We have a rare opportunity for a highly experienced and tenacious social worker to join Barnsley’s BSAFE contextual safeguarding team as an Advanced Practitioner (AP). 

  Do you have a passion for working with the most complex children-and a resilience to overcome rejection and pushback, by continuing to ‘be there’ for them?

  Do you have an ambition to drive delivery within a multi-agency response to complex risk; working alongside Police, social care, youth justice and specialist family practitioners?

  Are you a highly tenacious social worker with significant practice experience of working with vulnerable adolescents and their families or care givers to reduce risks and support sustainable safe lives?

  Can you use your experience and acquired skill to lead and inspire other workers from across the partnership, delivering coaching, training and supervision where required?

  Do you seek practice innovation; the opportunity to drive change and to work in an environment that seeks creativity and practice excellence, celebrates endeavour, and sees success through the lens of changes made by service users?

If you see yourself, then we really want to hear from you! 

In BSAFE we work directly with children and their families and the professionals supporting them, providing specialist intervention, advocacy and consultation through a ‘co-allocation’ model. 

A successful AP will have the determination to further develop innovative, specialist responses to risk for adolescents, practicing within a ‘co-allocated’ model that ensures intensity, creativity and evidence-based responses, directly with young people and across places and spaces our children occupy.

You will be leading the work with children and their families where the following harm types have impacted their lives, including contexts where the child is also a perpetrator:

• Child criminal exploitation
• Child sexual exploitation
• Harmful sexual behaviour
• Serious Youth Violence and other offending behaviour linked to exploitation

A successful AP will have the determination to further develop innovative, specialist responses to risk for adolescents, practicing within a ‘co-allocated’ model that ensures intensity, creativity and evidence-based responses, directly with young people and across places and spaces our children occupy.

You will be relentless in supporting our children as victims and working alongside our co-located police and YJS partners to respond to those who pose a risk to our children, creating safer communities for our children to grow up in.

More about the role:

  You will be practice lead for a small team, you will have responsibility for ensuring the effective planning and oversight of children subject to a variety of plans, supporting your team to work innovatively individually and with partners.

  Working with a reduced caseload of young people, enabling intensive and highly flexible practice to support the needs of the children and their families. You will advocate the ethos of the work we do, occupying multi-agency spaces and ensuring children are recognised as victims, advocated for and that plans around them include responding to risks in and outside of their homes.

  You will provide supervisory support and oversight of other staff, giving you much needed experience should you seek longer-term aspirations to move into management positions.

  This is a full-time role, that will require flexible working patterns, potentially including outside of core hours and will demand you to be willing to adapt your approach to the needs of children and families.  

  Collaboration is at the heart of our culture, underpinned by the shared desire to do what it takes to make our children and victims safe.  The work is challenging and rewarding in equal measure. We will support you to privilege building relationships with some of our most vulnerable young people, working alongside them and their networks to drive effective planning and risk management.

  In Barnsley, we have a determination to be innovative and further enhance the offer and response for our children through a Child First practice system, that changes lives, and elevates children to seek and achieve their full potential.  

  In addition, you play a vital role in the wider partnership work taking place to further develop the multi-agency response to exploitation and complex risk at both a strategic and operational level, continuing to nurture relationships with our partners to achieve our shared goal of reducing our children’s experiences of exploitation and making our communities safer.

What we will need from you:

• To work with the management team to develop and drive continuous professional development across the team and within wider children’s services being supported and supportive to the networks around children.
• Take a lead in the operational delivery of key processes to manage this cohort, including delivery of case consultation; training and skills development for the partnership; group case supervision and quality assurance; co-ordinating mapping and sharing intelligence with police partners.
• Play a key role in workforce development, delivery of group and 1-2-1 interventions to children and parents/carers

Required for the role:

• A highly dynamic approach and the ability to thrive when working in a challenging and unpredictable environment
• A recognised social work qualification and registration with SWE
• Significant post qualification experience that enables you to offer coherent input into management decisions
• Experience of supporting and providing supervisory oversight to staff
• A commitment to supporting the learning and development of others
• Knowledge and understanding of working with vulnerable adolescent children
• Experience and significant knowledge of ‘what works’ in relation to single agency and partnership interventions and activity to reduce contextual safeguarding risks 

How we will support you:

  You will receive regular supervision, appraisal, training and development opportunities, all aimed at promoting positive outcomes for children and supporting your career development and progression, being part of shaping the future of the service and continuing to ensure we work as dynamically and creatively as needed, with this cohort of children, elevating us as a beacon of excellence in contextual safeguarding practices. 

  We are making long-term investment in our staff to be the future of our service, so we are seeking aspiring leaders and managers who will be a key part of our journey moving forward.  If this is you, we will ensure you receive opportunity for ongoing career development in recognition of the value you add to the service in this highly demanding role!

Here at Barnsley, we live and work by four important values: honesty, teamwork, excellent service, and taking pride in what we do.

As part of our team, you can be assured we will support you in striving for excellence in your work. We prioritise learning and enabling you to achieve your potential so you will have opportunities to increase your expertise and further develop your management and leadership skills.

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For further information, please contact Phil Drabble, Youth Justice Strategy Service Manager via the following email address: youthjusticegovernance@barnsley.gov.uk

Barnsley is the place of possibilities: We are one service with one goal, working together to build a brighter Barnsley for every child

v  Putting Children and Families First

v  Working together in partnership to deliver joined up care

v  Delivered by a strong and valued workforce

Visit our dedicated webpage to hear from our social workers, our Executive Director, and learn more about the role and Children’s Services: https://www.barnsley.gov.uk/services/jobs/childrens-social-worker-jobs-in-barnsley/