Senior Social Worker – Children in Care

Are you ready to take your next step as a Senior Social Worker with a welcoming team that is dedicated to developing meaningful careers for all their staff? Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Children and Family Services Team is seeking experienced ‘Senior Social Workers’ who are truly passionate about making a lasting impact on the lives of children in care. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to take on a rewarding role with great support for your continued professional development.

About the role

As a Senior Social Worker you will create long-term plans for children in care. You’ll take a central role in permanency planning with a focus on pathways to adoption, special guardianship orders, and other long-term solutions that represent the very best outcomes for children. You’ll lead on the completion of statutory duties, ensuring plans are meticulously tailored to each child’s individual needs and aspirations. Your role will also involve direct engagement with children, fostering restorative relationships to help them understand their journeys and achieve their permanency goals. Collaboration is central to success in this position, as you will work closely with the Contact Service to promote meaningful family connections and strong support networks for children transitioning to independent living. Your experience will be crucial in providing guidance and mentorship to ASYE social workers and less experienced team members, fostering their professional growth and instilling confidence.

The ideal candidate

You will be a qualified Social Worker and registered with Social Work England. It is also essential for success in this position to have a proven track record in permanency planning and adoption. You’ll possess a deep understanding of childcare legislation, including ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children,’ and demonstrate confidence in building effective relationships with children, young people, and families. You’ll also have the ability to inspire confidence and lead by example, mentoring less experienced team members and supporting them to reach their full potential.

Why join Stoke-on-Trent?

The Children’s Social Care teams at Stoke-on-Trent are a close-knit group and provide a supportive and friendly work environment for our colleagues. We offer generous salary packages as well as fantastic professional development opportunities. Our training packages are hugely comprehensive, with programmes to help you develop into management roles. Many of our Senior Social Workers progress through to Team Manager roles using the skills and tools they develop at Stoke-on-Trent to work restoratively with families. We provide a broad range of health and wellbeing support, such as access to mental wellness support, as well as to staff equality and diversity networks. Flexible working opportunities are also on offer, providing you are available to fulfil the duties of your role.

Want to find out more and apply?

It’s great to know that you are interested in working with us at Stoke-on-Trent City Council. As a potential employee, everyone who works for us must be committed to our stronger together vision ensuring we are working together to create a stronger city we can all be proud of. If you are passionate about children and young people getting the right help at the right time, about listening to their voices, and about working in partnership with families and wider networks, then we would very much like to hear from you.

For an informal discussion about this role, please contact a member of our team: Sara Banks, Head of Service; Emma Bickley, Principal Manager.

Additional information

Please note that sponsorship to work in the UK may be considered for this role upon a successful interview. This role may close earlier than the advertised deadline if we receive a high volume of applications. We will be shortlisting on a rolling basis, with interviews taking place bi-weekly on Wednesdays. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and we expect all our employees and volunteers to share this commitment. This position is exempt under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the successful applicant will be subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Stoke-on-Trent City Council values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this – we therefore encourage applications from all sections of our community. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees – a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed together. Please note that if an employee who is currently at risk of redundancy within the organisation applies for this vacancy their application will receive priority. If this happens you will be advised accordingly.