Advanced Social Work Practitioners – Rotherham, South Yorkshire

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Children and Young People’s Services 

Salary details: Up to £43,570 & excellent benefits

Now is the time to come and work for Rotherham Council Children and Young People’s Service. For more information about Rotherham Social Care jobs, please visit: https://www.rotherham.gov.uk/childrens-social-work-jobs

Advert closes – 06/11/22

Shortlisting – 07/11/22

Interview – W/C 14/11/22

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

Our Children and Young People’s Service are currently recruiting an Advanced Practitioner, the “practice expert” in every child’s social care team.

Linking to the Principal Social Worker across the whole social care function, they play a key role in the development of other Social Workers and achieving the best possible practice standards for Rotherham children.

Developing learning solutions that enable specialisms in practice, designing and delivering bespoke packages of training; they will create a culture of learning and coaching that provides Social Workers with skills as trainers, mentors and coaches. 

The Advanced Practitioners of Rotherham have been acknowledged by Social Work England for encouraging social workers of Rotherham to actively record their CPD. This has led to them being in the 12% of practitioners in the country that are actively recording CPD. This has been achieved through excellent group supervision facilitated by the Advanced Practitioner which factors in time to complete the CPD. Social Work England are going to write an article on how this has been consistently achieved and is just one example of how Advanced Practitioners work to support social workers in their team.

Advance Practitioners in Rotherham will:

·       Have a reduced caseload

·       offer mentoring and development work for other Social Workers, including carrying out observed practice, direct teaching and co-working

·       embed Signs of Safety and Restorative Practice approaches in practice

·       develop their own practice and skills in training, coaching and mentoring and use these in operational teams, working with between six or seven other Social Workers, under supervision of Team Managers

·       lead (with peers) on the practice development agenda across the organisation, as a part of an Advanced Practitioner network led by Principal Social Worker

Key benefits of working at Rotherham Council’s Children and Young People’s service are:

• You will be joining an authority Ofsted rate as Good

• Manageable caseloads.

• Strong management support and oversight with approachable and supportive senior managers

• Regular reflective supervision

• Excellent professional learning & development opportunities – guaranteed 15 days per year, underpinned by the Rotherham Family Approach which incorporates ‘Signs of Safety’, ‘Restorative Approaches’, and ‘Social Pedagogy’ as our methodological approach and framework

• Bespoke Learning Academy to support practitioners

• Excellent social work case management and reporting systems making your job easier

• An accredited social work career pathway to Level 2, 3 and Advanced Practitioner positions and a proven record of ‘growing our own’ at all levels.

• A positive learning environment to enhance your social work career.

• Opportunity to talk to current staff via a virtual drop in to gain a greater insight

• Able to offer fixed term contracts to cover maternity leave should that suit your personal circumstances

Now is the time to come and work for Rotherham Council Children and Young People’s Service. Help us achieve our ambition to become outstanding in all that we do. We are committed to making sure that every child makes the best start in life, and we are striving to become a child-centered borough. Rotherham is a great place to live and work.

Our USP is the quality and extent of the 15-day training offer for Signs of Safety, using action research as the tool to embed the learning. We want excellent practitioners to help transform social work practice in Rotherham by generating a movement where excellent practice is the norm, resulting in consistently better outcomes for all our children. These are in accordance with our ambition to become a leading children’s services authority.

ABOUT YOU

We are seeking talented and inspirational professionals who can:

-             Innovate to help re-define children’s services

-             Promote a learning and coaching culture

-             Develop the skills and practices of our Social Care team to provide an outstanding service to children and young people

-             Add value and make the most of available resources

Our vision is for the children and families of Rotherham to routinely experience and describe the services they receive from us, as outstanding and we intend to do that by putting the child first in everything we do.

By working with our Children’s Social Care teams, you will play a crucial role in developing their skills and practice and our collective commitment to an ethos of excellence, integrity, trust and transparency. Joining us at a time of change with regard to developing practice model provides you an opportunity to be involved and influence the service design and development of practice in line with methodological approaches.

With new leadership in place and a heartfelt commitment to providing a best practice center of excellence, you will play a vital role in building on our performance culture - providing direction and support that is rewarding in every sense, for every individual.

ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Rotherham and the wider South Yorkshire region is a great place to live and a stone’s throw from some of the UK’s finest towns and cities and is home to some of the most beautiful countryside in Britain. Easy to reach from Sheffield or Leeds, there are plenty of places to see, things to do and property is excellent value for money - all within a 2-hour train journey from London.

If you have any questions regarding these opportunities, please email them to one of our Heads of Service:

Matthew Boud, Locality Social Work – matthew.boud@rotherham.gov.uk

Sharon Sandell, LAC – Sharon.sandell@rotherham.gov.uk

Kelly White, First Response – kelly.white@rotherham.gov.uk

Laura Gough, Learning and Development – laura.gough@rotherham.gov.uk