Senior Practitioner

Role Responsibility

North Kent Children In Care Service have an opportunity for a Senior Practitioner to join their Dartford Team. The role is based at The Willows in Swanley and supports the Dartford and the surrounding areas of Gravesham and Swale in North Kent.

Do you want to work in an Outstanding Local Authority? Ofsted have recently awarded Kent with an Outstanding rating in recognition of the service we provide to our children.

We are now looking for experienced Social Worker who can lend their skills and experience to help us build on our successes. We have a vacancy within North Kent Children Care Service for a Senior Practitioner. The successful candidate will be welcomed into one of our 5 Teams and will be based at The Willows in Swanley.

About the area

The Children in Care Service cover the whole of North Kent, supporting the areas of Dartford, Gravesham and Swale and is a mix of urban and rural communities. Therefore, you will be required to work across the operational area of North Kent.

About the Role

Kent embraces blended working, with scope for a combination of working from home and office. You will be working with a supportive established management team, with good quality supervision, and have excellent opportunities for professional development to manage a varied and complex caseload working with children in care.

Youll develop areas of specialist practice and bring your professional expertise to a range of cases including of complex cases.

As a role model for good practice and champion for your area of expertise, youll set performance expectations, striking a balance between support and oversight. As well as coaching and mentoring less experienced staff, youll have the opportunity to act as a Practice Assessor for ASYE and student social workers.

Youll share your knowledge and experience with the team in a number of ways, including, joint visits, court attendance, case audits and reviews, you will have opportunities to contribute to working groups and multi-agency forums to support the development of new initiatives.

About you

Professionally registered with a degree in social work CQSW, DipSW or equivalent youll have a variety of post-qualification experience of working with children and families. This should cover systemic practice, and you will need an in-depth understanding of legislative and policy frameworks. Were also looking for the willingness to develop as a practitioner.

Being a team player is essential in any social work team, and youll act as a role model and mentor to less experienced colleagues, contributing to training initiatives. The ability to build relationships with colleagues as well as statutory, voluntary, and private sector agencies, will be key.

Rewards

In return, we offer an attractive benefits package, a competitive salary and a range of professional development opportunities including the exciting social care academy and routes for progression.

We are also committed to ensuring you achieve a healthy work life balance with flexible working arrangements and an emphasis on health and well-being.

Transport

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wide operational area including travelling around the county of Kent and beyond to transport children and their belongings and be available to do so in an emergency.

This role is subject to holding a Full UK Driving Licence The Council is committed to making reasonable adjustments so whilst this job requires the jobholder to drive your application will still be considered if you are unable to drive due to a disability.

This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure application to the Disclosure and Barring service and registration as a qualified Social Worker with Social Work England.

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification..

Salary is dependent on experience and progression through the career grade is based on the fulfilment of required capabilities. Applicants must be able to evidence that they have successfully progressed to the required competency level via a recognised career progression pathway when they submit their application.