Advanced Social Worker in Coventry

Overview

Warwickshire\'s Children in Care Team is offering an exciting opportunity for an Advanced Social Worker to join us on a 2-year fixed term contract or secondment. This role is ideal for someone passionate about permanency, relational practice, and innovative approaches to supporting children in care. You\'ll play a key role in strengthening our corporate parenting offer and driving forward permanency planning across the service.

Responsibilities

• Tracking and progressing permanency plans for children in care, including adoption, Special Guardianship Orders (SGOs), and long-term fostering.
• Providing expert advice and co-working with social workers to complete permanency paperwork and navigate complex planning processes.
• Championing permanency options and promoting best practice across the service.
• Maintaining and developing our permanency tracker, evidencing impact and outcomes for internal and external scrutiny.
• Collaborating with the Corporate Parenting Head of Service to: Research and implement new strategies (e.g., sibling separation assessments, open adoption policy); Develop guidance around placement disruptions and performance improvement; Work with health services to promote the health and wellbeing of children in care; Organise events for children in care and care-experienced young people (e.g., summer residentials); Support data quality and contribute to updates of care planning and corporate parenting procedures.
• Creating links with boarding schools, supporting social workers and children to explore new and aspirational care pathways.
• This part of the role focuses on supporting safe, meaningful, and child-centred family time between children and their birth families, adoptive parents, or special guardians.
• Assessing and coordinating family time arrangements, ensuring they are safe, appropriate, and emotionally supportive.
• Facilitating and mediating meetings, promoting positive relationships and conflict resolution.
• Providing emotional support and guidance to all parties involved in contact.
• Role-modelling attuned parenting and play, ensuring Family Time is a nurturing experience for the child.
• Conducting risk assessments and monitoring family time arrangements for safeguarding concerns.
• Working closely with multi-agency partners, including therapeutic services, education, and legal teams.
• Contributing to reviews, planning meetings, and court proceedings with specialist advice and written reports.
• Delivering training and support to adoptive parents and special guardians.
• Helping birth families understand their rights and responsibilities in maintaining family time.
• Maintaining accurate case records and supporting the development of post-adoption and SGO contact policies.

Key Requirements

• This role is Countywide so there will be some travelling within Warwickshire and also beyond Warwickshire to children and young people placed further afield.
• The role will be primarily undertaken within office hours however agile working will be required, with some evening work depending on the needs of families.
• Applicants for the role will need a professional Social Work qualification and Social Work England Registration.
• If you are looking for a role and embrace a challenge and have experience of and a passion for working with children and young people in care, we look forward to hearing from you.
• If you want to build strong relationships and connections with families, join Warwickshire\'s Children and Families service.

Additional Information

• The Fluency Duty is outlined in the Code of Practice on the English language requirements for public sector workers. The Fluency Duty for this role is Required. You must be able to speak and provide advice in accurate spoken English to the public.
• Working for Warwickshire - Warwickshire County Council is a place where everyone feels valued, included, safe, supported, and welcome. Our people are at the heart of this vision. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults.
• Please be advised successful applicants will be subject to a range of pre-engagement checks, including a relevant Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS). In accordance with the DBS code of practice and our own policy, should an individual have a declared criminal offence an individual assessment will be completed. Warwickshire County Council adheres to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
• Your future matters to us. We provide a generous pension scheme which includes an employer contribution rate of typically around 19 percent per month, to help support your financial security during retirement. The scheme also offers a valuable package of benefits for members and their dependants. To find out more please visit the Warwickshire Pension Fund homepage. The benefits we offer include agile working, a valuable part of the pay and reward package for employees working in local government, generous annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays and an additional day at Christmas, and access to Vivup benefits and discounts platform.