Full time / 37 hours per week / Permanent
With a recent Ofsted Inspection, we are proud as a service to announce, we have gained “Good” overall effectiveness across Children’s Social Care Services, including adoption.
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. To help deliver our vision we are looking for an Social Worker who is enthusiastic, passionate and enjoys working with children and young people. Join our Adoption Team and you will play a key role in improving the life and securing permanent adoptive homes for some of Leicester’s looked after children.
We use Signs of Safety as a model of intervention to support sound Social Work practice. The Leicester City adoption service is now working in partnership with other local authorities in the area as part of a Regional Adoption Agency called Family Adoption Links (FAL): https://familyadoptionlinks.org.uk
Being part of FAL has enhanced the service we offer and has helped in the recruitment of adopters who can meet the needs of the children with a care plan of adoption. Leicester City also has a robust post-adoption service.
With supportive and visible management as well as a manageable caseload, you will be offered regular reflective supervision. We also offer agile and flexible working that supports a healthy work life balance.
As part of our commitment to ensuring you achieve your full professional capabilities, you will benefit from furthering your skills and knowledge. At Leicester City Council we are committed to supporting your continual professional development and do this in a variety of ways.
We currently have a full time 37 hours position in the Adoption Team which is part of our Looked After Children’s service.
What you’ll be doing:
As a social worker in the Adoption Team, you will be involved in the recruitment and assessment of people wishing to adopt; attending approval and matching Panels; supporting adopters post approval; family finding for children with a plan of adoption and matching children with adopters; planning transitions for children moving to their adoptive home and supporting the adoptive placement up to the making of the Adoption order. We operate a model whereby the assessing social worker remains working with the adopters right through from their assessment to Adoption Order.
We pride ourselves on being able to identify adoptive homes in a timely manner for the majority of the children referred to our team, with little delay in finding permanent homes for these children.
What you’ll need:
As a Social Worker, you’ll have a qualification in one of the following: Degree in Social Work, Masters Degree in Social Work, Post Graduate Diploma, Diploma in Social Work, or a CQSW and be registered with Social Work England. You’ll also have experience of front-line Social Work practice and experience working with vulnerable children with complex needs.
In addition, you’ll have an ability to manage a caseload and make sound Social Work decisions as well as have knowledge of relevant legislation, in particular adoption legislation and an ability to apply that knowledge in a practice setting.
Due to the nature of this job you’ll be subject to an Enhanced childrens DBS Check.
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.
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.
For an informal discussion about this post, please contact Peta Carlino, tel: 0116 454 4252/4540. If shortlisted, interviews will take place on week commencing 5th september