The Role

Do you see yourself as a leader of inclusive, relationship-based social work practice?

Are you passionate about improving outcomes for children?

Would you like to join a service committed to innovation and transformation of the way we work with children and families?

If yes, we have the perfect role for you!

Our Children’s Social Care Services are looking to recruit a full time Practice Specialist Social Worker to help play a central role in achieving positive outcomes for children in Wandsworth!

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

Here in Wandsworth, we are on an exciting journey of transformation to become an outstanding service for children and families. We have developed our new Outstanding Practice Framework built on systemic practice and the implementation of Family Safeguarding this autumn. Family Safeguarding is a way of keeping families together where it is safe to do so. It was developed and promoted by Hertfordshire and is funded by the Department for Education. Wandsworth will be the first Local Authority in London to implement this new way of working.

Motivational Interviewing is a key component of the approach and all staff are being trained with the aim of working collaboratively with families, empowering and engaging parents to make positive changes for their children and themselves.

We are investing massively in our workforce, our leaders as well as partners to enable us to make our engagement with families and communities in Wandsworth a success. We have strong and visionary leadership from our Director and Deputy Director of Children’s Services who have the highest commitment to transform the help and support we provide to the children & families of Wandsworth.

About the role

We are looking for a Practice Specialist Social Worker to join our service at a time of exciting and positive change in Wandsworth. We are on a journey to be an outstanding local authority and are looking for applicants who wish to join us on this exciting journey.

The new role forms part of our enhanced career progression pathway, enabling excellent social work practitioners to remain in direct practice with families whilst also coaching and championing excellent practice across their service.

About You

We are looking for a Practice Specialist Social Worker that is passionate about transforming the lives of vulnerable children and their families, who can both work alongside families to understand what a good life looks like for them and how we can work together creatively to achieve it, as well as coach and mentor others to work in this way.

You will be skilled in building trusting relationships, talking to families about what matters most to them, making sure children’s wishes and feelings are central to decision making, increasing people’s hope, self-esteem and potential and connecting families to networks of support. You will draw on theoretical ideas and evidence-based approaches to inform your work and first and foremost you will be an outstanding child and family social worker yourself. You will play a pivotal role in developing outstanding practitioners and outstanding practices in your service area.

This role will be varied and exciting and no two days are likely to be the same. You will work closely with managers within the service to co-work complex cases, support practitioners to have creative conversations with families and improve practice that has been identified through quality assurance mechanisms. You will be able to lead and inspire, work with teams to think through practice dilemmas as well as with individual practitioners. You will have the confidence and creativity to come up with creative ideas to improve practice, be highly reflective and committed to developing the workforce so they can be very best in their practice with families.

Contact details

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Louise Jones (Principal Social Worker) at louise.jones@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

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 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 39 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

• Closing date: 11:59pm on Sunday 5th March 2023
• Shortlisting date: To be confirmed
• Interview date: To be confirmed

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.

Please note that the advertised dates for interviews may change due to the current Covid-19 situation. If they do, we will let you know as soon as possible. Your health and wellbeing are our top priority. Should you become unwell due to Covid-19 during the recruitment process we would very much appreciate receiving an update from you as soon as possible.

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.

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 must highlight your knowledge, skills and experience listed in the Job Profile located at the bottom of the advert.

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils