Practice Tutor (South Region)

Location: Hybrid (2 days in London Office) with travel expected across the South Region. Please note that travel to the London office is at your own expense.

Contract: Full Time, Permanent

The purpose of your role is to help us achieve our mission by recruiting qualified social workers with direct experience of working with children and families, and knowledge and experience of supporting social work students. We are looking for candidates who can contribute to the delivery of teaching across the year, support participants in their local authority hubs and supervise participants during the 2nd year of Approach Social Work. Practice Tutors (PTs) play a key role within the development and delivery of our social work curriculum, contributing knowledge and expertise to create a culture that promotes outstanding social work education. PTs are responsible for teaching and developing participants at the Readiness to Practice stage, regional teaching days and, in participant hubs within local authorities. PTs support four practice hubs, based within statutory children’s social care services. Each practice hub is led by a Consultant Social Worker (CSW). Core to the Practice Tutor role is the ability to provide support, challenge and guidance to participants and CSWs to ensure a high-quality practice learning experience.

Applicants need a good understanding of the social work role and can make links with adults’ and children’s services. To apply you need excellent social work practice skills, experience of developing others and a commitment to educating a new generation of social workers. This role provides the opportunity to genuinely align practice and theory. In doing so, you need to be committed to evidence-informed practice models and have an appetite for exploring different and innovative approaches to teaching these models.

Key Responsibilities

• Practice Learning of Participant Hubs: Use social work knowledge, theory, practice skill and experience to develop and support participants to become outstanding social workers. Visit practice hubs regularly and attend some hub meetings, deliver online practice seminars to your hubs and hold individual tutorials with participants. All teaching is a mix of face-to-face and online to both large groups and smaller multi-hub groups.
• Support participants' academic progress, provide detailed and timely feedback and mark assignments within set timescales to meet exam board requirements. Lead reviews of participants’ progress in line with programme timelines. Work closely with the participants to progress their journey through the programme. This will involve regular problem solving and emotional support.
• Consultant Social Workers: Support CSWs to lead the hubs, role model best social work practice and support effective practice educators. Use mentoring and coaching techniques to support CSWs to be effective in their leadership, management and practice educator roles. Support CSWs to hold consistently high-quality hub meetings that embed systemic practice, motivational interviewing and parenting interventions. Develop the CSWs’ skills and competence in the CSW role, using agreed competencies and development framework. Work with placement and partnership managers to ensure the CSW role is understood and valued in the local authority.
• Teaching: Teach for year one participants during the Readiness for Practice stage both in person and online, attend face-to-face regional recall days and whole cohort online teaching. There is also online teaching for our year 2 participants on the programme through large lectures, small seminars and one-to-one support as necessary. Provide high-quality hub teaching and supervise dissertations of 2nd year participants. Contribute to the development of teaching and learning materials and deliver content to the highest possible standard. Promote the Frontline practice models (systemic practice, motivational interviewing and evidence-informed parenting interventions) through all teaching. Remain up-to-date on research and practice developments, particularly in the field of child protection to provide relevant and targeted support to participants and CSWs. Demonstrate a commitment to knowledge generation through practice-based knowledge acquisition and research.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Experience and Knowledge: Qualified Social Worker in England (including up-to-date registration with Social Work England). Masters in Social Work and experience of practice or management in children and families’ social work OR Masters in any field, and significant experience of practice or management of children and families’ social work. Qualified in systemic family therapy, motivational interviewing or parenting interventions. Higher Education Authority (HEA) accreditation or relevant teaching qualification. Strong experience of working in statutory children and families’ social work setting. Experience of applying systemic and/or other social work models in social work. In-depth knowledge of child development and parent/carer factors affecting parenting. Evidence of continual professional development through informal and formal approaches. Experience of developing the knowledge and skill of others. Knowledge or experience working with the unit model.
• Characteristics and Skills: Ability to use everyday digital tools (such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and online systems) to support day-to-day work, with willingness to learn new systems as required. Has a clear vision for children’s social work, with a focus on quality and impact of practice. Committed to Frontline’s vision for social work. Adept at using feedback effectively and reflecting on self. Strong verbal and written communication skills. Able to motivate and inspire others, to describe a clear vision for social work. Good teaching skills to small and large groups. Active listening skills and the ability to demonstrate appreciation and empathy. Able to work autonomously with initiative and a solution-focused approach. Highly organised with a flexible approach to work and able to prioritise effectively to meet deadlines.

Benefits

• Flexible working hours
• Competitive pension employer contribution
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays + office closes from 25 Dec to 1 Jan
• Buy up to five days annual leave a year
• Interest-free loan for season ticket
• Personal coaching and mentoring
• Cycle loan scheme
• Deposit loan scheme
• Volunteering days
• Employee assistance programme
• Life Assurance Scheme (x3 salary)