Full time / 37 hours per week / Permanent
Do you have excellent leadership skills? Are you committed to leading a team that provides the best opportunities for the children of Leicester?
This is an exciting time to join Leicester City Council and to be part of our ever-improving service ensuring children are at the heart of our work. Recently rated as GOOD by Ofsted, with impressive strengths highlighted in direct work, participation and care leaving services, we are committed to working in partnership with children, families and young adults and developing excellent social work practice.
Join one of our Children's Social Care teams and you will play a key role in improving the life for families and children in Leicester.
We use Signs of Safety as a model of intervention to support sound social work practice and our work is underpinned by the principles of trauma informed practice and the Lundy model of Participation. As an authority we are committed to addressing racial injustice both for the families we work with and across the workforce.
Ofsted recognised that our social workers are well supported by their managers, with good quality in-depth supervision and manageable case loads. We prioritise support, learning, development and wellbeing across our workforce with strengths in practice regularly recognised. We also offer agile and flexible working that supports a healthy work life balance.
We are committed to supporting your continual professional development and have a comprehensive training and development programme whatever the stage of your career.
We are currently looking for a Team Manager to manage a small team of 7 Social Workers within the Children in Need Team.
As part of our commitment to ensuring you achieve your full professional capabilities, you will benefit from a variety of opportunities to further your experience, skills and knowledge.
We have one position available. This is on a full time (37 hours) fixed term basis (1 year). Core working hours are 8.30am – 5.00pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am to 4.30pm on Friday. However, on occasion you may be required to work out of these hours. This opportunity currently allows for blended working, offering the ability to work both from home and Halford House.
What you'll be doing
As a Team Manager, you’ll be managing and developing 7 qualified social workers to perform at their best. The work they’ll be facilitating includes working with children on Child in need plans, Child Protection plans and a mixture of pre and post court proceedings progressing to permanence.
You’ll ensure a high level of quality social work services is shown when working with children and their families to achieve the best outcomes for children and young people. With decisive and effective leadership, you’ll maintain robust performance management, as well as participate in recruitment and development of staff through regular supervision. You’ll have a good working understanding of Signs of safety and will ensure staff are using this model throughout their practice.
You’ll attend and chair a range of meetings including Child in Need/protection meetings, strategy meetings, Pre-proceedings meetings as well as attend court in order to pursue permanency plans for children.
What you'll need
With substantial post qualification experience of Child Care Social Work in a statutory setting or qualified up to Level 3, you’ll have experience of managing, supervising, motivating and developing staff effectively and will promote collaborative working. You’ll have a relevant professional qualification and be registered with Social Work England. With a high level of verbal and written communication skills you’ll be able to liaise with senior managers, stakeholders and service users as well as work effectively across multi agency partnerships to achieve common goals. You’ll have the ability to work flexibly and be able to work under pressure.
What we can offer you
As well as the satisfaction of helping to improve thousands of lives across Leicester, you can look forward to a work environment that encourages a healthy work/life balance. You’ll enjoy generous annual leave, membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and the option of flexible working. We’ll also give you the chance to develop your skills and expertise with a variety of training and development opportunities. In addition, you can choose from a number of flexible benefits, including childcare vouchers, discounts on city buses and trains and help with relocation to Leicester, where appropriate. For an illustrative value of your benefits package, take a look at out benefits calculator.
Join us
We’re committed to recruiting a diverse and highly-talented workforce as we continue to build a council that is fitting and representative of our great city. That’s why we’ve designed our recruitment process to put you at your ease, make you feel welcome and bring the best out of you. We’ll do all we can to make our recruitment process as fair as possible. To help you with your application, take a look at the ‘our approach to recruitment’ page.
For an informal discussion, or further information regarding this job please contact Helen Smith, Service Manager by e mail to Helen.Smith2@leicester.gov.uk or call 0116 4543660. Interviews will be held on the 19th January.
