Principal Social Worker, Part time

Our Benefits

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we’re transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You’ll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a competitive salary
• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About the role

Kettering Adult Social Care Team is the front door for all ASC activity in the Kettering area. We experience high levels of demand and have a very busy duty function.

The team is staffed by a mix of social workers, senior assessment and enablement workers, assessment and enablement workers, community support workers and business support officers. We operate strengths based practice, using the 3 conversations model.

The principals in the team are responsible for managing the duty function on a rota basis, screening all safeguarding referrals and proactively supporting the duty workers. They also manage the referrals waiting for allocation, prioritising and managing risk and allocate to staff.

They offer front line supervision to the assessment staff including induction, Me Time, performance management, absence management and case monitoring and discussion. All decisions about care act eligibility, need for formal support, increases or decreases in care are ratified and discussed with a principal before relevant escalation.

The principals are also responsible for the auditing of staff’s work on a person-by-person basis but also more formal caseload audits.

They are an essential part of the overall performance of the team and the wellbeing of its staff and are themselves line managed by the team manager.

The current management group is well established and we are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic qualified social worker who is ready to become a manager.

We are a welcoming and supportive team and progression and training is actively encouraged.

This is a part time position and hours of work can be negotiated, although preferably able to work on a Wednesday.

If you wish to discuss this opportunity please contact Jeanette Ward, Team Manager, on 01536 805030