Social Workers

Our Family Safeguarding teams are dedicated to improving the outcomes of Children and Families within West Berkshire. If you are passionate about supporting families to make sustained change and share our drive to keep more children safely at home with their families then this could be the role for you.

We have exciting opportunities for Social Workers to join our East and West Family Safeguarding Teams.

We are Ofsted rated ‘Good’ and aspire to work towards an ‘Outstanding’ rating with Ofsted stating that West Berkshire Council has “A strong, stable and child-focused leadership team that has continued to improve services for children and families in West Berkshire”.

Come and join us to be part of our journey of further improvement and dedication to the children of West Berkshire.

The role

• Utilising the Family Safeguarding Model you will work in collaboration with other specialist workers including Domestic Abuse Practitioners, Recovery Workers and Mental Health Practitioners to offer group based interventions to families.
• Adopting a strengths based approach and applying motivational interviewing techniques you will work with our families to identify what changes need to be made in their daily life and support them to achieve these.
• You will have the opportunity to work directly with children to understand what’s important to them.
• Your work will take a holistic view of the individual across both their immediate and extended social circles, having full regard to their overall development needs.
• You will access high quality reflective supervision within a multi-disciplinary forum to strengthen information sharing and decision making.

The ideal candidate would have the following skills and attributes

• You will hold a recognised Social Work qualification and registration with Social Work England.
• You will hold a current driving licence and have use of a car.
• You will need good organisational and planning skills.
• You will have experience of managing levels of risk within a caseload of complex cases.
• You will be able to demonstrate knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations, guidance and policies.
• You will have excellent stakeholder management skills, being able to build effective relationships with colleagues, individuals and external organisations.
• You will have effective skills in managing conflict and disagreement.

Our offer to you

A competitive salary alongside a range of benefits including:

• A golden hello payment of £3k after one year in post
• A retention payment of £2k after two years of service
• A further retention payment of £3k, plus a four week paid sabbatical after three years’ service
• Flexible Working: West Berkshire has adopted a Hybrid Working Policy, which allows employees to split their time between attending the workplace and working remotely
• Free Parking
• Social Work England registration fees reimbursed
• Dedicated employee wellbeing service with Employee Assistance Programme offering a great range of discounts at a variety of retailers, services and everyday spending.
• Regular and high quality reflective supervision.
• Approachable and visible senior leadership
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Generous annual leave allowance, plus an additional 5 days leave after 5 years continuous local authority service
• Relocation package for individuals moving from outside a 30 mile radius (subject to eligibility)
• Blue Light card fees reimbursed

All roles are subject to an annual banding pay review until the top of the pay grade is reached (following successfully passing probation) All roles will be eligible for the annual national pay award.

Please note that the closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

If you interested in working with us and want to know more, we would love to hear from you. Do not hesitate to contact Sonia Harris, Service Manager on 01635 519785 for an informal chat about this role.

The Council supports Equal Opportunity of employment, and positively encourages applications from people who fall within any of the nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

Please now complete a short online application form. You will then be able to upload your CV, if you do not have a CV please download our full application form below, complete and upload that instead.

Where possible please use Google Chrome as your preferred internet browser to complete your online application form. This system no longer supports the use of Internet Explorer as a browser which will cause issues when trying to submit your application.

This role requires the incumbent to have a car available at work to undertake his/her duties as they will be expected to undertake at least 1500 business miles per year. Essential Car User status attracts a lump sum allowance paid on a monthly basis as well as a free car parking space if he/she works at one of the Council’s corporate buildings.

This role has been identified as public facing in accordance with Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016; the requirement to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in English applies.

West Berkshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all its staff and volunteers to share these values. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect this commitment. Successful candidates will be offered employment subject to Disclosure and Barring Service checks along with other relevant employment checks.

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