Experienced Social Worker - Social Work Academy

We are excited to be offering two positions for Experienced Social Workers within the Social Work Academy in Coventry. The first position is for a full time permanent Experienced Social Worker and the second for a full time 12 month Experienced Social Worker post.

This is an exciting position for an experienced social worker to hold who is confident and experienced with working with children and families under Section 17 and section 47 of the Children's Act.

These positions are predominantly supportive positions including modelling for Newly Qualified Social Workers, rather than a general case holding post. As an Experienced Social Worker you would be mentoring and modelling best practice, supporting during Learning and Development Sessions and generally only case holding Section 47 enquiries up until point of transfer.

This role can support with your experience gathering towards progression in Social Work as it will introduce elements of supervision and modelling.

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?

You believe in providing a high-quality service that ensures that the child is at the heart of everything we do.

You will need to have a recognised professional Social Work qualification (MA/BA/BSc in Social Work, Diploma in Social Work or CQSW) and Social Work England registration with experience in the management of dealing with child protection enquiries, completing duty assessments, and managing timescales.

For full details on the application process please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'

Interview date(s): Commence 23rd February 2023.
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 and benefits package - to find out more please visit https://www.coventry.gov.uk/council-vacancies

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.