Senior Practitioner

Role Responsibility

Senior Practitioner in the Children in West Kent Care Service

About the role

The West Kent Children in Care service is committed to providing a first service for children & young people of all ages and is looking for an experienced and committed Senior Practitioner to join this well-established team based at Worrall House, West Malling. The service has an experienced and permanent leadership team.

You will have a caseload of looked after children aged 0-18yrs, undertake care proceedings and within this plan for permanency up to and including adoption.  We strive for the best possible outcomes for each child and young people we work with.

You will be supported with good quality supervision and have excellent opportunities for professional development to manage a varied and complex caseload working with children and their families.  We will support you to consolidate your skills and knowledge through secondments with a cross-section of social work teams. You will develop areas of specialist practice and bring your professional expertise to high profile and sensitive cases. As a role model for good practice and champion for your area of expertise, you will set performance expectations, striking a balance between support and oversight. As well as coaching and mentoring less experienced staff, you will have the opportunity to act as a Practice Assessor for ASYE and student social workers.

You will share your knowledge and experience with the team in several ways, including assisted fieldwork, court attendance, case audits and reviews, as well as chairing complex meetings. In addition, you will lead working groups and multi-agency forums to contribute to the development of new initiatives.

About you

With a degree in social work – CQSW, DipSW or equivalent – you must be registered with the appropriate professional body and should have substantial and varied post-qualification experiences of working with children and families. Your experience should cover systemic practice, and you will need an in-depth understanding of legislative and policy frameworks, along with a willingness to learn and develop as a practitioner; being a team player is essential in any social work team.

In return, we offer an attractive benefits package, a competitive salary, and a range of professional development opportunities with exciting of a social care academy and routes for progression.  A new practice framework and integrated working environments, with an ability to explore the breadth of children social care.

About us

We want the best for the children of Kent, and this can only be delivered as a team effort with everyone playing their part. So, we are creating a culture that fosters excellence and collaboration – a place where social workers are empowered to be creative and share ideas and advice. And, with Ofsted rating our services as “good”, Kent County Council’s Children’s Services teams are working together, stronger than ever, to deliver strengthened services and improved outcomes.

Kent is a large and diverse county, offering a broad range of challenges and opportunities to support children and young people from a variety of backgrounds and circumstance. Our Senior Practitioners also can work across a range of locations and environments, and to be seconded to or move to other teams. They can take on new challenges and experience more opportunities to develop and progress.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wide operational area including travelling around the county of Kent and beyond to transport children and their belongings and be available to do so in an emergency.  You should note that public transport is rarely a viable option as your role will involve you transporting people and equipment to venues in very rural areas, often with limited public transport.

This post is subject to an Enhanced Disclosure application to the Disclosure and Barring service and registration as a qualified Social Worker with Social Work England.

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. 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/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Contact Details

Please contact Paul Meggitt, Service Manager on 03000 410193 or paul.meggitt@kent.gov.uk if you would like to discuss this position further.

About the Company

KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county's working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds and faiths, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work.

Please note – if you are interested, please apply as soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.