About Us

Are you passionate about improving outcomes for children? Including supporting children to feel safe and protected through excellent management of allegations against adults who work with children?

Do you see yourself as a leader of relationship-based practice that can bring rigour and imagination to quality assurance? 

Would you like to lead a quality assurance service that is committed to innovation and transformation of the way we work with children and families?

If yes, keep reading as we have the perfect role for you!

We are recruiting a Quality Assurance & LADO Service Manager. Come and join us!

Our vision

Our values inspire our Outstanding Practice Framework, which creates the context for us 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 had 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'll have everything you need to do the job you trained for. We have incredibly sound, solid and strong leadership in our director Ana Popovici and deputy director Rasheed Pendry, who have an exciting vision that is transforming our approaches to the most vulnerable in society.

About the role

We are looking to recruit a Quality Assurance & LADO Service Manager. This is a key post within our newly formed Practice & Learning Service with lead responsibility for the quality assurance function of practice, facilitating and co-ordinating the continuous improvement of practice quality in line with our Outstanding Practice Framework and undertake the management of the LADO function. 

Reporting to the Head of Practice and Principal Social Worker, and working alongside colleagues in safeguarding, practice improvement, policy and performance, inspection readiness and workforce and learning (social care academy) we are looking for a child and family focussed, experienced social work leader who is able to thrive in a complex environment, respond in an agile way to service demands and build collaborative and effective relationships with teams, services and senior leaders within children’s services, across directorates and with partner agencies. 

About you 

We would like you to have a passion and rigour for leading effective quality assurance of practice, experience of successfully leading a service to achieve outcomes, with a proven track record of practice improvement; ability to respond to new and emerging ways of working including responding to the new government vision for reform of children’s social care Stable Homes, Built on Love; and a passion for innovation in practice and ways of delivering the very best outcomes for children and families.

Contact details

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Louise Jones on Louise.Jones@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 part-time hours, 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.

Indicative Recruitment Timeline

• Closing date: 11:59pm on Wednesday 17^th May 2023
• Interview date: Wednesday 22^nd May 2023

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

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils