Team Manager Child in Need & Child Protection Team

Joining Children’s Social Care at Cheshire East Council means becoming part of a progressive, supportive and forward-thinking service that is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of children and young people. We pride ourselves on putting children and young people first and helping them become the very best version of themselves possible. Our working culture is people-focused, ensuring every team member is supported and provided with all the tools needed to thrive in their role. We have competitive benefits, flexible work-life balance, and a focus on health and wellbeing, ensuring that you can achieve your career aspirations and goals whilst maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

An exciting opportunity has become available to work within the Child in Need and Child Protection Service based at Macclesfield Town Hall. The position is for 1 FTE (37 hours) per week, 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am to 4.30pm Friday.

About You

We are seeking to appoint a candidate with experience of being a Team Manager or an experienced Social Worker ready to take the next step into management. We are looking for a candidate who is keen to use their creativity to deliver high-quality child-focused practice to ensure the best outcomes for the children and families that we work with. We have a focus on building relationships to understand the context of a family and their family dynamics to work together in co-producing effective support plans.

In this job you will:

• Interview, observe, assess and evaluate information in order to produce a holistic assessment of the needs of children and families and determine appropriate methods of intervention in line with statutory guidance.
• Identify the parenting capacity, family and environmental factors and the need for protection to ensure a balance of risk with protective factors in order to effectively target resources.
• Devise written plans for intervention and/or care for children and their families, including Child Protection Plans to ensure focused social work interventions and the management of risk to children.
• Research findings and statutory guidance and provide and present concise reports about complex information in line with evidence-based social work practice to meet the requirements of the Local Safeguarding Board, the Court and other regulations.
• Manage a complex and high-risk workload and build professional relationships with children and their families to safeguard children and promote positive outcomes.
• Communicate effectively with children and their families to ensure their views and wishes are heard and provide written reports about their circumstances and plans for intervention.
• Manage the Social Work pod, prioritise and allocate tasks, provide guidance, direction, motivation and support to ensure effective services to children and their families.
• Provide professional supervision to social workers and children’s practitioners to ensure accountability for social work practice and assist with the professional development of staff within designated practice standards.
• Liaise and work with other agencies and promote joint working in line with statutory guidelines to ensure an integrated approach and multi-disciplinary working for the benefit of children and their families.
• Manage budgets for the commissioning of services and authorise cash payments to families in line with Financial Regulations to ensure value for money and appropriate assistance to families.
• Manage the child’s record using Cheshire East's recording system, provide aggregated information and statistics and share information with other agencies in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act to promote the welfare of children.
• Contribute to the development of social work policy and procedures to ensure that services best meet the needs of children and families.
• Ability to analyse performance data, motivate and mobilise staff to ensure that performance targets are met and maintained consistently across the service.

In return we are able to offer:

• Enhanced annual leave - Start with an impressive 34 days of annual leave (including bank holidays) from day one, and watch it grow to 39 days after just five years of service.
• Purchase of annual leave – Want more time off? You can purchase up to 10 extra days of annual leave each year, giving you the flexibility to balance work and life just the way you want (Pro-rata for part-time staff).
• Flexible working pattern - Enjoy a 37-hour standard full-time work week with the added perks of flexi-time and hybrid/remote working arrangements where possible.
• Salary sacrifice green car scheme - Drive green and save green! Lease a brand-new electric or hybrid car through our salary sacrifice scheme.
• White goods salary sacrifice scheme - Upgrade your home with ease. Purchase home and electronic items through our salary sacrifice scheme.
• Enhanced public pension - Secure your future with our career average pension, where contributions are built at a rate of 1/49th of your yearly pensionable pay.
• Cycle to work scheme - Save up to 25-39% on the retail price of bikes and safety equipment through Income Tax and National Insurance savings.
• Employee assistance programme - Access a completely free and confidential assistance service to help manage, reduce, and overcome life’s challenges, both at work and in your personal life.
• Discounted gym membership - Stay active and healthy with corporate membership prices for Everybody Leisure.

Join us and experience a workplace that truly values and supports you! Cheshire East is an amazing place to live and work. As one of the largest employers in the borough, we are able to offer you a wide range of challenging and rewarding career opportunities. We are working for a brighter future – together and our commitment to you is that our workplace culture will provide a shared purpose, a well-led organisation with valued people succeeding together as one team and one council to deliver the best service for our customers and communities.

If you want to be part of our award-winning council and contribute to our ongoing success, have the flexibility and drive to enable us to innovate, are committed to working as part of a team and striving to deliver exceptional service wherever you can, we would especially like to hear from you.

As an equal opportunities employer, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds and want our workforce to reflect the diversity of our local communities so that we can all work for a brighter future - together.

Applicants should ensure all sections of the application form are completed as failure to do so will result in their application being rejected. Please ensure you check the email account (including junk/spam boxes) from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application. If you have not heard from us within 4 weeks of the closing date then it is likely that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion, however, please do not be discouraged from applying again.

For any technical enquiries please email sourcingteam@ecwip.co.uk.

If you would like an informal chat about the role, please contact Tom Geoghegan (Interim Service Manager) at tom.geoghegan@cheshireeast.gov.uk.