Social Worker

**Salary**: £37,672 - £50,202 (market supplements included)
**Working Pattern**: Full-time (37 hours)

**Contract**: Permanent
**Location**: Crawley & Mid-Sussex (Hybrid)

Our Assessment and Intervention service is a fast paced, busy and supportive team completing child and family assessments, Section 47 enquiries and progressing Children to Initial Child protection conference and Initial Child in Need review where they willthen transfer to our Family Safeguarding Teams for longer term intervention. Assessment and Intervention is at the forefront of producing the best outcomes for children, ensuring they are safe, and their voices are heard within all the work we do, with specialistsocial workers focussing on clear plans and interventions with families.

As an experienced Social Worker within Assessment and Intervention you will be working to deliver first class support to vulnerable children and their families. We are looking for emotionally intelligent, organised, resilient individuals who can evidencethe value they could add to our team ensuring interventions with children are undertaken in a timely way. As part of your role, you will be on a duty cycle with your team to respond to urgent and new referrals received from our MASH team. We continue to promotea combination of remote and office-based working with the expectation that social workers will be office based for the week their team is on duty. The current duty cycle is one week outside of four.

For further information about us and about working in Children's Social Care at West Sussex County Council, please visit **Careers in children's social work in West Sussex**.

**Experience and Skills**

**Key Skills**:

- Able to analyse and interpret complex information and data, prioritise needs and formulate plans for intervention and service provision
- Able to work proactively as a member of the team to make accurate assessments of needs and negotiate and implement effective outcomes
- Able to work in partnership with carers, colleagues and external agencies to deliver an effective service
- Able to communicate clearly and effectively in both written and oral format, including the ability to explain complicated information to a wide range of people and use negotiation and persuasion skills to encourage others to adopt a course of action theymay not wish to take
- Able to recognise limits of own accountability and responsibility and seek appropriate support, advice and supervision

**Qualifications and/or experience**:

- A recognised Social Work qualification e.g. Degree in Social Work, Post Graduate Certificate in Social Work, DipSW, CQSW or equivalent
- Completion of relevant post qualifying training
- Evidence of one year's experience post qualification
- Registration with relevant professional registration body and maintaining registration
- Knowledge of theoretical Social Work concepts and practices, with demonstrable examples of dealing with a breadth of complex issues and situations
- Good understanding of anti-oppressive, anti-discriminatory and anti-racist practice in social work
- Effective partnership working and forming effective working relationships with individuals and colleagues, focusing on the needs and handling conflict and disagreement
- Coaching and supervising others, acting as practice role model and promoting exemplary practice
- Managing levels of risk within a caseload of complex cases
- Readiness to work towards Practice Educator Professional Standards (PEPS) qualification at Stage one or equivalent
- Valid, full driving licence

**Rewards and Benefits**

We provide regular group supervision and peer learning alongside specialist roles within the team to focus on the most vulnerable children. As a Social Worker, you'll have a minimum of 5 CPD and training days per year with access to excellent learning anddevelopment provisions such as Research in Practice and Community Care Inform, Social Work England fees paid and annual leave up to 29 days, as well as the option to buy up to 3 additional days.

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee, please visit our **Rewards and Benefits** page.

**Further Information**

The reference number for this role is **CAFHE03701**

For an informal conversation/further information please contact Sally Craddock on.

West Sussex County Council is an equal opportunities employer committed to promoting an environment that is inclusive and free from all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination and values the diversity of its people.