Social Worker - Children in Care in Ely

We are looking for a passionate and enthusiastic Social Worker who has the child’s voice at the heart of everything they do to join us in our South Children in Care Team! Our aim in Children in Care is to achieve permanence for children and young people who become Looked After and to ensure that they are in a home which meets their needs, reflects their right to safety and security, and encourages them to reach their full potential at every stage of their development. We encourage all Looked After children and young people to meet their full educational potential and to promote both their physical and mental health.

This is a hybrid role with a mix of office and home working alongside visits. The office base for the position is Noble House in Ely.

Day-to-day responsibilities of a Social Worker in Children in Care include:

• Act as the lead professional and ensure all matters in respect of safeguarding are dealt with promptly, effectively and in line with child protection procedures, escalating where necessary.
• Undertake assessments to identify and respond to needs, building on strength and ensuring that analysis is robust and leads to clear outcomes that can be met through SMART targets.
• Engage with children, young people, and their families or carers to develop effective and empowering relationships which facilitate change and improve outcomes.
• Produce reports and plans for a variety of forums, including court, which are child focused and reflect their experience.

We're looking for a confident and dynamic individual who enjoys making a difference in their local community, is curious and spots things that others might not see, enjoys building relationships and likes to explore possibilities.

You must:

• Be a qualified Social Worker with a Social Work England registration
• Have the ability to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage:

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• 6 days of protected time each year to support in maintaining your Continuous Professional Development
• A relocation package (eligibility applies)
• A pay progression scheme to enable you to accelerate through the pay grade as you gain experience and skills
• Scalable retention payments of up to £8,392 over a 3 year period, starting after your first full year of employment
• A Refer a Friend Scheme where if you refer another Social Worker to us who is subsequently employed by us as a result of that introduction, we’ll pay you an introduction fee of £350
• Access to our Cambridgeshire Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) who will support your development, enabling you to become the best practitioner you can be

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes. Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do. We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities.

We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager to discuss any adjustment needs.