Childrens Social Worker - Looked After Children Team

This is a great opportunity if you are thinking about career development as a level 2 or 3 Social Worker, and would like to take the next step in your career or wish to work with Leicester’s children in care.
This is an exciting time to be part of Leicester City’s ever-improving service ensuring children are at the heart of our work and to practice great Social Work. To help deliver our vision we are looking for an experienced Social Worker to join one of our teams who is enthusiastic, passionate and has a strong track record of working with children, young people and their families to achieve positive outcomes. You’ll play a key role in improving the life for families and children in Leicester.
We are leaders Signs of Safety as a model of intervention to support sound Social Work practice. In terms of developing practice and learning, you’ll have the opportunity to participate and take the lead in group supervision and mapping sessions on casework.
As part of our commitment to ensuring you achieve your full professional capabilities, you’ll benefit from furthering your skills and knowledge through appropriate leadership courses. At Leicester City Council we are committed to supporting your continual professional development and do this in a variety of ways.
We offer agile and flexible working that supports a healthy work life balance. You’ll have the ability to work outside normal office hours and visit locations across the city. We will also consider part time applications for this role.
What you’ll be doing
As an experienced Social Worker you will be working to achieve good outcomes for children in care aged 0-18 years old, supporting robust care planning and pathway planning and delivering on the statutory requirements for our Looked After Children. You will be supporting children and young people in foster care, residential care and supported living arrangements. We have a growing group of unaccompanied asylum seeking children and young people. Building strong relationships and enabling their voices to be heard will be key. We have a strong drive to support reunification plans to parents care where appropriate, and enable care arrangements to move towards special guardianship care arrangements if this is the right plan for them.
The social work you will do is diverse and rewarding making a difference to the lives of our Looked After Children and young people. You will be a role model of good practice sharing good practice ideas and practice wisdom within your team and service.
What You’ll need
You’ll have a significant post qualifying experience as a Social Worker. You’ll have knowledge of relevant child legislation, guidance standards and regulations as they relate to fostering, adoption and special fostering arrangements. With confidence, you’ll be able to confront challenges, balance risk and make appropriate decisions.
You must have recognised qualifications in Social Work e.g. CQSW, DIP SW or CSS, SWE registration, post qualification training and be a practice educator or willing to undertake training.
You also need to hold a full driving license and will be assisted to complete a DBS check.
What we can offer you
As well as the satisfaction of helping to improve thousands of lives across Leicester, you can look forward to a work environment that encourages a healthy work/life balance. You’ll enjoy generous annual leave, membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and the option of flexible working. We’ll also give you the chance to develop your skills and expertise with a variety of training and development opportunities. In addition, you can choose from a number of flexible benefits, including discounts on city buses and trains and help with relocation to Leicester, where appropriate.
Join us
We’re committed to recruiting a diverse and highly-talented workforce as we continue to build a council that is fitting and representative of our great city. That’s why we’ve designed our recruitment process to put you at your ease, make you feel welcome and bring the best out of you. We’ll do all we can to make our recruitment process as fair as possible.
For an informal discussion about this post, please contact Rachel.Heggs@Leicester.gov.uk.

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