About Southwark:

Southwark is a large, ambitious and progressive council with a ‘can do’ attitude and enviable reputation. As a Council, we are successful, passionate and forward-thinking. We are committed to our ‘Fairer Futures for All’ promise which ensures that our residents and businesses are central to everything we do. If you want to make a difference at a local level, apply to Southwark Council today.

The Role:

Southwark Council are looking for a creative and experienced leader with the drive, resilience and creativity to help lead our fast-paced MASH and Out of Hours service within our high performing inner London borough who have for over a decade consistently been judged by OFSTED to be good.

As a Service Manager, you will work with internal and external partners towards providing excellent services for all vulnerable children, young people and their family in Southwark. This is a fantastic opportunity for a passionate Social Work Manager to lead social work practice with children and families in a multi-Disciplinary team.

As a member of the management team in our Assessment Service based in Peckham, you will work with the Head of Service to provide leadership to your groups and ensure the practice system enables excellent work with families. This service works with children through Child in Need, Child Protection and Legal proceedings; you will need to have evidenced experience in these areas of practice. You will have managed operational teams within children's social care and have a genuine commitment to the provision of high-quality services for our children and young people to enable high quality assessments and interventions with children and families at the right time.

You will work closely with colleagues and partners to embed systemic and restorative approaches to practice to meet or exceed professional standards and targets. In Southwark practitioners, managers and families benefit from an embedded in-house Clinical Service and an in-house Family Group Conference Service.

About You:

We are looking for a flexible and resourceful person to work alongside the Head of Service to set objectives, develop plans and allocate resources, in order to achieve improved outcomes for families. This role requires a visible leader with high expectations, a results-focused approach which is supported by well-developed analytical planning, excellent practice knowledge, knowledge of legislation governing Child Protection Practice and strong organisational skills; all of which will be used to best effect in helping to instil a reflective, restorative and open culture where there is an environment of high support but also high challenge. A commitment to systemic ways of working, restorative approaches and supporting the development of practitioners is vital.

If you would like to have an informal discussion with the Head of Service about this exciting role, please contact Tinashe Ruwona - tinashe.ruwona@southwark.gov.uk

Additional Salary Details:

Salary plus £2,724 JNC benefits (pro-rata per annum, subject to review); the starting salary is dependent on background and experience with salary progression dependent on performance.

Please note the successful candidate will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check.

Interview & Assessment - 10 April 2023.

We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together initiative. We particularly welcome applications from members of the black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.