to play a full part by extending to them advice, support, consultation and guidance and arrange advocacy services, and escalating issues, where necessary
- Work within budgetary limits laid down by Council policy and to operate within the Financial Regulations and Standing Orders of the Council. Inform the line manager of specific needs which cannot be met because of the unavailability of services or because of limits to budgetary provision.
- Maintain awareness of current research findings and ensure all assessments and plans are informed by research and evidence.
- Actively engage with supervision and review / appraisal arrangements and be able to receive, critically reflect and learn from feedback, to review and develop the capabilities and competencies as set out in the Person Specification as required. Participate in the creation and implementation of a personal training plan in conjunction with management.
- Take responsibility for managing own workload and caseload.
- Maintain high standards of professional practice and conduct, and promote and enhance such practice within the organisation.
- Maintain an effective system for reviewing assessments, care plans, actions and services.
- Ensure that services are efficiently and effectively provided and identify gaps in services and advise managers accordingly. Actively seek out feedback on services.
- Promote an awareness of, and commitment to, the Council’s equal opportunities policy in relation to both employment and service delivery.
- Ensure full compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Acts, the Council’s Health & Safety policy and all locally agreed safe methods of work.
- Participate in the planning and delivery of service duty and cover arrangements.
- Maintain confidentiality and apply data protection requirements.
- Understand and adhere to the professional regulatory body. Apply codes of conduct such as the HCPC code of practice in all aspects of work, and understand and be able to apply the Knowledge and Skills in your own and others’ practice
- Actively contribute to the council’s priorities and outcomes in a way that promotes a ‘one organisation’ approach.
- Develop and maintain positive relationships with colleagues, stakeholders and communities to ensure the council and the directorate strategic priorities are effectively implemented.
- Promote equality among all staff and ensure that services are delivered in a non-discriminatory way, that is inclusive of all disadvantaged groups.
- Support organisational change and learning, following and implementing appropriate systems of selfdevelopment, communication and engagement, quality measures, monitoring and review in delivering the functions of the role.
- Promote sustainability, including encouraging a culture of innovation and accountability amongst all council staff.
- Work as a member of a team providing a service to users that ensures initial actions, arrangements and care plans are in place to safeguard and promote the well-being of children and young people Support childcare planning in respect of all family and children cases, and chair such meetings where appropriate
- Comply with supervision and appraisal arrangements and use feedback to review and modify interventions and care plans as appropriate.
- Undertake at all times to take into account the views of children, young people and their carers and to facilitate their participation in the assessment, intervention and review process.
- Make appropriate assessment of individuals’ social care needs in collaboration with health and other relevant agencies, taking into account the wishes of individuals and their carers.
- Plan services to meet individual needs in co-operation with relatives, carers, friends, health and other care agencies.
- Implement and operate systems, in accordance with the Council’s policies and procedures which ensure that the quality and standards of professional practice and performance are achieved.
Requirements:
- Qualified Social Worker
- Registered with Social Work England
- Eligible to work in the UK
Interested?
For more information on this role or to apply, get in touch with our vendor department who will arrange for a specialist consultant to get in contact with you:
0203 906 8670