The Role

Do you see yourself promoting good practice in social work?

Do you have a passion for working with and safeguarding Adolescents and young people at risk in the community?

Would you like to join a council that promotes positive outcomes for children and gives you permission to work creatively and collaboratively?

If yes, we have the perfect role for you!

About you

We are looking for two experienced creative and passionate Senior Social Workers to join our Adolescent social work team within the Specialist Families Services. We are recruiting permanent Senior Social Workers to play a central role in safeguarding young people at risk of Extra Familial Harm. 

Our vision

Our values inspire our Outstanding Practice Framework, which creates the context for our social workers to build relationships with families that bring about change to support children to live at home wherever possible.  Coupled with our implementation of Family Safeguarding we believe we have the best practice conditions we’ve ever have to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and families in Wandsworth. 

Our culture has been recognised by Ofsted in January 2023, they highlighted “the healthy culture that has been created in the organisation places children at the centre of its ethos and approach. This is alongside the whole organisation embracing a ‘support and challenge’ model. These developments ensure that everyone is accountable for children’s progress, and their impact is evident at all levels within the service”. ‘Support, challenge, appreciation and kindness’ were seen and heard in every conversation with a range of staff, managers and senior leaders according to our report, and our ‘healthy culture’ was lauded by inspectors.

We are proud of the difference we are making to support children and families in Wandsworth and have invested in all our staff, our leaders as well as partners to enable us to make our engagement with families and communities in Wandsworth a success. We passionately believe that if we invest in new ways of thinking and working, you will have everything you need to do the job you trained for. We have incredibly sound, solid and strong leadership in Ana Popovici and Nick Pendry, who have an exciting vision that is transforming our approaches to the most vulnerable in society.

About the service

We have adopted a Contextual Safeguarding Approach, which we see as key to addressing many of the risk our young people potentially face including Child Sexual Exploitation, Criminal Exploitation, Serious Youth Violence, Gangs, Missing and online/social media abuse. The Specialist Services for Families works collaboratively with our partners, Adolescents, and their families to effectively mitigate contextual harm to young people in Wandsworth.

Our specialist services work systemically to Target the contexts in which that abuse occurs, from assessment through to interventions. Using a trauma informed and relational framework to address extra-familial risk through the lens of child protection, to mitigate harm, promote safety and support children and young people to achieve their full potential.

In the service we utilise partnerships between children’s services and agencies who have a reach into extra-familial contexts. In this role you will work within an adolescent team, following statutory child protection procedures and frameworks to Assessment, Plan, Implement and Review interventions with young people and their families. 

This is a specialist area of practice, it is important that all practitioners, supervisors, and senior leaders are diligent in ensuring that young people are kept safe, with early identification of needs, up to date risk assessments and robust plans, that are continuously reviewed to demonstrate impact.

We are looking for social workers who are confident in their practice and hold strong assessment and planning skills, being able to come alongside families within their contexts to assess, plan, implement and review interventions confidently and skilfully.

Contact details

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Harriet Crofts at Harriet.Crofts@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

Agile working 

At Richmond and Wandsworth Councils, we care more about how you work and what you achieve, rather than where you work on any given day. The difference you can make to our local communities is what really matters most to us, service delivery must always come first. We have carefully considered agile ways of working to provide the best experience for residents, stakeholders and our staff. Our agile working strategy actively supports and encourages a dynamic work environment and daily working experience. Agile working helps put the needs of our staff at the centre of everything we do, so if specific flexible working arrangements helps you with this, feel free to let us know. 

Your wellbeing and the flexible way in which you can work is and will remain a key priority for Richmond and Wandsworth Councils. We want you to thrive and feel empowered in your work! 

Benefits

We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working including, working from home, compressed or  term time only, job shares and other arrangements. Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore. We also offer a generous holiday allowance of 40 paid days (pro rata) including bank holidays and a wide range of learning and development opportunities.

In addition, we offer a comprehensive range of staff benefits such as membership of the Local Government pension scheme, childcare vouchers, new technology scheme, interest-free loans on annual travel cards, discounts with many leisure activities, restaurants, shops, and other establishments. You will also be availed of all training available to the service.

Indicative Recruitment Timeline

Please note, this advert is set not to expire until the successful candidates are appointed. Shortlisting and interviews are completed on an ongoing basis.

Useful Information: The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. We strongly advise you to complete your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Equality Statement

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.

At Wandsworth, we particularly welcome applications from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our teams, including Black and Asian minority communities. We understand the value of what a diverse workforce brings to our local authority and therefore, strongly encouraging candidates from these backgrounds to apply to this position.

Important Information

This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children. It replaces the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).

How to apply?

To be considered for interview your CV and supporting statement (no longer than 1 side of a4) must highlight your knowledge, skills and experience listed in the Job Profile located at the bottom of the advert.

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils