Job Description

Location: Swindon
Hours: 37 – Happy to talk flexible working
Salary: £31,369 to £35,500 p.a.
Closing date: 09/02/2020
Job reference: 004084
Interview date: 18/02/2020

Join Swindon & make a difference for children & their families

There’s never been a better time to join our Children’s Services teams as following a recent inspection, we’ve been rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted (July 2019).

About Us

Ofsted recognised that the quality of leadership and management at all levels is an emerging key strength for us here at Swindon and our permanent senior leadership team is ambitious, energetic and assured in the oversight and delivery of services to children and their families.

Our quality of services has significantly improved over the last 12 months but we are not complacent and our transformation journey will continue, to ensure children receive a consistently good service everyday.

That means that we’re continuing to heavily invest in our Children’s Services teams & in you- through a reduction in caseloads and fostering a culture of learning and challenge, to include the launch of our Social Care & Leadership academy, giving you opportunities and support to develop your career.

The improvements include:

• Multi-million pound investment into Children’s Services at a time when authorities all over the country are cutting budgets.
• Significant restructure creating smaller social worker teams with better supervision, smaller case loads, and more opportunity for CPD
• Developed an exciting learning and development programme based on outcome focused practice, risk assessment, permanency planning and developing supervision skills, to support our Social Workers to be the best they can be.
• New intuitive IT system to cut down on desk time and make mobile working the norm
• A separate Children Looked After team to make sure we provide the best service for children in care.

Our offer to you:

• £3000 “golden hello” payment after 1 years’ service
• Retention payments of £2000 after completing 2 years’ service and a further £2000 after 3 years’ service
• Relocation allowance of up to £8,000 (eligibility criteria)
• Competitive salaries
• Free car parking at our central Swindon campus
• A career average revalued earnings (CARE) pension scheme
• 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) rising to 30 days after 10 years’ service
• Leisure and Legal Services discounts
• Eating Out, Shopping and Entertainment discounts
• “Happy to talk Flexible working”

About You

Your aspirations should be limitless and you will be as determined and passionate about Children’s Services as we are. As a local authority we will continuously drive forward improvements in our services and we want our Social Workers to be part of our transformation, contribute to improving the safeguarding of our children, and we will make sure you have the full support network and training to do it.

Our teams are ambitious and proactive and we are looking for people who will share that ambition and be a part of our journey.

Candidates must be fluent in the English language (as a requirement of Part 7 of the Immigration Act – for the effective performance of a customer-facing role).

Our commitment to your development

We are dedicated to ensuring that you can progress your continued professional development and access training and learning opportunities linked to the BASW competencies for career progression.

Our focus for 2019 is to create a Social Care Academy, pulling all of our learning programmes together as part of a dedicated and supportive career progression framework, to recognise our ongoing commitment to you and your development.