MARAC Co-Ordination and Domestic Abuse Officer

About the Borough

In Sutton, there is much for us to be proud of both as a council and as a borough. This includes high levels of resident satisfaction, the quality of our services, our success in addressing our financial challenges to date, the way that we involve and engage with residents on key issues facing the borough, and the enthusiastic and motivated staff that we employ.

Looking ahead, there are plans for the delivery of new homes and new schools and the London Cancer Hub is being developed, while the Council is also seen as a driving force within the South London Partnership of five outer south west London boroughs focused on strategic growth, regeneration and investment.

All of this demonstrates a good track record and an authority that is ambitious and set to deliver more improvements for the borough. We've set out our vision for the future of Sutton in our corporate plan - Ambitious for Sutton. This strategic plan will shape the outcomes we achieve, the services we provide, and the impact we have on residents, to make Sutton a great place to live, work and raise a family.

Situated in Zone 5, Sutton is less than 30 minutes by train from central London, and south and south west London are easily accessible by public transport. There are 10 train stations which serve key neighbourhoods within the borough providing direct connections to London Victoria, London Bridge, London Blackfriars and St Pancras International. Sutton also has direct rail connections with Epsom, Dorking, Guildford and Horsham, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and West Croydon for the London Overground. There’s also an extensive road network which provides close and easy access to the M25 and M23.

About the Service and Team

The London Borough of Sutton “is uncompromising in its focus on improving quality of frontline social work” – Ofsted

London Borough of Sutton works closely with Kingston University and regional partners as part of the Developing Together Social Work Teaching Partnership (SWTP). The partnership offers staff a wide range of pre and post qualifying education opportunities to promote continuous learning and development. This includes staff being encouraged to support the practice education of Social Work students and those in the assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE). Staff are also given the opportunity to attend conferences, workshops and have access to research and practice resources to support their ongoing professional development.

Children's Social Care is going through an important change to meet the growing needs of the children and families we support. We are making many improvements to ensure that care for children is better and to create positive working environments for our staff. With committed leaders and experienced managers, we are bringing fresh ideas to our work and are helping to make real improvements in how we support children and families. Our aim is to provide high-quality care that helps children thrive while also creating an inclusive, diverse, and supportive environment for our staff to develop their careers.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

We have an exciting opportunity to join us as a MARAC Co-Ordination and Domestic Abuse Officer within Children's Social Care at the London Borough of Sutton. This opportunity is available on a secondment for 12 months, with a view of extending. Our objective is to support those experiencing domestic abuse and to ensure support is visible to all. Reporting to the Team Manager, you will undertake the following:

• MARAC Coordination:

Coordination of MARAC, ensuring continuous improvement by keeping up to date with legislation and best practice, as well as delivering training to ensure professionals are aware of referral pathways and how to constructively engage in the process and work effectively with relevant partners
Work with MARAC partners and others to ensure effective collaboration, leading to improved outcomes for victims and children
Collate MARAC data and provide reports and updates as needed to strategic partnership meetings, including the annual MARAC review
Respond to MARAC referrals and queries in a timely manner, as set out in the agreed guidelines

• Additional Responsibilities:

Enhancing Sutton’s Coordinated Community Response (CCR):
Keep up to date with developments in best practice, innovation and national policy to enable us to continuously improve our local service offer and make the most efficient use of available resources
Strengthen partnerships by assisting to organise Forum / Champions network meetings to facilitate communication and local partners working effectively, as well as facilitating constructive work among Transform partners

• Grant Funding co-lead:

Identifying and supporting external grant funding bids to add value to the Transform partnership offer.
Working with existing and future grant-funded services such as IRIS, DRIVE and Restart to ensure we’re getting maximum value from and that staff are aware of how to refer into these interventions

• Perpetrator management co-lead and trainer:

Further developing our approach to perpetrator management, ensuring we learn from existing programmes, embedding a culture of continuous improvement, including training social care and other professionals on how to engage more effectively with perpetrators in order to reduce risk to victims and children

• Deputise for the DA Commissioning Manager:

Support the DA Commissioning Manager with the process of recommissioning the Sutton DA service, including the review / consultation process to identify what’s gone well with the existing service and opportunities for improvement
Participate in the DA Strategic Partnership Board meetings to ensure that we have an effective systems-wide approach with buy-in from decision-makers, informed by input from operational / front-line staff

• LSCP training:

Deliver training to local professionals to support improvement of their identification of and response to victims and children, and how to work constructively with other partners in order to achieve better outcomes more quickly

• MARAC / DA / Perpetrator work SPoC with CSC:

Participate in MAMDA meetings to provide information and advice on cases referred into CFCS with an element of DA
Consultations and advice to front-line professionals such as social workers and others about DA cases, with a goal of delivering better outcomes more quickly

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across - however big or small - will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition, we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff, supported by our IT infrastructure, including Google Chromebooks and Google Apps. Our Flexible Working - Smarter Working Scheme embraces new ways of working. It provides improved work life balance for our staff as it allows staff to work from a variety of locations and staff are not required to work within the office 5 days a week.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• General Council Flexi-time (Please note, this applies to roles at grades 1-9 only)
• Public Health Service Localised Flexi-time Scheme - accrual of up to 5 days per year
• Three volunteering days per year in Sutton
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Local and national discounts for shopping, eating out and leisure activities
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Car parking scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

Application Process

Please apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please ensure you refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application.

To support our diversity agenda and reduce the risk of bias in our recruitment activities, our short listing process completely anonymises personal information that can identify job applicants e.g. name, title etc. Our hiring managers review and short list applications based on the information provided as part of your application as to how well you meet the requirements and criteria for the role, as outlined in the job profile.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Additional Information

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, inclusive and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve - the key highlights from our recent Equalities Workforce Report can be seen here. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates, as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce. As part of our Disability Confident Committed status, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.