Children’s Social Worker - Family Support and Protection

Location: LBTH Town Hall, 106 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BJ

About Us

We believe that the best place for children is to be raised within their own families, immediate or wider, wherever it is safe and appropriate to do so. In Tower Hamlets we are committed to building relationships and strengthening families by working with people in a compassionate and understanding way. We are ambitious for Tower Hamlets children and families and endeavour for every child and young person to be healthy, safe and successful. Tower Hamlets is a progressive, ambitious and diverse place to work. We place children and families at the heart of everything that we do and are relentless in our pursuit of positive outcomes for all.

Our Better Together Practice Framework is based on the ideas and concepts which underpin Restorative Practice and draws from other strength-based approaches, such as Systemic and Trauma Informed Practice. Our C-Change approach: Connect, Curious, Community, Co-Produce, Collaborate, Check, sets out “6 Cs” for our work with children, young people, their parents and carers, and each other.

About the Role

We are recruiting experienced social workers for our front door service in Family Support and Protection Teams. If you are passionate about building relationships with children and families at their first contact with Children’s Social Care, focused on working towards positive outcomes for children and have at least 1 year of post-qualifying experience in a statutory Children’s Social Care team, we would love you to apply.

Family Support and Protection Service (FSP) consists of 10 social work teams. Family Support and Protection undertake child in need work, child protection work, alongside court work. This enables social workers to gain a good understanding of statutory work, but we also work closely with schools, health and voluntary organisations that formulates good partnership working with the ultimate aim of safeguarding and supporting children, young people and their families.

About You

• Have working knowledge of the framework within which social care operates, inclusive of legislation and national guidance and procedures specific to this post.
• Have knowledge of statutory work with children, including children in need, child protection, children looked after and court work.
• Knowledge of different types of interventions in family support.
• A nationally recognised or other social work England recognised social work qualification.
• Have at least 1 year of post-qualifying experience in a statutory Children’s Social Care setting.

We’ve been working hard to make Tower Hamlets a great place to practice social work. We will help you to develop excellent social work practice, leading to career advancement at your own pace. We are committed to developing excellent practitioners and making Tower Hamlets an employer of choice.

We offer a competitive salary - £44,430 - £55,710 plus travel allowance of £1,280 per annum. We offer brand new state-of-the-art offices in the heart of the east end with great transport connections. We have fantastic transport links – Tower Hamlets town hall is directly opposite Whitechapel Station, putting all of London within easy reach of the town hall.

Our employees are put on the Local Government Pension Scheme. This is a career average salary scheme, so your pension benefits are guaranteed and do not depend on how investments perform. We pay into the fund on your behalf.

We have a generous annual leave entitlement starting at 29 working days, rising to 33 days with 5+ years' service, in addition to bank holidays and an additional 3 days at Christmas. We positively encourage flexible working and work life balance aimed at supporting individual employee requirements within the context of meeting service needs.

We have a number of money-saving schemes, including a rent deposit scheme (which offers staff an interest free loan to help pay rent deposits) and season ticket loan scheme (interest-free loans to help staff when purchasing travel season tickets).

You will also benefit from:

• A manageable and diverse caseload and good quality reflective supervision.
• Coaching and support from our well-established Learning Academy, and the opportunity to practice within our bespoke practice model Better Together, which encompasses restorative, systemic and trauma informed practice principles.
• Core, elective, flexible and specialist learning pathways, as well as clear development pathways for every stage of your social work career.
• Opportunities to develop your practice, with a clear framework for career development/leadership programme.
• Opportunities for agile/flexible working.

How to Apply

We have simplified our application process, please complete a short application on our online application system and upload your CV. Closing date: This role is closing for applications on the 26th June 2025 (midnight).

Test Stage: If successfully shortlisted, you will be invited to partake in stage 1 and 2 of the interview process (a group challenge and written exercise) on 4th July 2025. Interview: If successful in test stage 1 and 2, you will then be invited for a panel interview on the 14th July 2025. Please keep these dates free.

For further information regarding the role, please contact: Tower Hamlets vision for our borough is that: people are aspirational, independent and have equal access to opportunities; we are a borough that our residents are proud of and love to live in; and we are a dynamic, outcomes-based council using digital innovation and partnership working to respond to the changing needs of our borough. We want people who aspire to our TOWER values: Together; Open; Willing; Excellent; Respect.

Tower Hamlets has a zero-tolerance approach to, and works to eradicate, all forms of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital status, status as a civil partner, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and maternity and looks to employ a diverse workforce representative of those groups. We recognise that people can also be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class.

We are a Disability Confident Employer, which means applicants who declare a disability and meet the essential criteria for the post are guaranteed an interview. Care experience has also been adopted by the Council as an additional protected characteristic.

This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children. It replaces the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). Tower Hamlets Councils are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.