GLPC Job Description Non-Manager
/ Job Title / Social WorkerDepartment / Children and Young People
Section / Children’s Social Care
Grade / SO2 to PO2
Reports to / Team Manager
Staffing Responsibility / Occasional supervision of unqualified social work staff in a variety of contexts.
Job Purpose:
Contributing to the achievement of the objectives of Children’s Services through: -
• Undertaking assessments of need, child protection assessments, care planning and ensuring delivery of appropriate responses and actions.
• Working in partnership with other agencies to provide an effective child care service.
• Monitoring and supervising the well being of children in need, children looked after and children whose names have been placed on the child protection register according to statutory and local guidelines and procedures.
• Implementing care plans.
• Helping young people who will cease to be looked after prepare for independent living.
• Preparing children for permanent placements (adoption and long term fostering).
• Working in partnership with parents/those with parental responsibility and carers.
• Work focused on achieving positive outcomes for children and young people.
Principal Accountabilities and Responsibilities:
GENERAL DUTIES
1. Provide a service to children in need and their families in line with statutory requirements and departmental priorities.
2. Participate in training as required in the overall interests of the service and as part of career development.
3. Participate in supervision.
4. Participate in team meetings.
5. Participate in emergency duty rota within specific role.
6. Keep up to date and accurate records, using information technology where appropriate.
7. Respond to the public and other agencies by telephone, correspondence and direct contact in order to provide a service within departmental priorities and timescales.
8. Liaise with relevant external agencies e.g. police, health authority etc.
9. Liaise with relevant colleagues in other Divisions and Council Departments.
10. Responsible for individual client case planning in line with the professional standards of the department.
11. Active in implementing the Council’s Equal Opportunities Policy in professional practice and service delivery.
12. Responsible for professional decisions within the department’s priorities framework and in relation to specific procedural guidelines.
13. Undertake service development tasks as appropriate.
14. Familiarise with departmental policies and procedures.
SPECIALIST CHILD CARE DUTIES
15. Provide a preventative and rehabilitative service within the criteria of the Children Act, facilitating appropriate resources where necessary to enable children to remain with their own families.
16. Assess situations where children are referred as being in need of protection, accommodation or care provision, and take appropriate action based on evidence.
17. Plan quickly and effectively, involving carers as partners in the decisions made in respect of children.
18. Aim to keep children with their own families wherever possible. Where it is legally upheld that natural family circumstances have irretrievably broken down, to plan a secure and permanent home for children, ensuring that they have clear information about their own background and contact with natural relatives wherever possible.
19. Provide an emergency service for assessment and action where children are referred as being at risk of immediate physical danger.
20. Liaise with other sections of the Department and other relevant agencies to ensure that good childcare practice is carried out in line with departmental policy including groups and agencies.
21. Participate in relevant training and monitoring consistent standards of work.
22. Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and all employees are required to act in such a way that at all times safeguards the health and well being of children and vulnerable adults.
23. Carry out duties with due regard to the Council’s Customer Care, Equal Opportunities, Information Governance, Data Protection and Health and Safety policies and procedures.
24. Undertake any other duties commensurate with the general level of responsibility of this post.
OTHER PROVISIONS
25. This position requires that postholders undertake an Enhanced CRB Disclosure prior to employment and every three years thereafter.
26. This post is exempt from section 4 (2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, 1974, as the duties give you access to persons who are under the age of 18. Applicants are not entitled to withhold information about convictions, which would be regarded as spent for other purposes.
COMPETENCIES
Competencies SO2
At this level, the social worker will be expected to undertake the mandatory PQ1. His/her manager and a mentor will support the process of portfolio development.
A newly qualified worker will need to have completed one year’s service before commencement of PQ1. This service includes six months’ probation and six months’ consolidation. He/she will then take up to six months to get Part 1. However, an experienced worker joining Brent i.e. with one to two years’ experience could begin the PQ1 immediately.
At this level, he/she will:
27. Improve and extend his/her level of competence beyond the point of qualification
28. Evaluate the effectiveness of practice using relevant knowledge bases, research, legal and policy contexts
29. Demonstrate explicit adherence to the values of social work and ethically sound practice
Competencies PO1
At this level, the social worker will work towards PQSW Part 2 /PQCCA and will demonstrate competence in:
30. Working effectively in complex situations
31. Exercising powers and responsibilities of roles, including use of discretion and risk management
32. Making informed decisions
33. Identifying and maintaining purposeful networks and collaborative arrangements
34. Working towards PQCCA competencies
For the CCA, the social worker must have two years’ post-qualifying experience. This is a CCETSW requirement.
Competencies PO2
The social worker will have achieved the Post-qualifying Child Care Award at entry to this level (maturing practitioner). It is expected that he/she will consistently enable others through supervision, consultation and practice teaching
DBS Status / Yes
Politically Restricted / No
Person Specification
Job Knowledge, Skills & Experience:
Specify the qualifications, experience, skills and abilities required.
Knowledge and Qualifications:
• DipSW, CQSW or equivalent qualification.
• Knowledge of child care law and the ability to apply it to situations where children may be at risk or needing to be looked after.
• An understanding of the needs of children who are ‘looked after’ and the ability to develop appropriate plans for them in partnership with their parents/carers in a non-discriminatory way.
• A commitment to the Council’s Equal Opportunities Policies and the ability to understand and implement the policies in relation to the job responsibilities.
Skills and Abilities:
• Ability to write in a clear, concise manner with appropriate grammar, style and language for the reader.
• Ability to write reports that are clear, complete, analytical, focused and easily understood.
• Ability to keep accurate records in line with policy or access to records by service user.
• Demonstrate that social work practice focuses on positive outcomes for individual children and young people.
• Ability to persevere with difficult or time-consuming jobs, overcoming obstacles and setbacks, in order to see tasks through to completion.
• Ability to influence, convince or impress others in a way that results in agreement, acceptance or behaviour change.
• Ability to interpret and apply the Children in Need Assessment Framework.
• Ability to assess in a non-discriminatory way the needs of children and their families from all sections of the community and to develop and implement, in partnership with families and other professionals, effective plans.
• Ability to prioritise a case load / work load, to be able to use line management supervision appropriately, to understand its purpose and importance and to be able to work as an effective member of a social work team.