Senior Practitioner Social Care Qualified - PP Associates : Job Details

Assessment team’s complete holistic child-centred assessments, incorporating the child’s identity, ethnicity, gender and culture. This is done by triangulation of information gained from: visiting and speaking with the child to build meaningful relationship throughout the process, consulting with parents/carers, including non-resident parents, stepparents, family members and other professionals who know the child well to inform an outcome focused SMART plan or next steps.

My client aims to work alongside families, to respect families and their rights, to work with them in partnership and with their informed consent, to recognize their strengths and help them identify their needs. Our overarching duty is to promote the upbringing of children within their families, where this is compatible with the welfare of the children.

As a Senior Practitioner, you have the opportunity to help us with the ongoing development of our staff in their knowledge, experience and practice. You will closely work with the managers to develop the team and deliver high quality service to our children, young people, foster carers, connected carers and special guardians.

You will provide coaching, mentoring, training and support to apprentices, step up students and traditional students. Leading on areas of practice development and training within the wider service, you will support with the implementation of our practice standards, quality assurance framework, professional values, policies and procedures.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage a caseload of complex cases to ensure resources are utilised effectively.
• Maintain continual professional development in social work practice whilst modelling this to other members of staff and promoting a strong learning culture.
• Use professional skills and experience to provide case reflection and practice management to team members to ensure compliance with national and departmental policies, procedures and quality standards.
• Support team members to further their professional knowledge and development to improve the overall quality of practice.
• Attend court, where appropriate, to assist the team in ensuring that key professional input and expertise is provided to high profile and sensitive cases.
• Liaise regularly with peer colleagues throughout the Directorate to ensure social work staff deliver existing and new practices consistently and to a high standard across the Directorate.
• To supervise social work students on placement or non-social work staff within the team.
• Foster good relationships with partners, other agencies legal services and local family courts to manage efficient and effective Legal Planning Meeting, Public Law Outline and court proceedings where attempts to support children to remain within their families have not been successful.
• Promote purposeful social work practice and undertake regular clinical and case work supervision that is reflective and outlines clearly the next steps to improve outcomes for children, young people and families.
• To contribute to the professional development of team members.
• by undertaking responsibilities with regard to less experienced staff
• by advising other staff on particular areas of case management
• by co-working cases to support development
• supporting chairing of meeting
• attendance at court, when necessary
• by providing quality assurance of assessments, plans and statements
• Provide role modelling, coaching and mentoring to contribute to the following outcomes:
• Contribute to operational development of the service that supports the whole system approach - to integrated practice
• Promote the voice of the child and ensure all children and young people’s plans are robust, SMART and are in a language that the children and their families will understand.
• Ensure recording practices are safe and secure and routinely monitored.
• Ensure that planning of service and team development takes account of assessed need and results of regulatory inspections, where relevant.
• Contribute to the induction of all new staff in consultation with managers and the workforce support officer.