Consultant Social Worker

We are currently looking for committed, passionate and experienced Consultant Social Workers (CSW) to join our newly implemented Front Door Service.

Following the Solihull Joint Targeted Area Inspection, and recent social care reviews, Hertfordshire Children’s Services have reviewed and restructured their front door to provide an enhanced level of resource across the service. The Front Door Multi AgencySafeguarding Hub (MASH) Service incorporates the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub function in addition to triaging requests for support for Hertfordshire’s Children and Families. The Front Door consists of committed and highly skilled social care staff, includingsocial workers and alternatively qualified Children’s Information and Advice Officers (CIAO’s) who are based at the forefront of our safeguarding and early help model. Our aim is to provide children and families with a timely response to ensure that childrenare safeguarded, and intervention is offered at the most appropriate level to meet the child’s needs.

As a Consultant Social Worker, you will hold responsibility for triaging contacts that come into the Front Door service requiring either a safeguarding or early help response. You will line manage a small team of either qualified Social Workers or CIAO’s,allocating contacts, providing management directions on individual contacts, ensuring that a timely and effective response is provided to requests for support or safeguarding concerns, and authorising outcomes and recommendations for children and familiesin addition to taking on a supervisory role.

If you enjoy the challenge of a diverse caseload then this could be the job for you. You will be screening contacts and giving initial management direction, reviewing the progress of contacts and agreeing a plan of action. You will need to evidence a calmand supportive approach, whilst maintaining your focus on the needs of the child.

Hertfordshire Children’s Services offers an exciting opportunity to join the Front Door MASH service to experienced social workers, who want to make a difference in the vulnerable children, young people and their families’ lives by ensuring that the mostvulnerable children in the county receive the support they need to protect them from harm, promote their health and well-being and to narrow the gap in their achievement. You will be working at the forefront of best practice, managing complex and diverse contactswithin a stable, creative and innovative local authority.

By changing our approaches to families, through the use of Motivational Interviewing, we are supporting more children to remain at home safely within their families, which matches the recommendations of the recent Independent Review of Children’s SocialCare by Josh MacAlister.

**Requirements**:

- The work is fast paced and requires a high level of autonomous working, you will therefore be a highly skilled and experienced safeguarding social worker with some management experience.
- You will need to be a qualified social worker and registered with Social Work England.
- Excellent communication skills - both verbal and written, in addition to having good computer skills.
- Ability to work autonomously whilst being a team player.
- Excellent organisational skills to ensure that work is prioritised and completed within the set timescales.
- Sound analytical skills to make robust recommendations and plans.
- Effective rapport building skills and ability to demonstrate professional curiosity
- Ability to maintain a good standard of work in a fast-paced environment.

Additional specialisms in areas such as child exploitation or contextualised safeguarding would be welcomed as such knowledge and expertise would enhance the function and performance of our newly developed Front Door service.