Advanced Social Work Practitioner - Children in Care

If you are considering your next professional opportunity and looking for an ambitious and highly motivated employer who is continuously striving for better services for children and young people, we can assure you Enfield is your next stop. Enfield is one of approximately 27 local authorities that implement the Family Safeguarding model alongside the Family First Reforms. Family Safeguarding is a whole family approach to working with children and families that supports parents to create sustained change for themselves and for their family. Motivational Interviewing is a method of practice that seeks to increase engagement and supports change. In Enfield we believe that through motivational conversations parents are empowered to identify and resolve difficulties and to make sustained changes for themselves and their children.

We are very proud of our Outstanding Service and Ofsted have said: “Children who are in care in Enfield receive outstanding care and support from social workers and carers who know them very well. Experienced and highly skilled social workers understand children’s needs, wishes and feelings very well. Manageable caseloads allow workers to visit children very frequently, in line with their needs. Workers undertake thoughtful, sensitive direct work and life‑story work to help children to make sense of their life stories, to process any trauma they may have experienced and to understand more about their unique identities.”

As a member in our Children in Care Teams, your role will be to support children living with relatives, friends or foster families and perspective adopters or older children living in children's homes and semi‑independent units. You will build sustainable relationships with them and plan for their permanence. You will be responsible for ensuring their safety and support them take the necessary steps towards independence. Through regular visits, assessments and reviewing their Care Plan, you will nurture and develop meaningful relationships with these children and young people, understand and interpret their wishes and champion and support them to reach their full potential. You will also be required to prepare reports and attend court and have experience in managing care proceedings.

Family Safeguarding Supervision creates a space for reflective discussions for all staff involved in working with a family. It facilitates information sharing and joined up support for family members, strengthens the ability to predict and prevent harm and enables shared decision making and ownership of better outcomes for children and families.

This is a great opportunity to join an excellent service that works together with families to achieve positive outcomes for children and young people. We are in an exciting period of transformation with our new integrated family help teams having recently gone live. The Family Help Teams will be supported by a developing, strong MACPT (multi‑agency child protection team) that will be going live towards the end of the year.

Our leadership culture is grounded in openness, learning and shared responsibility, with a commitment to supporting staff with their wellbeing, alongside professional development and achieving best practice. You will be joining a service that has high standards, values professional curiosity, collective accountability and innovation, creating the conditions for everyone to do their best work to achieve positive outcomes for children and families.

If you would like to know more about the role, please contact Zoey.dickson@enfield.gov.uk for an informal discussion or to arrange a visit to the team.

Enfield’s Social Care Centre of Excellence confirms our commitment to creating and maintaining an environment for new and existing staff to be the best and deliver high quality social work to our most vulnerable children and young people. It brings our recruitment, professional development and support into the one portal for social care staff to see what we have to offer and how we are supporting them to continue to learn and develop on a professional basis.

This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share in this commitment.

Why it's great to work for Enfield Council:

• An excellent pension through the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
• Up to 32 days annual leave depending on grade and length of service. You will also get eight public holidays per year and an extra day off at Christmas.
• A blend of remote and office based working for most roles.
• Interest free season ticket loan repayable over three or ten months.
• Career development and learning experiences from a range of training courses and learning methods.
• Employee Assistance Programme to provide advice and counselling services. This is a free and confidential service available to staff and members of their family.
• Health and leisure discounts and tax‑free bikes for work.
• 1 month paid sabbatical for Children’s Social Workers.

We are passionate about our people and how we deliver services to our community in Enfield. That’s why we encourage a culture that puts our customers at the heart of everything we do - by empowering our people to work together to find solutions, be open, honest and respectful, take responsibility and listen and learn. If you value these behaviours too, we’d love to hear from you - and of course we are always happy to talk flexible working.