Bradford Metropolitan District Council
Department of Children’s Services
Children’s Social Work Service
Experienced Social worker - with responsibility for Education in the MASH
Permanent Contract
£29,055 - £34,106 pa pro rata for part time posts.
What did the Ofsted JTAI (April 2017) inspectors say about Bradford?
· 'Leadership within children’s social care is effective and senior managers are creating a healthy environment in Bradford for effective social work to flourish’.
Here at Bradford Council, we understand the importance of having great leaders in our service. This not only allows us to provide the highest possible service but also helps us to develop our people to become the very best professionals. As an Experienced social worker you will have responsibility for MASH including CSE.
Experienced Social Worker
The Experienced Social Worker will be based in the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH Team). The Experienced Social Worker must have experience of a background in Child Protection and have a good understanding of Education policies and procedures. The Experienced Social Worker provides advice on policy & practice in relation to school attendance matters and behaviour and special educational needs and school admissions.
You will be expected to take incoming duty calls from Schools &educations professionals and advise on Education safeguarding issues. You will carry out Child Protection Transfer in visits with the allocated Social Worker to identify Schools.
The Experienced Social Worker also attends Child Sexual Exploitation Team, daily meetings. Also schools are contacted regularly for information for children on Risk review meetings. You will gather information on the child’s general well being, attendance and any changes in attendance pattern, behaviour, friendships/relationships, parental involvement and any CSE concerns.
The Experienced Social Worker delivers a presentation at the designated lead safeguarding training around MASH and referral process. You will attend Strategy discussions and professional meetings and to liaise with Missing Coordinator with regards to Schools where there are concerns around inappropriate reporting strategy.
We have placed ourselves on the forefront of innovation in social work, rethinking our approach and processes in order to maximise the impact of the social work practice we provide. We are one of the authorities that have secured funding from the DfE to be part of the England Innovations Programme. We’ve looked far and wide for what we believe are the best models for care for children and young people. Our intention is to provide inspirational care, tailored to the individual needs of the children and young people.
Bradford is the 4th largest Local Authority with a population of 530,000 of which 150,000 are children and young people, making us one of the key cities with a young age group population. To ensure we achieve even better outcomes for children and young people. We are on a journey to excellence; ensuring children are at the heart of everything we do.
Bradford is a dynamic and forward thinking council which is reviewing how it delivers our services to our customers in order to improve educational outcomes, protect vulnerable children and young people in the district, and reduce the effects of childhood poverty.
We have high expectations from our teams and it is therefore essential that they feel that they have the proper support in place, making them confident in their actions and the decisions they make.
Our Experienced Social worker will:
- Be Passionate about excellent social work practice.
- Hold a DipSW or equivalent qualification and are registered with the HCPC as a qualified social worker.
- Have at least 4 Years Social Work experience.
- Know what excellence looks like and champion best practice.
- Have a good working knowledge of Signs of Safety approach.
- Ability to support, develop and inspire others.
- Have excellent verbal and written communication skills and be able to make good decisions based on the information available, ensuring effective relationships with other professionals.
What do we offer as a Council? We provide numerous Employee opportunities and benefits including:
- A structured and practical based induction programme.
- CPD opportunities, including opportunities to take part in our leadership development programme.
- Regular supervision and annual appraisal of practice, ensuring clarity of purpose and providing an opportunity to take stock, raise ideas and obtain valuable and constructive feedback.
- Excellent training and learning opportunities, including opportunities to develop practice based on interests and passions, through our practitioner led forums.
- A culturally diverse workforce reflecting our communities.
What do some of our social workers say about working in Bradford Children’s Services?
“We are making differences to children’s lives by acting appropriately to risk”
“Workers support one another, as do the team managers and this helps us to keep the children as our focus”
What did the Ofsted JTAI (April 2017) inspectors say about Bradford?
- 'Leadership within children’s social care is effective and senior managers are creating a healthy environment in Bradford for effective social work to flourish’.
- Across partners there is commitment to continual improvement to offer a wide range of high quality services to meet the diverse needs of children and families.
As a local authority we also offer a variety of competitive employee benefits including generous leave entitlement, career average pension scheme with excellent benefits, access to a range of salary sacrifice schemes and discounts.
Relocation Package: A relocation package may be available for successful candidates who meet the criteria.
An enhanced disclosure check with the Disclosure and Barring Service will be undertaken for this post.
The Closing Date: 10th September 2018
For further information regarding this post please contact; Susan Tinnion Service Manager or Tasin Bayes Team Manager - Social Work on 01274 4365600 or email: susan.tinnion@bradford.gov.uk or tasin.bayes@bradford.gov.uk