CHILDREN FIRST AND AT THE HEART OF ALL WE DO
DUDLEY CHILDREN'S SOCIAL CARE
The roles
SOCIAL WORKER
As one of our social workers you will:
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Be part of a value driven restorative organisational culture and practice framework that focus on relational ways of working WITH people on a high challenge, high support basis to achieve positive outcomes for children
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Join a small pod of social workers, managed by an experienced manager and supported by a team of pod coordinators to deal with routine administrative tasks enabling the social worker to concentrate on working with families
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Be supported by a dedicated Court Team that manages Public Law cases
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Be supported by a team of Advanced Social Work Practitioners from ‘s Dudley Centre for Professional Practice to develop your practice and meet your learning needs through opportunities for Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
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Manage caseloads dependent upon experience, grade of post and complexity of cases, utilising specialist knowledge for appropriate interventions, needs assessments, care planning and child protection investigations
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Be responsible for the children you are allocated to working in partnership with families, colleagues and partners to achieve the best possible outcome for them.
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Carry out high quality assessments, using child-centred, community focused, and multi-agency interventions to bring about positive change through developing effective relationships and to secure the best outcomes for children and young people
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Ensure children and young people are adequately protected in line with Dudley's Safeguarding People Partnership, directorate policy and procedures, and relevant legislation
NEWLY QUALIFIED SOCIAL WORKER PROGRAMME
As a newly qualified social worker you will:
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Be part of our ASYE programme. The Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) is the term used to describe a year-long programme of support to enable you to strengthen your professional confidence whilst you work in your first social work post
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Need to pass your ASYE to progress to a main grade social worker role
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Work together in a small pod of social workers
STEP UP TO SOCIAL WORK PROGRAMME
Step Up to Social Work is an intensive, 14-month, full-time government-backed and funded programme for trainee social workers.
Trainees will work in a local authority, gaining hands-on practitioner experience and academic learning.
Successful trainees will be awarded a postgraduate diploma in social work once they complete the programme, allowing them to register and practise as a social worker.
Bursary
Trainees will receive a bursary of £19,833 for the duration of the course.
This may be subject to change.
Apply here for Step Up to Social Work (you will be directed to WM jobs, please be aware Stoke City Council is the managing authority)
Eligibility criteria
Applicants must have one of the following in any discipline except social work from a UK higher education institution (or an approved overseas equivalent):
• a minimum 2:1 level 6 degree qualification, for example, a degree with honours or a graduate certificate
• a minimum 2:2 honours degree plus a higher degree (level 7 or above), for example, a Master’s degree or a Postgraduate Certificate in Education
Applicants must also:
• have GCSEs in English or English language and mathematics at grade C or above (or approved equivalent)
• have experience of voluntary or paid work with children, young people or families
• live in England
You can find out more about what qualification levels mean and the approved equivalents.
Applicants will need to provide evidence of their qualifications with their application.
Your application will not be considered if you do not meet all of the eligibility criteria, or if you cannot provide evidence of your qualifications.
Applicants should:
• have the emotional resilience to become an effective social worker
• understand social work theory and research
• be aware of the risk indicators of different forms of harm to children
• demonstrate intuition and logic in decision-making
• show the ability to record accurate child and family assessments
• have an understanding of the knowledge and skills statements for child and family social workers - which all applicants will be assessed against
• familiarise themselves with the Professional Capabilities Framework for social workers (entry level)
Step Up to Social Work trainees and other student social workers must complete an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check before being accepted onto the programme.
In Dudley the Step Up to Social Work is being delivered by the West Midlands Regional Partnership and University of Birmingham.
ADVANCED SOCIAL WORKER PRACTITIONER
Consistent with the Munro principles, the purpose of this role is to ensure high quality and effective social work practice across Dudley borough:
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Through the use of a restorative high challenge, high support mindset you will model, support and develop professional practice.
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An exemplary practitioner, you will provide constructive challenges to enhance social work practice, procedures, policies and standards; promote innovation and new ways of working; and support the team manager on day to day issues.
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Your role will improve the quality of work done by social workers including effective case management, purposeful evidence based interventions, analytical assessments and high quality written work.
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You will have, or be willing to develop, specialist knowledge of an area of child care practice, which can be used across the service.
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You will also represent the service in developing key service provision/local strategic initiatives.
TEAM MANAGER
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You will responsible for a leading and managing a team of staff including student social workers, newly qualified social workers undertaking their ASYEs, social workers, senior social workers and support staff. You will be responsible for modelling and developing a restorative team culture, empowering others to deliver a high standard of practice working with families to achieve the best possible outcomes for children.
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You will provide operational leadership, vision, motivation and direction by delivering service improvements within children’s social work.
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You will actively promote and contribute to the strategic developments for children and their families across Dudley borough.
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You will responsible for a team of staff from trainee social workers, ASYEs, social workers, senior social workers and support staff and accountable for ensuring the team achieves its operational plan: by promoting an appropriate culture: empowering others and setting and maintaining high and measurable standards of practice
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You will provide constructive and reflective supervision to a small team of social workers and will drive effective care planning which delivers measurable outcomes for our children and families