Senior Practitioner

About the team we are recruiting to
In Coventry, we are working hard to build something special. Children and families are at the heart of everything we do, and we believe they deserve the best outcomes. Children’s Services provides a wide range of statutory and non-statutory duties, from Early Help Services, through to children who are looked after.

The service reflects and responds to the changing needs of children and their families. It works to enable a reflective and flexible approach, with a strong Early Help offer and a real focus on Relationship Based Practice and Signs of Safety, which focuses on intervention and keeping families together.

Children’s Services is proud of its achievements to date and is continuing to ensure children and families remain at the heart of all it does. We will provide you with an environment where social work can flourish, with high support, high challenge and manageable caseloads. Children’s Services is proud of its workforce, who are committed, dedicated, and work to a high standard. We are seeking other like minded practitioners who would like to join us. We pride ourselves on building relationships with families and partners and hold respectful practice at the centre of all we do.

The city is divided into four areas Central, East, West and South. These teams undertake statutory social work tasks with families who require an assessment, child in need and child protection services, public law outline and court involvement as well as children looked after who have a return home plan. Coventry believe children and families should have limited change of worker where possible to enable relationships to be built.

To ensure this is achievable caseloads are reviewed regularly to ensure that the multiple complexities within them make them manageable. A Social Work Team consists of:

- A Child and Family Worker
- Social Workers
- Advanced Social Workers
- A Senior Social Worker; and a
- Team Manager

The team is small to enable intensive support, greater collaboration, closer working and shared understanding of risk within the team to ensure wellbeing and work life balance. The team structure also enables progression, with a clear progression scheme in place for those who want to develop.

What is the job role?
An opportunity has arisen for an experienced qualified social worker to join our Area Team as a Senior Practitioner.

We are currently looking to recruit a Senior Practitioner for our West Area Team.

You will make the most of your social work and specialist experience by holding a smaller caseload, also supporting a team of Social workers and taking a lead in the development of their practice.
- This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)._

Who are we looking for?
It is essential that you bring an experience of working with “Children & Families”, holding complex cases including CP, CIN, LAC and cases through Care Proceedings and the PLO, provided support and supervision of less experienced staff, and hold a relevant Social Work Qualification.

The Area Teams keep Children and Young People at the Heart of everything they do; they listen, respond and value the families and communities.

This is an exciting opportunity to have a “Key Role” in combining direct practice alongside service and professional development.

You will need to be passionate about LEADERSHIP and be a good role model whilst working with Children, Young People and their families.

About Coventry
**Coventry has a proud, innovative and creative spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems and bring about real social change.**

We are cutting-edge, challenging, youthful, vibrant and diverse.

At Coventry we are committed to excellence in everything we do. With around 4800 staff from a range of different backgrounds, our aim is to recruit and develop talented people who will focus on our customers, take responsibility, work together and find better ways of doing things.

To deliver the best services to our residents, we need the best people working for us to make a difference to our communities.

If you join us, we will provide a fantastic rewards & benefits package which includes:

- Flexible working arrangements
- Generous annual leave allowance starting at 27 days and rising to 32 days
- Pay progression through multiple increments
- Opportunity for Salary Match
- An outstanding local government pension scheme
- Great opportunities to develop with access to accredited courses.
- Access to an award-winning Occupational Health Service
- Salary Sacrifice Scheme

Our Values
It’s great to know that you are interested in working with us at Coventry City Council. As a prospective employee, it is important that everyone who works for us is committed to