Missing Children Coordinator

Join Swindon and make a difference for children and their families.
At Swindon Borough Council, we want our town to be the best it can be. Our ambitious vision is supported by realistic transformation programmes, with the people of Swindon at their heart. Because that’s who we’re doing it for - the communities and businesses that make our town great. As part of the Council, you’ll support a friendly local authority making decisions with real impact. It’s all for better public services. Better processes. And a better quality of life, for everyone. Join us, and Swindon will be better with you.

About the role

An opportunity has arisen to join the Integrated Adolescence Service as our Missing Children’s Coordinator. Do you want to be central part of safeguarding children through overseeing and improving our services to children who are reported missing? This role is unique as you will also opportunity to have contact with children and Young People. Key areas of the post are:

- To liaise with Lead Professionals including the police and outside agencies involved with children who have been reported missing.
- To provide consultation as required with the social work teams on the missing protocol and ensure that Return Home Interviews are coordinated and recorded.
- To complete return Home interviews where appropriate.
- To offer short term targeted interventions for a small number of children.

Alongside the Child Exploitation Analyst collating and analysing data on missing children from a number of sources report on performance with RHI’s, needs, trends and patterns to inform strategic planning and operational delivery improvements.

To liaise with other Local Authorities and service providers to ensure the completion of the Missing Return Interviews for Swindon Children placed out of the area and other local Authority Children placed within Swindon.

About Us

Ofsted recognised that the quality of leadership and management at all levels is an emerging key strength for us here at Swindon and our permanent senior leadership team is ambitious, energetic and assured in the oversight and delivery of services to children and their families.

Our quality of services has significantly improved over the last 12 months but we are not complacent and our transformation journey will continue, to ensure children receive a consistently good service every day.
That means that we are continuing to heavily invest in our Children’s Services teams & in you
- through a reduction in caseloads and fostering a culture of learning and challenge, to include the launch of our Social Care & Leadership academy, giving you opportunities and support to develop your career.

The improvements include:

- Multi-million pound investment into Children’s Services at a time when authorities all over the country are cutting budgets.
- Significant restructure creating smaller social worker teams with better supervision, smaller case loads, and more opportunity for CPD
- Developed an exciting learning and development programme based on outcome focused practice, risk assessment, permanency planning and developing supervision skills, to support our Social Workers to be the best they can be.
- New intuitive IT system to cut down on desk time and make mobile working the norm
- A separate Children Looked After team to make sure we provide the best service for children in care.

Our offer to you:

- £3000 “golden hello” payment after 1 years’ service
- Retention payments of £2000 after completing 2 years’ service and a further £2000 after 3 years’ service
- Relocation allowance of up to £8,000 (eligibility criteria)
- Competitive salaries
- Free car parking at our central Swindon campus
- A career average revalued earnings (CARE) pension scheme
- 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) rising to 31 days after 10 years’ service
- Leisure and Legal Services discounts
- Eating Out, Shopping and Entertainment discounts
- “Happy to talk Flexible working”

About You

Your aspirations should be limitless and you will be as determined and passionate about Children’s Services as we are. As a local authority we will continuously drive forward improvements in our services and we want our Social Workers to be part of our transformation, contribute to improving the safeguarding of our children, and we will make sure you have the full support network and training to do it.

Our teams are ambitious and proactive and we are looking for people who will share that ambition and be a part of our journey.

Our commitment to your development

We are dedicated to ensuring that you can progress your continued professional development and access training and learning opportunities linked to the BASW competencies for career progression.

We have launched the Social Work & Leadership Academy. The Academy has been created to celebrate the best in professional practice in Social Work and Social Care Leadership. The Academy represents an opportunity