Qualified Children's Senior PractitionerSalary: £41,511 per annum + £6,243 pa market enhanced payment progressing to £45,718 per annum + £6,084 pa market enhanced payment PLUS £1k one off welcome payment*Hours: 37Location: Base locations in Stevenage and Apsley. Whilst you will have a base, each team has a geographic area they cover which will require regular access to a vehicle in order to travel to meetings.Contract Type: Permanent

About the service

At Hertfordshire County Council, we believe that the children and young people in our care deserve the best. And that means ensuring the social workers who work alongside them are trained, supported, and highly motivated.

As an innovative authority, we are committed to developing motivational social work practice and you will be trained to work in this way. You will be working at the forefront of best practice to deliver first class support to vulnerable children and families which will expose you to managing complex and diverse caseloads.

By changing our approach to families, they are changing their approach to us and we are managing to keep far more children at home safely with their families.With dedicated Diversity & Inclusion strategy and focus groups, we promote diversity and inclusion across the delivery of services and within our workforce.

We will offer a stimulating working environment, regular supervision meetings and training opportunities to help you to reach your full potential with the assistance and guidance of our specialist L&D teams.The pandemic has brought about changes in the way we work and having learnt from this and from feedback from our staff and communities, we are embedding important principles around 'Our Way Forward’. The overarching vision for Children’s Services is that we work in a 'flexible and balanced’ way with a focus on 'continuous improvement’; this is underpinned by a 'mix and blend’ approach by adopting hybrid ways of working, balancing the need for collaborative workspaces with the right technology for staff to work from home and touchdown areas where this is right for you and for our families.

About the role

Each Team is made up of; a Team Manager, Consultant Social Worker(s), Senior Practitioners, Social Workers, Children's Practitioners and Family Practitioners.We are looking for experienced Social Workers to join one of the following teams:

• Family Safeguarding
• 0-25 Disability Service
• Fostering
• Adoption

As a Senior Practitioner, you will already have highly developed specialist knowledge of Social Work practice. Your advanced expertise and knowledge will help you to take the lead on complex cases within the department.

This is a varied and challenging role where you will have shared responsibility for leading less experience staff. You will have a key role in researching and sharing up to date social work practice alongside creating a clear vision for the future and ensuring the best outcomes for children and their families are realised.

About you

It is essential that all Social Workers who apply have the following:

• Qualified and Social Work England Registered
• At least 2 years post qualification experience
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Knowledge of legislation, guidance, policy, and procedures
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft IT package
• Full UK Driving Licence
• Regular Access to a vehicle

In addition to the above, below outlines team specific essential criteria:

Family Safeguarding:

• Significant senior level frontline experience in a safeguarding team.
• Recent experience of case work in Assessments, Child Protection, Children Looked After and Care Proceedings
• In-depth knowledge of relevant childcare legislation is necessary to undertake work in this role effectively.

0-25 Disability Service:

• Ability to complete robust assessments & to assess risk
• Ability to work in a relationship-based way

Fostering:

• Knowledge of TSD standards, fostering regulations and legislation.
• Experience in undertaking fostering assessments, supervising foster carers and working with children looked after, and providing support to foster carers and parents
• You must be prepared to visit foster carers who live out of county.

Adoption:

• 3 years post qualified experience, including experience in Adoption and understanding of Adoption regulations.
• Experience of / ability to complete assessments of prospective Adopters.
• Experience of / ability to provide support to prospective providers and children.
• An understanding that Hertfordshire County Council is part of the Adopt East Regional Adoption Alliance, and the ability to work across the alliance, including out of county meetings.

This job role is within the Health and Social Care, level 11 job profile. Please click through to locate this.

Recruitment timeline: We review all applications on a regular basis with interviews arranged on an ad hoc basis - please check your emails for updates.

Benefits for Social Work roles include:

• Monthly Market Enhanced Payment
• One off £1k Welcome Payment* (terms & conditions apply)
• Lease Car Scheme
• Up to £6 relocation expenses
• Hybrid working model
• 5 Days additional annual leave entitlement

To Apply

To be considered, please click through to the HCC website and complete a short application form.