Senior Practitioner AST North in Gravesend

Do you want to work in a Good Local Authority? Ofsted have recently inspected Kent and were impressed with the Adolescent Service response and support to children at risk of contextualised harm. We are now looking for social workers who can lend their skills and experience to help us build on our successes.

The Integrated Adolescent Service recognises that adolescents should be given a bespoke offer of support. We want professionals capable of bringing understanding and emotional intelligence to everything they do. The service promotes a practice philosophy which seeks 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.

Our practitioners need to be resilient and persistent; be solution-focussed; look past challenging behaviours; build positive relationships with adolescents and their carers, and to inspire young people to reach their potential. We want practitioners who really care about adolescents and who understand the impact of trauma, and how to respond to contextual harm.

About us: AST sit within an Integrated Adolescent Service which includes Youth Justice, Early Help, and Family Hub Youth Services. AST offers intensive social work support to adolescents and their families to manage complex situations including extra familial harm and family conflict. We offer co-working and co-location opportunities, and we have excellent relationships with key partners including Housing, Education, Health and the Police. We have posts available across the North and West of Kent. Our team covers Gravesham, Dartford, Maidstone and Swale Districts.

Our generous retention package is up to £3,000 per annum, after a qualifying period. In addition, eligible employees will receive a car allowance of £2000 per annum. In specific circumstances a golden hello payment of £3,000 is available. Successful applicants will receive a base level salary starting from £45,672 dependent on evidenced skills and experience.

We have invested heavily in our core offer to staff, including evidenced based training in case formulation, contextual safeguarding and trauma-informed approaches. We also offer regular supervision to practitioners and managers to enhance how we support our workforce. Alongside this we promote flexible working, a good package of annual leave and employee support in recognition that all staff do a valuable job, and we wish to promote their wellbeing.

About you: With a degree in social work - CQSW, DipSW or equivalent - you must be Social Work England registered and should have substantial post-qualification experiences of working with children and families. You will need an interest in working with children who have experienced adverse life events, or trauma. You will need an in-depth understanding of Children's social work legislation, along with a willingness to learn and help others develop as a practitioner.

Your role will involve building up trust with hard-to-reach young people, empowering them and their families to develop effective long-term solutions to manage their family relationships and develop strategies to overcome the risks that adolescents face during this phase of their life. Where it is not safe for young people to remain living at home, we will continue to work with them and their families as well as their wider network to identify suitable safe alternatives.

This role will uniquely provide you with experience in working across the areas of assessment, children in need, child protection, contextual harm, looked after children, court work and rehabilitation home. We believe that this will provide you with a wide spectrum of skills and we are committed to putting in place personalised development plans with our workers to enable them to feel valued and supported in their career development.

In this respect we’ll support you to consolidate your skills and knowledge, assisting you to develop areas of specialist practice, including trauma-informed practice and contextual safeguarding. As a role model for good practice and champion for your area of expertise, you’ll set performance expectations, striking a balance between support and oversight.

As well as coaching and mentoring less experienced staff, you’ll have the opportunity to act as a Practice Assessor for ASYE and student social workers. You’ll share your knowledge and experience with the team in several ways, including assisted fieldwork, case audits and reviews. In addition, you’ll contribute to working groups and multi-agency forums to develop new initiatives.

In the Team Manager’s absence, you will be expected to provide management support to colleagues and act on the Team Manager’s behalf. This role is in area team and requires you to be mobile throughout a wide operational area.

This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure application to the Disclosure and Barring service and registration as a qualified Social Worker with Social Work England. This role is subject to holding a Full UK Driving Licence - The Council is committed to making reasonable adjustments so whilst this job requires the jobholder to drive your application will still be considered if you are unable to drive due to a 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.

Contact Details For more information about this role please contact Ruth Bachrach, Service Manager on 03000 410013 or email ruth.bachrach@kent.gov.uk

About the Company Work that works for you and us - let’s talk flexibility! KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county’s working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds, faiths and those with caring responsibilities, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work.

Please note - if you are interested, please apply soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.