Head of Social Work Academy

**Contract Type**: Permanent

**Salary**:Grade K. Scale 44 £52,647 to Scale 47 - £56,755

**Hours Per Week**:36

**Base Location**:Tameside One, Market Place, Ashton-Under-Lyne, OL6 6BH

**Assessment Date**: Thursday, 3rd October 2024

**The Role**

Tameside Children’s Services are proud to launch NEW Social Work Academy starting this autumn to help increase the quality of support that is offered to families in the borough, ensuring children are at the heart of everything.

The Academy is designed to bring a thorough 36-month programme of high-quality learning and development for newly qualified social workers, who will be supported by experienced practitioners within children’s services.

As part of this launch, we are looking to recruit a Head of the Social Work Academy to lead, support and develop the skills and knowledge of our Newly Qualified Social Workers (NQSW) in their Assessed and Supported Year in Practice. The successful post holder will support the Children’s Services workforce in their ongoing continual professional development which will contribute to our on-going improvement plan to build a stable and well skilled workforce.

**About You**

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced social work professional who wants to grow their own career and support the development of others within the workforce.

You will be qualified social worker with previous experience in managing services. You will support the continued improvement of practice across the whole workforce by analysing the needs of the service and planning and providing targeted support. You will build and maintain relationships with colleagues and partners to support continued improvement of the whole service and support our improvement plan.

**About Us**

The Social Work Academy pathway recognises that staff are its greatest asset and will provide good supervision and management support, with opportunities for learning and development. The training will align newly qualified staff with experienced colleagues, building on social worker retention and providing future career development for those that have completed the training.

Tameside Council Executive Member for Children’s Services, Councillor Teresa Smith, said: “The launch of the Social Worker Academy is an exciting step in our improvement journey and will offer high quality training and development opportunities for our social workers while also increasing the quality of support that is offered to our families in Tameside. This training programme will provide newly qualified social workers with the support to continue their learning, along with dedicated mentoring to help children and families achieve the best outcomes and ensure they get the right help at the right time.”

In Tameside, we like to look after our employees and offer a fantastic range of employee rewards and benefits, including:

- Minimum of 28 days leave each year, with the option to buy additional leave
- 36 hours working week
- Flexible working opportunities
- Salary sacrifice schemes
- Family friendly policies, including maternity, paternity and adoption leave and much more

To find out more about our rewards and benefits package click here

This post is a designated customer facing role under the fluency duty and requires a specified level of spoken English.

We are committed to developing a culture which respects individuals, appreciates difference and allows everyone regardless of background to reach their full potential. We are proud to be an accredited disability confident employer. Reasonable Adjustments will be considered in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 in relation to the Job Role Criteria.

**Reference Number: DPT312