WCC617429
Salary range: £53,109 to £72,669 per annum
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Permanent
Vetting requirements: Enhanced DBS Check
Closing date: 21 July 2024
Interview date: 23 July 2024
Contact details for Informal discussion: Farrah Chapman, Team Manager, via email: FARRAH.CHAPMAN@LBHF.GOV.UK
About Us:
THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF EMPOWERED FAMILIES
Children’s Services at Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories where compassionate people bring everything to their work, including their own experiences of parenting.
Take Melissa, a Senior Social Worker in our Assessment Team. She’s one of the first people families meet when accessing our services, so building rapport is critical. And that’s where Melissa’s life experience really counts. She had her first child as a young adult and knows just how judgemental others can be.
Melissa has something unique to offer and it can’t be found in a textbook: her own experience of raising two children as a single parent. She’s committed to empowering others: giving them the skills, resources and confidence they need, from housing support to baby supplies. And if the family has older kids? Well, she’s been there too. Her youngest is now 15 and Melissa knows the challenges of helping young people navigate inner-city life.
Melissa first learnt her craft as a support worker, then completed her statutory training as social worker – all while raising her family single-handed. And she’s not done yet. Supported by her managers, she’s been training in systemic therapy and is already looking forward to her next development opportunity.
Melissa’s more than a social worker; she’s a shining example to the families she works with every day.
The Role:
As a Principal Social Worker in our Connected Persons Team, you can make your own powerful contribution to the lives of local families, particularly those involved in fostering. Working across Westminster and our neighbouring boroughs of Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham, you will focus on overseeing court-directed assessments of kinship carers. You will supervise and support up to six social workers who will, in turn be supervising and supporting a cohort of connected person’s foster carers. Together you will scrutinise care plans and ensure that prospective carers can meet the needs of each child. You will also chair Permanence Planning Meetings for those children in a connected person’s placement where permanence has not yet been achieved. With the full backing of a friendly and highly engaged team, you will embrace our systemic approach to delivering exceptional social work.
Please refer to the Job Description for more information.
About You:
If you have experience of working with children and families in a local authority context, this is an excellent opportunity to hone your management skills while broadening your experience in other aspects of fostering work such as fostering duty, recruitment and post-order activity. A qualified and registered social worker, you will be well-versed in the specifics of safeguarding, placements for children who are looked after and court work.
We expect you to be a team-player with the ability to work autonomously and to prioritise your workload in a very busy and dynamic team. You will also be capable of working to short timescales and providing supportive supervision. Crucially, you will be ready to guide, inspire and motivate a group of social workers. Excellent analytical report-writing skills are also important.
The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a global majority background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background, you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.
What We Offer:
Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster.
Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.
At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties
As a forward thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.
The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.
We are a Disability Confident Employer – committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible.
The Tri-borough Councils are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. We expect all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect this commitment.
Corporate Equalities Employment Policy: In order to combat discrimination, no unnecessary conditions or requirements will be applied which could have a disproportionately adverse effect on any one group.
All sections of the population will have equal access to jobs.
No applicant or employee will receive less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership and pregnancy or maternity, unless a Genuine Occupational Qualification (GOQ) applies.
