Social Worker - Duty and Assessment Service in Wigan

Join Wigan's Duty and Assessment Service and make an immediate impact. At Wigan, we designed our Duty and Assessment Service to give social workers the time they need to build relationships, complete high-quality assessments, and support children and families to achieve meaningful change. Our 5 week duty rota means duty responsibilities and case allocation are one week in every five, enabling social workers to spend the other 4 weeks focused on meaningful direct work with children and families. This is an exciting opportunity to join a supportive, stable service where children remain at the centre of everything we do.

Why Wigan? Our recent Ofsted inspection rated Wigan as Good with Outstanding features, recognising the strength of our practice and culture. Inspectors found that our teams are: "Highly positive about working in Wigan and value being part of the 'Wigan Way'." They also highlighted that: "Leaders have established a culture that combines high expectations with kindness and inclusion. Staff feel valued and supported, and high-quality personal supervision promotes reflection and professional growth."

When you join us, you can expect:

• Duty responsibilities and work allocation takes place once in every five weeks giving time to undertake assessments, relationship-based practice and direct work
• Over 96% permanent staff across Children's Social Care
• Permanent Team Managers providing consistent support and leadership
• Opportunities to become a Practice Educator or Mentor, with additional payment
• Progression opportunities into Senior Social Worker roles
• Access to our Aspire to Lead programme for aspiring leaders
• A full month of professional development each year, delivered through our practice fortnights
• Flexible and blended working arrangements

About the Role: As a Social Worker within our Duty and Assessment Service, you will work with children and families at a crucial point in their journey. You’ll undertake child and family assessments, respond to safeguarding concerns, identify risk and need, and work collaboratively with families and partner agencies to ensure children are safe and supported to achieve positive outcomes. Our model allows practitioners to move beyond crisis response and focus on meaningful assessment and intervention. With duty responsibilities only every five weeks, you’ll have the opportunity to spend time with children, understand their lived experiences, build effective relationships, and create plans that lead to lasting change. You’ll be joining a team that values professional curiosity, reflective practice, strengths-based approaches, and high-quality social work.

About You: Our children and young people have told us they want social workers who are:

• Kind
• Thoughtful
• Responsible
• Flexible
• Someone who listens to them and spends time with them
• Committed to helping them be happy, safe and achieve their potential

We are looking for qualified social workers who share these values. You will:

• Be a qualified Social Worker registered with Social Work England
• Be confident in undertaking assessments and managing risk
• Be committed to relationship-based practice and achieving positive outcomes for children
• Demonstrate strong analytical, assessment and communication skills
• Be motivated to work collaboratively with families and partner agencies
• Embrace learning, development and innovative ways of working

If you're looking for a new challenge and want to work within a service that values high-quality practice, professional growth and the wellbeing of its workforce, we’d love to hear from you.

About us: We understand that for great social workers to stay with us we need to invest in your career, which is what we will do from day 1. No matter what stage of your career we have a career pathway that will support you to achieve your aspirations. The Progress with Unity plan is a place movement for change for the next decade, bringing a new era for Wigan Borough. It draws on the strengths of our individual organisations, recognising that together we can achieve much more for our communities by delivering on our 2 place missions; create fair opportunities for all children, families, residents and businesses and make our towns and neighbourhoods flourish for those who live and work in them.

We are proud to support flexible working patterns, when the service can accommodate this. We also take a blended approach to where we work, depending on the work we do. This may include working from home, the office, or the community. We like to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment by giving them the opportunity to access a range of exclusive rewards and benefits to find out more about working for #TeamWigan.

To be appointed to this role you must be able to prove your right to work in the UK. Please visit the link below to check you qualify to apply. Please note, at present we are not a licenced sponsor.

Wigan Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment. Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. As part of this commitment, Wigan Council operates robust Safer Recruitment procedures.

If you would like an informal chat about this role, please contact Caroline Whitworth or Jenny Gibbons who will be happy to talk to you about the role available and our fast-track recruitment process can provide an interview within 2 weeks, if you meet the essential criteria. Please note, applications will be progressed on receipt, therefore the closing date may end sooner should vacancies be filled. This position is subject to Enhanced Disclosure Procedures plus child barred list check.