AddressTerms & Conditions: Permanent, 37 hours per week
Department: Children’s Services & Education
Interview date: 25th March 2024
Includes vacancies in the following teams:
Children in Our Care
Duty & Assessment (Assessments & Child in Need)
Safeguarding & Support (Child Protection & Care Proceedings)
Here at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council we are changing the way we recruit our Social Workers…
We want to hear from you about what area of Children’s Social Work you are passionate about to ensure you are placed in a team with like-minded colleagues, providing the very best service to our children and families.
We are immensely proud of the team spirit engendered right across our service and we know that having supportive colleagues around you is what makes the difference – so we really want to encourage you to join us and become an essential part of our service.
Improving outcomes for children will be what motivates you – it is what motivates us too! To do this, we are committed to offering flexible working and ensuring you achieve a good work life balance. We also offer supportive and directive management and a commitment to a manageable workload. We asked our Social Workers why they like working for Blackburn with Darwen, the key themes were:
- It is a friendly place to work and all of the Children’s Services are situated within one building. The social work teams have priority parking outside of the building.
- We are keen to harness digitisation and have invested in technology for our Social Workers, to enable agile working and support innovative ways of undertaking direct work with children and families.
- You are valued, developed, supported and given the opportunity to grow. We offer comprehensive and bespoke training and induction package, which includes our Systemic Social Work practice model and the assessment of risk, Risk of Sexual Harm/Capacity to protect assessments. capacity to change, neglect, GCP2, and domestic abuse. We offer development days, workshops, one to one support sessions and mentoring.
- We have a well-established and supportive ASYE programme for newly qualified SWs, which includes protected caseloads and time, peer support sessions, and a dedicated mentor throughout your first year in practice..
- We commission CPD programmes delivered by UCLAN and Research in Practice
- As an enabler of change for children and families, there are a range of services available to enhance support to families. We are a unitary authority that is proud of its strong prevention offer, there is a range of services that wrap around children and families; We have been fortunate to maintain all 8 of our children’s centres; we have an Adolescent support unit, a dedicated family group conferencing team, an in house therapeutic team which is led by Clinical Psychologists, family support services, that provide intensive support including out of hours support.
- Whilst we are not going to shy away from the fact the work is challenging, it is also really rewarding and you will play such an important role in deciding what happens in our children’s futures – indeed, we just couldn’t do it without you. So we know you will understand why we want to make sure we get the right people with the right skills, attributes and abilities to join our service. Our assessment process for prospective candidates is really robust and our Children’s panel representatives play a key part in this.
We are based in Duke Street, which is a beautiful purpose built building with open plan office space, flexible seating arrangements, modern kitchen facilities and all the latest technology. There is also parking on site for a small contribution. So, what’s in it for you? Your commitment to your own professional development will be paramount - you will have access to approachable and supportive management who are committed to your ongoing development as we are keen to ensure you continue to develop a wide range of social work practice skills. It goes without saying that you will be Social Work England registered and have a thorough knowledge and experience of legislation, statutory guidance and regulations relating to children in need of support or protection.
The key requirements document outlines the Social Worker role across the service, but to find out more about our teams please visit Children's Services and Education | Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
If you would like to have a chat with someone about the role please feel free to email sandra.jackson@blackburn.gov.uk who would be happy to answer any of your questions.
