Social Work Co-ordinator

**About The Role**:
We require one full time Social Work Coordinator for a 1 year fixed term to meet the needs of the service. The working pattern is Monday and Friday 9 - 5. We take flexible working into consideration, in line with service demands, however this is an office-based role.

**Job overview**:
An exciting opportunity has opened within Independent Futures where we have created a specialist Leaving Care Service for children and young people aged 16-25 years old. Islington is looking to recruit a social work coordinator (SWC) who is motivated and passionate. You will be trained in Motivational Interviewing and Trauma Inform Practice to ensure sustainability of practice across the service.

A Social Work Coordinator (SWC) is a para-professional whose primary function is to provide enhanced administrative support in meeting the demands of frontline practice. This is a very active role and the practical support is critical in ensuring the child and family social workers’ and other practitioners’ time is used to best effect in helping families to keep children safe. This requires a high level of understanding of a child and family social worker’s job in helping families to safeguard children.

**Main duties**:
Our vision for the service is that children and young people are safe, can overcome difficulties and can form secure relationships through their childhood and into their adulthood.

SWCs are the first point of contact for the team by service users, other staff, and professionals. As an experienced administrator, you would be expected to anticipate the planning and preparation necessary ahead of the range of meetings that take place with families and professionals and be instrumental in ensuring these meetings are coordinated. This includes multi-professional panels and tasks include (but not limited to) diary invites and minute taking. You would also be expected to help and support practitioners to stay organised in managing their workload.

Child and family work is dynamic and responsive to both the local and national landscape, and SWCs must be flexible and adapt to changes within the organisation and to the presenting needs of the individual team. The SWC role, as with all other roles in the Service, should engage in continuous quality improvement by always looking for ways to improve the way we work to identify gaps in systems and make improvements that will increase added value to frontline practice.

You will have excellent communication skills with children, young people and families as well as with carers and professionals taking into consideration equality and diversity. You will also have excellent skills when it comes to writing and minute-taking.

Some of the main duties include:

- Minute taking
- Arranging multi-professional meetings
- Diary management
- Creating and updating excel spreadsheet trackers
- Answering the duty phone to young people, families, and other professionals
- Updating the data base
- Excellent organisation and time management skills
- Ability to work pro-actively to identify and meet the needs of the team
- Flexibility
- Excellent ICT skills
- Good communication: verbal and written
- Ability to work under pressure

**Working for your organisation**:
In December 2024, we underwent a full OFSTED inspect. Although we are still awaiting formal feedback, we are pleased and proud to share we have maintained our outstanding rating.

In October 2023, Independent Futures received a focused visit from OFSTED looking at the Local Authority’s arrangements for care experienced children and young people (care leavers). We proudly share some highlights from the report:

- Young people are effusive about Independent Futures, Islington’s leaving care service.
- Care experienced children and young people in Islington benefit from teams of highly committed, ambitious and determined professionals who work extremely well together, helping the children and young people to remain safe and to achieve in life.
- Exceptional and aspirational corporate and operational leaders work together to listen to care experienced young people, to understand their world and to act on their views.
- Islington’s motivational practice model ensures that all staff and many partner agencies provide trauma-informed assessments.
- The genuine warmth of staff and their affection and pride in children’s progress and achievements are evident in their direct work and frequent contact and visits.
- Staff report that they feel valued by their managers. This improves and supports practitioners’ emotional health and well-being.
- Skilled social workers and YPAs are appropriately proud of their work.
- Good opportunities for development, training and promotion are increasing the number of staff transferring from agency to permanent contracts.
- A localised approach to commissioning housing support means that young people can maintain local links and have access to important local services, such as colleges, employm