Social Worker (Children Looked After )

Calderdale is a beautiful metropolitan borough in the heart of the Yorkshire Pennines, situated between Manchester and Leeds. The spectacular natural landscape, vibrant towns, quirky culture, and tremendous architecture make it a great place to live and work. Its ideal location allows for easy access via the motorway or rail into the town centre or the surrounding area.

Systemic practice lies at the heart of our vision and we are looking for passionate committed people who can make a meaningful difference to our children. We have a commitment to maintaining low caseloads, which ensures practitioners are given opportunities to work effectively and robustly. Calderdale is a place where you can make a difference.

The benefits of working for Calderdale Children’s Social Care are that you will be supported to provide the very best service for our children. Quality reflective supervision is provided and there is very much a learning culture within the service. We give a commitment to maintaining caseloads at an appropriate level, which ensures practitioners are given the opportunities to work effectively and robustly. We value our social work staff and in recognition we offer a free car parking permit, a comprehensive induction programme, and regular person-focused supervision to meet your well-being, training, and development needs.

The Children’s Looked After Team has five pods which consist of a practice manager, advanced practitioner (where possible), 3-4 Social Workers with administration support. As a social worker within the team, you will be responsible for providing a quality service to our Children Looked After. The team undertakes a variety of work including working with Children Young People in various care settings from foster care, residential care, semi-independent placements, and Placement with Parents.

As a Social Worker in the Children Looked After team, you will be involved in care planning for young people, driving forward permanence including court applications to discharge Care Orders, coordinating reunification plans, and adoption work. The role does involve some Court Proceedings work, although experience in this area is not essential and full support will be offered in terms of undertaking this work.

We will offer:

• Supportive management and a service-wide commitment to continuous improvement.
• A creative and challenging team with supportive colleagues.
• Opportunities to develop your supervision and management skills in a supportive environment.
• Supervision and appraisal arrangements to build your skills and assist you in your career development.
• An excellent learning and development programme that reflects your needs and the skills that you will need to develop.

Applications will be considered from qualified social workers (BA/DipSW/CQSW or equivalent), registered with Social Work England and who can demonstrate qualifying experience gained within statutory children and families’ service and practicing at a secure level 2 status. Level 3 social workers are expected to provide evidence of their progression status.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults and expect all staff to share this commitment. Applicants to posts that are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act will require a DBS from the Disclosure and Barring Service before the appointment is confirmed.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa. If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year (unless exceptions apply) and meet the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.

Calderdale will reimburse the post holders required professional membership, annually. As part of our Vision, we aim to be a talented, resilient, and inclusive community. We welcome applications from all and offer a variety of flexible working/job share opportunities. All applications are anonymised before being seen by the selection panel. As part of our fair recruitment process, we ask that all applications are written by the candidate and that Artificial Intelligence (AI) use is limited, unless assistance is required as a reasonable adjustment for a disability. Content should be truthful, accurate, evidence-based, and not embellished.