Senior Practitioner - Multi Disciplinary Team

We are looking to recruit a Senior Practitioner to join our Multi-Disciplinary Service, the Specialist Parenting Assessment and Interventions team.

You will work as part of a team of professionals to deliver specialist assessments and interventions with families where children are subject to pre-proceedings under the Public Law Outline or care proceedings. The children in these families will be supported by other teams in Medway Children’s Services as this is not a case-holding post. You would be joining an established and highly supportive team who are passionate about their work.

You will bring to the role your practitioner experience in assessing families where there are significant concerns and your work with us will support in making timely permanence decisions for our most vulnerable children. You will need to be able to deliver to deadlines and must be able to work with adults who may be ambivalent about change. We are looking for a candidate who is confident to use their relationship-based practice skills to help develop rapport with families and different multi-agency professionals. We would like candidates to either have experience of our strengths-based Signs of Safety practice framework or some knowledge about it as a way of working with families, although training would be provided to you as part of a comprehensive induction programme.

As a Senior Social Worker Practitioner in the team your primary role will be in preparing parenting assessments, including specialist adapted parenting assessments such as CUBAS or Parent Assess. Knowledge of best practice guidance, plus a commitment to Continuous Professional Development and supporting the learning of others, is essential. Training in an adapted parenting assessment model can be provided to help support your growth and development.

Medway Children's Services is proud of its workforce who are committed, dedicated and work to a high standard. This is a perfect opportunity for an experienced social worker to join the team and be part of our vision in working together to keep children and families at the heart of everything we do.

Our offer

We offer an excellent recruitment package, manageable workloads, and opportunities to access a range of professional development and support including -

• A basic salary of £45,830-£51,130 per annum
• An annual market allowance of £6,000 per annum (payable in monthly payments)
• A retention payment of £3,000. This is a fixed sum payable in April each year, following one years’ service in Medway.
• Generous annual leave entitlement of between 27 – 30 days plus bank holidays
• Excellent local government pension scheme
• Essential Car user allowance with option to apply for a lease car after six months.
• Hybrid working - enabling you to work from home/office (a minimum of 2 days per week will be required in the office)
• Relocation package of up to £8,000

About you

• You will hold a degree in Social Work - CQSW, DipSW or equivalent and be registered with Social Work England.
• You will have a minimum of 3 years’ post qualifying experience of working with children and families.
• You will have completed either specialist CUBAS or Parent Assess assessment training. In the absence of this training then you will need to evidence at interview your demonstrable experience of working with parents or carers, who may experience a range of cognitive or communication based needs. Plus, how you have adapted your communication and intervention approaches in line with available best practice guidance recommendations.
• You will have demonstrable experience in relationship and strengths-based practice, risk management, making evidence based considerations about parental capacity to change and in working collaboratively with children and young people.
• You will hold a full driving licence and have access to a vehicle for work purposes.

To Apply

If you are looking for a new challenge, then we would love to hear from you.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Jonathan Palmer-White (Team Manager) initially on:

jonathan.palmerwhite@medway.gov.uk

or alternatively Natasha Baciley (Assistant Team Manager) initially on:

natasha.baciley@medway.gov.uk

Our organisation:

Medway is a unitary authority in the South East of England, made up of the towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham and more rural areas, including the Hoo Peninsula.

Situated in Kent in the South-East of England, the area has plenty of green spaces, excellent facilities and easy access to the national motorway and rail networks, facilitating superb transport links to London.

We provide all local Government services for a quarter of a million people, looking after education, environment, social care, housing, planning, business and much more - everything from frontline services such as rubbish collection and events like the Dickens Festival to work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure services in Medway run smoothly and cost effectively.

Working at Medway Council means that you get to be part of this journey working alongside talented, professional colleagues to drive forward change to transform the lives of our residents and the communities they live in.

Important Information-

Applicants must be able to demonstrate all essential requirements as listed in the job profile

Equal Opportunities Commitment Statement

Medway Council is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All appropriately qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability or age

For further information please refer to the Medway information pack available as a download or to view online

Please be advised that if you are not contacted within 3 weeks of the advert closing date then you have not been shortlisted. All recruitment correspondence, including interview letters and contracts of employment will usually be sent out via email.

Please visit http://www.mindfulemployer.net/ for information on how Medway Council put good practices in place to ensure employees and job applicants who declare mental health issues receive the right level of support.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy at any time prior to the closing date.