Advanced Practitioner

Life-changing work. Game changing support. Our Social Workers make a huge difference to the lives of people across our county, and we remain passionate about investing in retaining our own and developing practice. This is an exciting opportunity which offers just that.

If you are looking for more responsibility, a supportive role with your colleagues whilst continuing to support and safeguard some of our most vulnerable/high risk children and young people, then this could be just for you. We have some exciting new opportunities for experienced social workers available with us across East Staffordshire.

We are looking for qualified social workers with post qualifying experience to work in the fast paced duty team. There is a very supportive and friendly culture within the district. A career progression framework is in place to support you which also includes:

• Practice Educator Programme.
• Aspiring Senior Practice Lead and Aspiring Team Manager programmes.

We are ambitious in our learning and development programme with strong links within the West Midlands and our teaching partnership.

Main Responsibilities

You will:

• Manage a complex allocation of children.
• Attend strategy meetings, undertake s47 enquiries to ensure children are kept safe.
• Complete initial visits and child and family assessments.
• Share in day-to-day care management tasks with the team manager, promoting a restorative approach to working with children and families, making decisions and providing advice and guidance to social workers with regard to child in need, Child Protection and Child in Care and Care Proceedings, in consultation with the manager, complex Child in Need meetings.
• Promote effective multi agency service delivery, and restorative practice with partner agencies.
• Ensure the teamwork towards achieving key service delivery objectives to ensure satisfactory team performance against key performance indicators.
• Mentor Social Work colleagues through assistance with complex cases including Care Proceedings work to support the professional development of newly qualified social workers.
• Be responsible for the provision of practice placements for students and support social workers undertaking the practice assessment and workload management of social work students in the team.
• Provide professional supervision to unqualified staff (including students and sessional workers) including identifying training needs.
• Lead on or contribute to projects as directed by the team manager.

The Ideal Candidate

You’ll be:

• Qualified Social Worker with post qualifying experience.
• Registered with Social Work England.
• Have a current UK driving licence and vehicle.

But above all, you’ll bring the desire to work with children and families to give them the right support, at the right time with the aim of keeping families together where it’s safe to do so.

Don’t feel you meet all the requirements? We value transferable skills, experiences, and qualifications so consider applying anyway or for an informal chat please contact laura.kirkpatrick@staffordshire.gov.uk.

Interview date: week commencing 9 February 2025.

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values: The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively. Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy: We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future. We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits: We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance. In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire.

Our recruitment process: As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities. As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.