Social Work Assistant – Pioneer Programme

Management Grouping: Children’s Services   

Team: Fostering

Location: Bexleyheath

Salary: £22,377 - £23,607 per annum plus Essential Car Allowance

Contract: Permanent /36 hours per week

Closing Date: 22 March 2019

The Role

Located in South East London, Bexley is within easy reach of central London, rural Kent and the continent. It is a diverse borough incorporating the best features of both town and country.

Bexley has adopted Signs of Safety as it’s practice model.  This strengths and solution focused ethos of working with families and colleagues is threaded throughout all areas of Children’s Social Care.  As part of your role you will continue to work with and embed this practice framework.  The framework is having a positive impact practice development, effective engagement with families, staff morale, and motivation across the service.

In 2016, Bexley fostering service established an exciting new provision to help children in care who may be hard to place learn how to live safely in a family. Ofsted said of the Pioneer Fostering Team that ‘these placements offer an intensively supported family environment in with a focus on collaborative problem-solving as a response to complex needs’. Working alongside our Bexley Pioneer foster carers, the social work assistants undertake training in Collaborative Problem Solving, Signs of Safety and Child Protection.

The social work assistants undertake a range of support tasks including direct work with children to help parents and carers implement Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) techniques in response to behavioural challenges faced within the home. This also helps ensure children are safeguarded and maintained within statutory education.

You will be a central part of the flexible team of support to a Bexley Pioneer family including being available to work some unsocial hours and undertake some weekend working when needed.

To find out more about the role or for an informal discussion, please call Rebecca Smith Pioneer Programme Supervisor (Bexley fostering) on 020 3045 3084.

Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service

What we offer:

• Opportunities for flexible working with excellent ICT facilities
• Career average revalued earnings pension scheme
• Performance related pay
• 23 days annual leave (rising to 27 after 5 years service) plus bank holiday entitlement
• MyChoice Staff Benefit Scheme – Includes Childcare vouchers, cycle to work scheme, access to high street shopping vouchers and online discount codes.
• Annual Leave Purchase Scheme

   View more about our employment deal here.

Your Application:

• Closing Date for your application: 22/03/2019
• Please visit our website to find out more and apply.  CVs will only be accepted if submitted with a completed application form.

This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment

This post is considered by the authority to be a customer-facing position; as such it falls within scope of the Code of Practice on English language requirement for public sector workers. The council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the JD/Person Specification. These will be applied during the recruitment/selection and probationary stages.