Social Workers

Vacancy Description

Our Family Safeguarding teams are dedicated to improving the outcomes of Children and Families within West Berkshire. If you are passionate about supporting families to make sustained change and share our drive to keep more children safely at home with their families then this could be the role for you.

We have exciting opportunities for Social Workers to join our East and West Family Safeguarding Teams.

We are Ofsted rated ‘Good’ and aspire to work towards an ‘Outstanding’ rating with Ofsted stating that West Berkshire Council has “A strong, stable and child-focused leadership team that has continued to improve services for children and families in West Berkshire”.

Come and join us to be part of our journey of further improvement and dedication to the children of West Berkshire.

The role

Utilising the Family Safeguarding Model you will work in collaboration with other specialist workers including Domestic Abuse Practitioners, Recovery Workers and Mental Health Practitioners to offer group based interventions to families. Adopting a strengths based approach and applying motivational interviewing techniques you will work with our families to identify what changes need to be made in their daily life and support them to achieve these. You will have the opportunity to work directly with children to understand what’s important to them. Your work will take a holistic view of the individual across both their immediate and extended social circles, having full regard to their overall development needs. You will access high quality reflective supervision within a multi-disciplinary forum to strengthen information sharing and decision making.

The ideal candidate would have the following skills and attributes

You will hold a recognised Social Work qualification and registration with Social Work England. You will hold a current driving licence and have use of a car. You will need good organisational and planning skills. You will have experience of managing levels of risk within a caseload of complex cases. You will be able to demonstrate knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations, guidance and policies. You will have excellent stakeholder management skills, being able to build effective relationships with colleagues, individuals and external organisations. You will have effective skills in managing conflict and disagreement.

Our offer to you

A competitive salary alongside a range of benefits including:

A golden hello payment of £3k after one year in post A retention payment of £2k after two years of service A further retention payment of £3k, plus a four week paid sabbatical after three years’ service Flexible Working: West Berkshire has adopted a Hybrid Working Policy, which allows employees to split their time between attending the workplace and working remotely Social Work England registration fees reimbursed Dedicated employee wellbeing service with Employee Assistance Programme offering a great range of discounts at a variety of retailers, services and everyday spending. Regular and high quality reflective supervision. Approachable and visible senior leadership Local Government Pension Scheme Generous annual leave allowance, plus an additional 5 days leave after 5 years continuous local authority service Relocation package for individuals moving from outside a 30 mile radius (subject to eligibility) Blue Light card fees reimbursed

All roles are subject to an annual banding pay review until the top of the pay grade is reached (following successfully passing probation) All roles will be eligible for the annual national pay award.

Please note that the closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment. 

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