Team Manager Looked After Children in Leicester

Are you committed to providing high-quality aspirational Services for Leicester City's children who are Looked After? We have the rare opportunity to join the Looked After Children's Service Management Team as a Team Manager. This is a permanent full-time post working Mon-Friday, 37 hours per week.

The service works with children and young people who are Looked After by the Local Authority in foster placements, family kinship arrangements, residential homes and supported living arrangements once Care Proceedings have concluded.

As part of the Service, you'll join a supportive and dynamic team who are committed to our children and young people supporting them in their ambitions, maintaining and building relationships with families and networks, understanding their experiences, navigating change, achieving stability and keeping them safe. We use Signs of Safety as a model of intervention with a strong focus on working in partnership with families, building relationships through trauma informed practice. We are proud to be one of the first local authorities to be integrating the Lundy Model of Participation across all our children's services. We are committed to anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice with our families.

We are committed to supporting your professional development and emotional wellbeing. We have a comprehensive learning and development programme with support to progress your career and follow your interests, and a range of initiatives to support wellbeing. We offer agile and flexible working that supports a healthy work life balance. You'll have the ability to work outside normal office hours and visit locations across the city.

As the Team Manager, you'll lead a team of social workers to ensure that practice is child focused, essential performance requirements which improve practice are met and assessment, intervention and planning are responsive to need and circumstance. You will be supported by an Advanced Practitioner in your team. Being a leader, you'll not only have practical leadership qualities such as organisation but put your people first. Motivating, inspiring and training your team so they can do their best work. Using your highly proficient communication and interpersonal skills from your experience of partnership working with evidence you provide high quality input, advice, and evidence to leaders to support key decisions and strategies. You will contribute to service development, practice and culture; leading by example and working with your peers. You will be responsible for the learning and development of your team; supporting students, ASYEs and progression in social work skills, knowledge and experience. You’ll ensure that the work in your team is compliant with statutory regulations, policy and service standards whilst maintaining appropriate administrative systems.

Applicants will need to be Qualified Social Workers and registered with Social Work England. The ideal candidate will have experience of management and leadership of teams, support and development of individuals and experience within a local authority frontline children’s service. You will have significant experience of working with children looked after, and an appreciation of the complexities this brings. This experience will be underpinned by research and evidence, including trauma informed practice. You will have experience of forming and maintaining constructive working relationships with colleagues both within and outside of the Department, with experience of working with diverse groups. You’ll have experience of prioritising and organising work, setting standards, and working to clear objectives, whilst having an in-depth knowledge of the issues affecting children who are looked after, their carers and networks. You’ll have knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations, procedures and standards. You also need to have the right to work in the UK and will be assisted to complete a DBS check.

As well as the satisfaction of helping to improve thousands of lives across Leicester, you can look forward to a work environment that encourages a healthy work/life balance. You’ll enjoy generous annual leave, membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and the option of flexible working. We’ll also give you the chance to develop your skills and expertise with a variety of training and development opportunities. In addition, you can choose from a number of flexible benefits, including discounts on city buses and trains and help with relocation to Leicester, where appropriate.

We’re committed to recruiting a diverse and highly-talented workforce as we continue to build a council that is fitting and representative of our great city. That’s why we’ve designed our recruitment process to put you at ease, make you feel welcome and bring the best out of you. We’ll do all we can to make our recruitment process as fair as possible.