Operational Manager - Justice Social Work, St Martin\'s House, Perth - PKC13681

Working within Perth & Kinross Council is more than a job, it's about being part of an organisation that puts people at the heart of all we do and provides opportunities to make a real difference by enhancing every life we touch.

As an Operational Manager your role will be multi-faceted. You will provide supervision and support to the community operational team leaders in justice social work and work at a strategic level to support service developments and implement improvement plans in line with national legislation, policy and local drivers. Some of this work will involve you taking the lead role when working across partnerships and with stakeholders to agree and develop pathways towards improvement. This is an exciting role which involves working at a strategic level to influence and implement change including different ways of working across the justice system. You will also be involved in developing service improvements and guiding and supporting practice. Although you will be centrally based, this role involves working across Perth and Kinross and with partners out with the area.

We are seeking a confident and experienced social work manager with significant knowledge of the statutory justice social work system. You must be able to function independently as well as part of a team. As a manager you should be able to nurture the development of team leaders by empowering, supporting planning and decision making at an operational level while understanding the national justice landscape. You must also have the experience and ability to chair high-level, complex meetings of an operational nature, e.g. Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and Prevent Multi-Agency Panel (PMAP) and work alongside partners and stakeholders to identify, recommend and make systemic changes where required. You need to be flexible, creative and agile in your thinking and can embrace and implement change.

Essential Requirements:

• A social work degree or equivalent qualification, e.g. CQSW, Diploma in Social Work.
• Significant knowledge and experience of front line relevant social work practice in justice social work services.
• Proven experience of first line management tasks.
• Evidence of effective multi agency and partnership working.
• Evidence of an ability to lead and motivate staff and teams.
• Evidence of implementing effective quality assurance.
• Evidence of performance monitoring, team planning and identification of improvement actions and their subsequent implementation.
• Evidence of delivering improvement in culture, systems and practice.
• You must have a valid driving licence as this post requires you to travel to a variety of locations across Perth and Kinross.

Our values and behaviours influence our work and support us in the delivery of our key priorities. In your application, and should you be invited to interview, you will be asked to describe situations that support the criteria required in the role and which also demonstrate our values and behaviours.

Here's what we can offer you:

• A generous annual leave package
• 6 days public holiday and an additional discretionary day
• Eligibility to join our pension scheme
• Family friendly and positive work/life balance policies such as Flexible Working, Maternity, Paternity & Adoption leave, time off for volunteering and our Wellbeing Framework
• Access to a range of benefits
• Paid SSSC annual membership for relevant positions

We recognise there can be benefits to flexible working and where individual jobs allow, we seek to support this. You are encouraged to discuss potential options with the recruiting manager, if this is of interest to you. A healthy work life balance is important to us and we provide supportive management and, where possible, flexible working arrangements to help you achieve that balance. You will have access to training and support for continued professional development.

This role requires you to be registered with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), if you are not yet registered, you can still apply, as long as you are willing to apply for registration within 3 months of starting with us and be registered within 6 months.

Next Steps: We would love to hear from you and would encourage you to get in touch with Nicola Rogerson, Justice Social Work Service Manager on 07500 918051 to find out more.

External candidates are required to provide contact details for 2 referees, including email addresses. One of these must be your current or most recent employer. We welcome applications from everyone and as a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to interview applicants who declare a disability and meet the essential requirements of the post.

Diversity is important to us and although some of our jobs may be perceived to be traditionally gender specific, we welcome applications from everyone and would encourage you to apply if you meet the job requirements. That includes welcoming applications from former armed forces personnel/reservists.

Working with children and/or protected adults is regarded as a regulated role and under the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 you will be required to join the PVG Scheme or undergo a PVG Scheme update check. If you have lived overseas for a period of 12 months or more (continuous or total) within the last 10 years, an Overseas Criminal Record Check will be required. You will be required to provide this check.

A confirmed offer of employment and commencement in the post will be subject to the outcome of the above mentioned mandatory pre-employment checks (including references) and will also include eligibility to work in the UK, qualifications and fitness to undertake the post.