Adolescent Social Work Assistant in Ashford

Are you hardworking, committed, and passionate about helping young people and their families? Do you want to work in an Outstanding Local Authority? Ofsted have recently awarded Kent with an Outstanding rating in recognition of the service we provide to our children. Ofsted were impressed with the Adolescent Service responses and support to children at risk of contextualised harm.

The Integrated Adolescent Service recognises that adolescents should be given a bespoke offer of support. Many of the young people we work with have experienced developmental trauma and disrupted attachments, resulting in them being vulnerable to extra familial harm. We want professionals capable of bringing understanding and emotional intelligence to everything they do. The service promotes a practice philosophy which seeks to develop a secure trusting relationship to empower young people and their families, building on individual strengths, and helping them to develop strategies which support them to understand, manage and respond to the difficulties they face.

Work is mainly done with individual young people but can also involve work with siblings and families. Our practitioners need to be resilient and persistent; be solution‑focused; look past challenging behaviours; build positive relationships with adolescents and their carers, and to inspire young people to reach their potential. Our teams and our people are our greatest asset – if you want to make a positive difference you will be surrounded by like‑minded individuals who will support you and help you along the way. If you would welcome the opportunity to join a friendly team in a worthwhile and challenging role, we would like to hear from you.

Your role

Successful candidates will be paid £29,167 per annum. The successful candidate will receive quality regular supervision, specialist adolescent training and a case load tailored to your experience and skills. There are opportunities for flexible working arrangements and access to employee rewards packages. You will receive 29 – 30 days annual leave per year dependent on your previous years of Local Government continuous service. Bank holidays are in addition to this entitlement.

You will deliver 1:1 interventions with young people as well as working with their family as part of a systems‑led approach. You will need to demonstrate an ability to engage with children, young people, their families and carers, coupled with the integrity to work within a confidential, professional environment. You will contribute towards assessments of young people and their carers to determine their needs and capabilities as well as draw up plans of support. Using strengths‑based and solution‑focused intervention methods, you will seek to mediate, reunify, and promote young people remain safely at home with their family and support networks. You will support young people to express their wishes and feelings, providing them with advocacy wherever necessary. You will be asked to contribute towards safety planning, as well as linking young people in with partner agencies to ensure their needs are met in a holistic way.

The work will be challenging but rewarding and you will be given opportunities to develop specialisms according to your areas of interests in family work. Applicants will need to be able to work as part of a team including building positive working relationships with professionals in the Youth Justice, Adolescent Early Help Units, Family Hubs and Adolescent Support Team social workers. You will need to have an understanding of multi‑agency work.

This post, alongside creativity and good communication, requires flexibility, innovative thinking, and good organisation skills and also requires a positive young person centred approach. You will need to enjoy working with adolescents with a range of difficulties and draw upon various theories in order to bring about change.

A high standard of written English is an important requirement as all team members must be able to produce a good standard of report writing and maintain accurate, comprehensive written records. You will also work with families to draw up genograms, compile chronologies and other forms of case summaries. Excellent organisational skills, communication and IT skills are therefore essential.

You will have experience of working with children, young people and families in a similar role or setting. You will have an NVQ Level 3 in childcare or equivalent. The ability to travel around the area is also an integral part of this role as we cover a wide geographical area and part of your duties will involve visiting families at home.

We welcome applicants who meet the criteria regardless of their sex, age, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability.

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer‑facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification. This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure Application to the Disclosure and Barring Service.