Role Summary & Benefits

At Gloucestershire, we are transforming the way we support children, young people and families through our Family Help approach. We are looking for passionate and dedicated Social Workers who want to work in supportive, collaborative multi-agency teams to create lasting change and help children thrive safely within their communities.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a progressive service that focuses on building relationships, delivering early support and achieving better outcomes for children and families.

We are currently recruiting for Family Help Social Workers and Family Help Senior Social Workers to join our locality Family Help teams. Gloucestershire covers six localities and we currently have vacancies in Forest of Dean, Cotswolds, & Stroud.

About us

For all your hard work. You will receive the following

between £40,444 – £42,123 per annum for a Family Help Social Worker or between £43,149 – £48,738 per annum for a Family Help Senior Social Worker subject to experience pro rata for part time
annual retention payment of £2,000*
welcome payment of £3,600*
up to £8,000 relocation package*
flexible and agile working opportunities
25.5 days annual leave rising to 30.5 days after 5 years continuous service
an option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part-time staff)
family friendly policies and benefits to help support you and your family
supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, 24 hours a day, online and by phone
an in-house Occupational Health service
employee discount scheme
Cycle to Work scheme
links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) and the Young Employees Network
career development and qualification opportunities
access to our Social Work Academy
paid SWE registration renewal

Right child, right support, right time, every time

We work together to support families and communities to give every child the best chance of a happy and rewarding life, especially those who need more help.

We have ambitious improvement and transformation plans to create the optimum conditions within which our staff can make a real difference and improve outcomes for children.

We aim for the same Family Help Social Worker to support children and their families from the front door until permanence is achieved either through positive change and the child remaining with their parent/s or legal permanence being secured either within the family or outside of the family.

We are a local authority adopting, and training all colleagues in, systemic social work practice. If you would like to join an authority that takes a relational approach to working with families and focuses on what needs to change in the system around a child and family to enable children to thrive, then consider a role with GCC.

Our team structures are designed to ensure there is the right level of support available to staff and that caseloads are kept at a manageable level with a Family Help Team Manager, two Family Help Team Leaders and 12 Family Help Social Workers and Family Help Leads making up each team’s full complement of staff. Each team is linked to a local Children’s Centre offering meaningful, cohesive services which reach into our community.

We believe families receive the best support when we work as a system. We have invested in a range of specialist services – all delivered in our localities – as we aim to get rid of internal referral forms and work collaboratively together to respond to need. The teams are supported with access to our innovative Intensive Intervention Teams, Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams, Harm outside the Home Hubs, and Early Intervention and Community Teams. This includes parenting practitioners, family group conference practitioners, intensive edge of care family support workers, adolescent support workers, adult employment practitioners, mental health providers, IDVAs and more.

We need resilient, driven individuals who will play their part in making our vision for Children’s Services a success. You will be joining an authority with a strong set of values that underpin the work we do: Accountability, Empowerment, Excellence, Integrity and Respect.

About you

As a Family Help Social Worker, you will be instrumental in delivering a first-class service to ensure the best outcomes for the children and young people of Gloucestershire. Through building collaborative, respectful relationships with colleagues within the service and partner agencies you will ensure we are able to provide support and protection for children and young people in need and at risk.

As well as your experience as a frontline social worker, there are some things we require of you to be successfully appointed to this post:

Social Work England registration
a recognised qualification in Social Work
to have passed your Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) if you qualified after 2012
to meet the requirements of the Children’s Social Care National Framework
a full driving licence and willingness to drive
DBS clearance (Enhanced Adults and Children’s)

If you would like to find out more take a look at the advert here: https://gloucestershire.jobs.hr.cloud.sap/GloucestershireCounty/job/Family-Help-Senior-Social-WorkerSocial-Worker-Glou/1365019655/

Key Responsibilities

– Manage a caseload with a high level of complexity and risk including those children subject to care proceedings and child protection plans.
– Act in a consultative role to less experienced social workers to ensure reflective practice in all single or multi-agency assessments, including the development of outcome focussed plans. This will include supporting less experienced staff with court proceedings, chairing core group and multi agency meetings, and facilitating family group meetings.
– Responsible for modelling a high standard of practice in relation to own casework, including good quality case recording and report writing.
– Provide mentoring and specialist consultation or advice to colleagues and other professionals.
– To undertake direct work with children, young people and families in order to manage risk and achieve the sustained and positive outcomes identified in assessments and plans.
– Attend relevant meetings which require high level professional input.
– Maintain and facilitate professional working relationships with all stake holders to ensure the effective delivery of services.
– Support advanced practitioners to improve social work practice.
– To undertake training and development as required including on going post qualification professional development.
– Be accountable for own practice ensuring it is of high quality and reflect bests practice.
– Support, promote and safeguard the welfare of children and young people.