Job Description
Vacancy Description
Our Family Safeguarding teams are dedicated to improving the outcomes for children and families in West Berkshire. If you are passionate about assisting families to achieve long-term change and share our desire to keep more children safely at home with their family, this could be the career for you.
We have fantastic possibilities for Social Workers to join our East and West Family Safeguarding Teams.
We are Ofsted rated ‘Good’ and aim to achieve a ‘Outstanding’ rating, with Ofsted stating that West Berkshire Council has “a strong, stable, and child-focused leadership team that has continued to improve services for children and families in West Berkshire.”
Come and join us on our journey of continued improvement and dedication to the children of West Berkshire.
The role
- Using the Family Safeguarding Model, you will collaborate with other specialised professionals such as Domestic Abuse Practitioners, Recovery professionals, and Mental Health Practitioners to provide group-based interventions to families.
- Using a strengths-based approach and motivational interviewing techniques, you will work with our families to discover what adjustments need to be made in their everyday lives and help them in making them.
- You will be able to work directly with children to discover what is important to them.
- Your work will take a holistic approach to the individual, including both their immediate and extended social groups, while also taking into account their overall development needs.
- You will receive high-quality reflective supervision in a multidisciplinary setting to improve information sharing and decision-making.
The ideal candidate will have the following abilities and attributes:
- You will have a validated social work qualification and be registered with Social Work England.
- You will have a current driver’s licence and access to a car.
- You’ll require solid organisational and planning skills.
- You will have experience managing risk levels in a caseload of difficult instances.
- You will be able to demonstrate an understanding of key legislation, regulations, advice, and policies.
- You will have outstanding stakeholder management abilities, as well as the ability to establish effective partnerships with colleagues, individuals, and other organisations.
- You will be able to effectively manage conflict and disagreement.
Our offer to you.
A competitive pay with a variety of benefits, including:
- A golden hello reward of £3,000 after a year in post
- A retention incentive of £2,000 after two years of service
- A further retention bonus of £3,000, with a four-week paid sabbatical after three years of service.
- Flexible Working: West Berkshire has implemented a Hybrid Working Policy, which allows employees to spend their time between attending work and working remotely.
- Social Work England registration fees are covered.
- Employee Assistance Programme provides a dedicated employee wellbeing programme with a wide range of discounts on a number of businesses, services, and everyday purchases.
- Regular, high-quality reflective supervision.
- Senior leadership is approachable and visible.
- Local Government Pension Scheme
- generous yearly leave amount, plus an additional 5 days leave after 5 years of continuous local authority service.
- Relocation package for those migrating from outside a 30-mile radius (subject to criteria).
- Blue Light card expenses were repaid.
All roles are subject to an annual banding pay review until they reach the top of the pay grade (after successfully completing probation). All roles are eligible for the annual national pay award.
Please note that the closing date is only a guideline. We retain the right to close this vacancy early if we receive enough applications for the position. So, if you’re interested, please send your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
If you are interested in collaborating with us or learning more, please contact us. Please contact Sonia Harris, Service Manager, at 01635 519785, for an informal discussion about this post.
West Berkshire has a visa sponsorship licence and hence can offer sponsorship through the skilled worker route. Because of the vastness of West Berkshire and the huge volume of international social worker applicants, applications will be accepted in September 2024.Please keep in mind that the certificate of sponsorship is not a visa; in order to work in the UK, an individual must apply for and acquire a visa.
Equal opportunities
The Council supports equal employment opportunities and invites applications from people who meet any of the nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
How to apply?
Please immediately fill out a quick online application form. You will then be able to upload your CV; if you do not have one, please download our full application form below, complete it, and upload it instead.
Please choose Google Chrome as your recommended internet browser when completing your online application form. This system no longer supports the use of Internet Explorer as a browser, which may cause problems when attempting to submit your application.
This employment has been designated as public facing in accordance with Part 7 of the Immigration Act of 2016; the requirement to perform all spoken components of the role with confidence in English applies.
West Berkshire Council is committed to protecting and supporting the well-being of children and young people, and expects all of its employees and volunteers to share these values. We will make sure that all of our recruitment and selection methods reflect this commitment. Successful candidates will be given employment following Disclosure and Barring Service checks and other appropriate employment checks.
This privacy notice relates to job candidates applying for positions with West Berkshire Council at https://info.westberks.gov.uk/pnapplications.