Senior Practitioner

What's involved with this role: Interim Senior Practitioner – Children’s Social Care Reference no: Durham 1003366714835685 Pay rate: £181.02 per day PAYE Hours per week: 35-37 Monday – Friday, normal working hours This opening assignment is for 1-2 months City: SEAHAM, County Durham Enhanced DBS required for this role A Senior Practitioner is required to work within the Connected Carers Team. A skilled and competent social worker, who has experience of child protection and court work and has an interest in developing innovative care plans. Social workers in Children’s Services work with the most vulnerable children, young people and families and their expertise supports families, helps keep children safe and enables them both to thrive. Key responsibilities: Communicate clearly and sensitively, building effective relationships with children, young people and families and other professionals. Listen to their views and enable their full participation in assessment, planning, and review.
Build and maintain high quality and appropriate professional relationships with children, young people and families to enable positive change to take place. Support children, young people and families even they are angry, hostile and resistant to change. Manage tensions between parents, carers and family members, in ways that show persistence, determination and professional confidence.
Promote optimal child development and be alert to signs that may indicate that the child is not meeting key developmental milestones, has been harmed or is at risk of harm.
Identify the impact of adult mental ill health, substance misuse, domestic abuse, physical ill health and disability on family functioning, social circumstances and child development.
Carry out in-depth and ongoing family assessment of social need and risk to children, with particular emphasis on parental capacity and capability to change. Ensure that the voice of the child is heard, and that families and partner agencies contribute in a meaningful way to the assessment.
Make realistic, child centred, plans within a review timeline, which will manage and reduce identified risks and meet the needs of the child. Ensure that children, young people and families, and partner agencies participate fully.
Produce well argued, focused, and jargon free case notes, plans and reports e.g. single assessments and court reports. Present a clear analysis and a sound rationale for actions and conclusions.
Evaluate and review the development and progress of children, young people and their families against the agreed plan, monitor their changing needs and evaluate impact.
Social workers working in Child Protection and Disability services, Families First and Looked After Services will also lead the investigation of allegations of significant harm to children in consultation with other professionals and practice supervisors.
Use the law, regulatory and statutory guidance to inform practice decisions. Make use of the best evidence from research to inform the complex judgements and decisions needed to support families and protect children. NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity. Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for. Other “Essential Requirements” – Please check to ensure that your CV addresses the following items: Qualifications: Degree in social work or equivalent social work qualification, e.g. Post Graduate Diploma in Social Work (PDDipSW) Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (CQSW), Diploma in Social Work (DipSW), Certificate in Social Services (CSS).
Current Social Work England Registration. Experience & Knowledge: Experience of direct working with children and families.
Experience of evaluating, monitoring and developing the quality of childcare practice.
Knowledge of a range of social work theories relevant to the role.
Knowledge of the main social care services and resources provided by the statutory, voluntary and independent sector. Skills & Abilities: Ability to recognise own professional limitations and know how and when to seek advice.
Anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice and non-judgemental stance.
Able to work well under pressure.
Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite). ***Qualification details and any other experience/skills relevant to the job role to help support your application (and help us to help you!) – please give full details within your CV document. Unless the DBS requirement stated above is for a Basic Disclosure, your DBS must be either through us or be accompanied by a subscription to the DBS updating service. SC
1 Job Ref: Durham 1003366714835685 Anticipated Length of Assignment: Unless otherwise stated (we do carry the occasional permanent vacancy) all of our roles are technically temporary, though opening assignments can be and often are, extended by clients on a longer term basis and can sometimes become permanent. Please do try to resist contacting us with requests for progress updates. We really do read every CV sent to us. All applications will be acknowledged by a human, not a robot, provided the job remains live and provided your CV meets the “Essential Requirements” listed. Please note that we do our level best to take down ads as soon as roles have been filled. We are not in the business of harvesting CVs. Important: We will interpret your application as being permission to submit your CV to this role (with the right to represent you) unless you advise us to the contrary.