Grade: 4A - £40,221 - £43,421

Working Hours: 36

Contract Type: Fixed Term for 12 months

Shortlisting: 24th April 2024

Interviews: 30th April 2024

 

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a full time Social Worker position in the Special Guardianship Service within the Salford Fostering Service as a fixed term 12 month post.

 

We are a friendly and stable team working with children and families who have special guardianship orders. We offer support and advice to families around contact, finance, behaviour and trauma. We have 2 social work posts in the team.

We cover the local authority area, currently through a combination of office based and home working arrangements are in place, in line with Salford City Council guidance. You will have access to the Co-wheels car club (permanent staff only). There is a requirement to be able to work outside the local authority area where carers reside elsewhere in England.

This Social Worker role is a great opportunity for someone who wishes to contribute to the development of Special Guardianship services in Salford.  You will receive a comprehensive induction and be supported through regular 1:1 supervision, appraisal, regular team meetings and access to learning and development opportunities.

The successful candidate will demonstrate excellent communication skills and ability to manage and prioritise their own caseload, whilst working as a member of the team. You will need to be qualified and professionally registered as a social worker, have knowledge of current legislation and regulations, and have demonstrated your experience and abilities in respect of working in partnership with children, young people, families and partner agencies. 

You will support the team by responding to and undertaking a variety of contacts and referrals and assessments, including Fostering Duty; providing advice and information to colleagues and external professionals; collaboratively working using the Family Partnership Model within the Local Authority. Your role is to support placements for children and young people, including: working with complex families who may be in the child in need, child protection, and legal arenas; completing special guardianship assessments of applicants; co-ordinating support arrangements and adoption support fund applications; undertaking annual reviews of support plans; delivering workshops, training, and facilitating support groups; and making onward referrals. You will need to understand the support needs and legislation that applies to SGO carers who live in England, the UK, and internationally.

The role will require you to complete support needs assessments to identify areas of support for families. You will need to be flexible and able to undertake visits and attend multi-agency meetings. You will attend court and be skilled in completing statements and reports for court.

We are looking for applicants who will be confident in working with children and young people in sometimes difficult situations, their carers, birth parents, and other professionals. You will have knowledge of therapeutic parenting or have a willingness to learn about this style of parenting, and be able to offer proactive support and reflection regarding children’s presentation and behaviours linking to attachment, secure base and trauma related theory.

Our commitment to you is a competitive package, outstanding support from experienced managers, a manageable workload, regular supervision, quality training and the opportunity to build on your strengths and develop your skills. This week, Ofsted published the recent inspection report, and Salford’s Children’s Services has been rated overall as ‘Good’, but with an ‘Outstanding’ rating for our care leaver support and ‘Outstanding’ for leadership.

 

Please be aware that this post is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and that you will be required to meet the cost of the DBS check – currently £38.00. The payment for this will be deducted from your first four months’ salary payments at a rate of £9.50 per month. If you do not commence employment for any reason but the DBS has been processed, you will be sent an invoice for the payment of £38.00.

 

If you have lived or worked abroad for 3 months or more in the last 5 years or 12 months or more (whether continuously or in total) in the last 10 years whilst aged 18 or over, please refer to the link below for details for how to obtain your Certificates of Good Character.

 

You will be welcomed into a friendly environment where your personal and professional development will be encouraged and you will have the opportunity to work and grow in a values based organisation where people are at the heart of everything we do. We promote a positive permission culture, empowering you to make a difference. Your opinions matter to us and you will have the opportunity to shape how we do things through our Salford 100 employee group and our employee led redesign approach. Your work-life balance and wellbeing are important to us so you will have access to a range of benefits including flexible working, green travel, pension and salary sacrifice schemes.  In addition to this we offer a range of health and wellbeing options to suit your needs. 

 

New employees can now keep their service related benefits when moving between a whole host of public sector organisations within Greater Manchester, which include: Councils, NHS, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue, Transport for Greater Manchester, as well as many others.

 

We are committed to developing a culture which respects individuals, appreciates difference and allows everyone regardless of background to reach their full potential. We are proud to be an accredited disability confident employer and a Stonewall Diversity Champion. We understand how hard it can be to combine caring for a loved one with work so we aim to provide support and flexibility to balance family and caring responsibilities with work https://greater.jobs/content/9189/diversity-and-inclusion 

 

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the council’s primary Recruitment and Employment Privacy Notice which can be found at https://www.salford.gov.uk/gdpr

We have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers, carers, and ex-military personnel by way of a Guaranteed Assessment Scheme. Our application forms ask you to indicate if you meet any of the criteria within this scheme, and so to find out more and if you qualify please visit: