AddressBrighter Futures for Children
About us
Brighter Futures for Children is a not-for-profit company, owned by, but independent of, Reading Borough Council. Although we are independent, we are very much part of the Reading Family. Our people enjoy all of benefits as other Council employees including membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and continuous service.
We work closely with partners in the local community and key organisations including Reading Borough Council, policy, public health and voluntary groups. We are responsible for the delivery of children’s social care, early help & prevention, education services (including SEND). This also includes fostering and adoption, the Youth Offending Service and traded services with schools.
Our main aim is to protect and enhance the lives of the children of Reading. We help families find long-term solutions to ensure children lead happy, healthy and successful lives.
About the role
The Child Exploitation Team Manager has accountability for the overall operational management of the Team, including the supervision of specialist social workers who have statutory case holding responsibilities for children at risk of exploitation / extra-familial harm (including those children subject to Child in Need and Child Protection Plans). The post holder will ensure that through the ETAC (Exploitation Team Around the Child) process, timely trauma informed and engaged social work practice with young people and their families will be provided, and exploitation risks for such young people will be significantly minimised.
The post holder is responsible for ensuring that there is an effective response to all children who go missing in the Borough of Reading (including those Children Looked After placed outside of the Local Authority area), being responsible for the supervision of the Missing Children’s Co-ordinator.
Key responsibilities:
- To ensure effective delivery of our services for exploited and missing children, including identification, assessment, and service delivery, while ensuring all of our services fully comply with legislative requirements and are in line with relevant policies and procedures and performance targets.
- Chairing of ETAC meetings, tracking outcomes achieved for children, and ensuring that wider themes around exploitation are collated and shared up with senior managers and partners so there is tenacious follow through with staff and partners to ensure positive impact is achieved for children.
- Attendance at key partnership meetings to share data and provide intelligence in order to reduce risks to children.
- Collating data and providing data analysis for decision-making forums, including the One Reading Partnership.
- Working closely with the Reconnect Team, Youth Justice Service, and other external partners, to make a positive difference for children.
- Ensure effective delivery of a service in a specialised field in accordance with legislative requirements, all relevant policies and procedures and agreed performance targets.
- Provide advice and support in relation to complex cases; respond to complaints from service users/relatives/carers.
- Allocate and supervise workload to agreed service priorities; monitor case files, computerised records; deal with workload management issues as they arise.
- Lead a team of staff, including recruitment, induction, training and personal development, absence management, retention, grievance/discipline/capability, succession planning, work force planning.
- Undertake professional supervision of staff, including appraisals and staff development activities.
Our offer
We offer a supportive environment to grow and develop your career with the opportunity to put your ideas across. Innovation and ambition are strongly encouraged, and you’ll get a great feel for that working in our friendly and collaborative environment.
A competitive salary alongside a range of benefits including:
- A competitive salary alongside a range of benefits including:
- Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contribution
- Incremental holidays starting with 26 days plus public holidays (rising to 33 after 10 years’ service)
- Discounted Child Care (on site nursery)
- Cycle to work scheme.
- Season train ticket loans
- Salary Sacrifice Car Lease Scheme
- A range of local shopping discounts
- Remote/Agile working
For more information and a confidential discussion, please contact Dudley Foster on ollie.foxell@brighterfuturesforchildren.org
Inclusion and Diversity
We want Brighter Futures for Children to be a great place to work and to ensure that our children, young people and families are represented in leadership roles and positions of power. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking.
We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and those of Other Ethnicities, LGBT+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our children, young people and families so that equalities and justice remains at the heart of everything we do.
Asking for Adjustments
Brighter Futures for Children is committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions.
If you would like us to do anything differently during the application, interview or assessment process, including providing information in an alternative format, please let us know.
Closing date: 17 March 2024
Interview date: 25 March 2024
We look forward to hearing from you!
