Social Workers

**Social Workers Complex Needs Team (Childrens Services)** **Salary**:Band 7 (Level 2) Band 8 (Level 3),**£36,124**-**£41,511**per annum. To aid attraction and retention of Level 3 (Band 8) Social Workers, Trafford have in place a market factor supplement of £2,400 per annum (pro rata to hours worked) which is payable monthly and reviewed on an annual basis.** **Contract: Permanent** **Location: Borough-wide, main office locations Trafford Town Hall or Sale Waterside** Here in Trafford Children’s Services our vision is that our teams are offering the right help at the right time, and that at all levels our interventions make life better for children and families. We are ambitious for our children and for our practitioners - and our core value is ‘would this be good enough for my child’? We want to have practitioners and managers who are confident and brave in their practice and are supported by strong leaders at all levels. As a relatively small local authority, we pride ourselves on our friendly teams, manageable caseloads, creative approach and colleagues who support each other. We were pleased to see this recognised in the Ofsted report that followed our ILACS inspection in late 2022, which highlighted that “social workers in Trafford are overwhelmingly positive about both the local authority and the support they receive.” In Trafford our approach is strengths-based, using relational and restorative practice. Our recent Ofsted report referred to our "relational model of social work practice, which is well regarded by the wider workforce, has been successfully implemented.” We believe that a culture and environment in which our managers and social workers can thrive is an essential element of improving outcomes for children and families. To support this, we have invested in a 3-year programme with relational specialists Strengthening Practice to provide ongoing training and enhance our social workers’ personal development. Our 2023 Ofsted report recognised this, noting a “cultural shift (that) has been underpinned by a strong training offer to support social workers to develop the skills they need to provide a better service to children”. We have a number of social worker vacancies currently within our Children with Complex Needs Service (CwD) in Trafford. This is a really good time to be joining the service with low caseloads, a very experienced and supportive management team and a dedicated Head of Service. The Service has a Social Work Team and a Short Breaks Team who both work closely together to support families and there is a range of support available following the expansion of the Short Breaks Offer over the last 12-18 months. There is exciting work taking place around Edge of Care for children with SEND needs as well as some early testing out of the Social Work Reforms. There is a supportive management culture and a positive working environment with the service co-located in Sale with a range of other multi-agency professionals. We are looking for social workers with experience working with disabled children or those with a particular interest in this area and have vacancies at social worker and senior social worker levels. **Our commitment to you** We know that when you come to work in Trafford, we have a responsibility to provide you with the right tools and support to flourish in your new role. **Induction** We have recently updated our induction programme for new colleagues joining us at all levels. During your first two weeks you will have protected time to get to know your team, our systems and other parts of the service. **Workload** We are absolutely committed to ensuring that your workload is manageable. This isn’t necessarily a specific caseload number, as we all know that numbers don’t necessarily reflect the complexity of the children and families you are working with. But we believe that manageable workloads are critical, and managers will support you and confirm priorities through discussion and supervision. We have performance management reporting of caseloads and therefore at all levels we are responsible for monitoring workloads across the service. There will be times where there is a level of flexibility required to meet the needs of the service or for individual children you work with, particularly in times of crisis. We will ensure that you are able to take additional hours back quickly to give you balance between your work and home life. **Supervision** One of our practice-led improvements has been to refresh our supervision framework, which has been a really exciting piece of work. We commit to offering monthly formal supervision that is both reflective and supportive and provides you with clear advice, guidance and direction. We also offer peer supervision as part of our refreshed framework, with practitioners involved in deciding the topics of discussion. **ASYE programme** We are committed to supporting our newly qualified social workers through thei