About the Role
Salary: £54,254 to £57,775 per annum (market rate supplements included)
Contract Type: Permanent
Working Pattern: Full time – 37 hours per week
Location: Based at County Hall North, Horsham
Interview: Provisionally 8th September
As an Advanced Social Worker within our Integrated Front Door (IFD), you will bring your expertise to the heart of complex safeguarding decision-making, at the point where children and families first come to the attention of Children’s Services. You will lead on assessing need and risk, using your advanced social work knowledge and professional judgement to determine the most appropriate response for children and families across West Sussex in a fast moving and continually evolving service.
The role involves triaging a high volume of referrals from many different sources to determine an appropriate course of action to support that child. You will manage a group of Integrated Front Door Support Officers (ISOs), providing direction and assistance with their work. You will use your social work expertise to support ISOs to develop their analytical skills, decision-making and understanding of need and risk, providing professional challenge and oversight where required. You will contribute to improving the practice of ISOs and social workers within the service, role modelling and championing best practice and standards.
We are seeking a confident and collaborative professional who can build and maintain strong relationships with a wide range of partner agencies, including police, health, education, Early Help, domestic abuse services, probation and housing. With a strong understanding of statutory safeguarding responsibilities, you will be able to make sound decisions in complex situations and confidently provide professional challenge where required to keep children safe.
As an Advanced Social Worker, you will have a voice in the continued development of this service and an opportunity to use your expertise to influence practice, develop others and strengthen the quality of decision-making at the front door of Children's Services.
How We Support You
We provide regular reflective supervision and peer learning opportunities alongside specialist roles within the team to focus on the most vulnerable children.
As an Advanced Social Worker, you’ll have a minimum of 5 CPD and training days per year with access to excellent learning and development provisions such as Research in Practice and Community Care Inform, Social Work England fees paid and annual leave up to 29 days, as well as the option to buy up to 3 additional days.
As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do. For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee, please visit our Rewards and Benefits page.
Experience & Skills
We are looking for an Advanced Social Worker who can demonstrate the professional expertise, judgement and resilience required to work effectively within a complex and rapidly changing safeguarding environment.
Some of the key skills, experience and qualifications required for this role include:
- Working autonomously with a highly complex, diverse and high-risk caseload.
- Able to focus on outcomes and assess and analyse risk within a context of complexity and uncertainty, providing forward thinking strategies and solutions that consider a variety of possible options to achieve desired outcomes.
- Demonstrable evidence of providing focused, timely, sound and accurate advice and guidance.
- Experience of effectively leading, supervising or coaching others and enabling improvement of practice by being a subject matter expert.
- Able to influence, negotiate and persuade in a multi-disciplinary setting and communicate clearly and effectively, understanding other priorities in order to deal with conflict and resolve difficulties.
- A recognised professional Social Work Qualification and registration with relevant professional registration body.
- A recognised post qualifying award in Social Work or demonstrable evidence of continuous professional development at a similar level.
- Relevant advanced theoretical Social Work or equivalent concepts and practices and detailed organisational knowledge relating to the provision of a professional Social Work service dealing with very complex issues e.g. attachment, impact of developmental trauma, child development.
- Detailed knowledge of the wider Social Work legislation, organisational policies practices and procedures. In depth knowledge of the specialist area of child development and social care practice, techniques, models and systems as appropriate.
- Valid, full driving licence.
For the full list of key skills, qualifications and experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached and reference these in your application.
About Us
The Integrated Front Door brings together Children’s Social Care, Early Help and a multi-disciplinary team to provide an effective way to manage referrals in West Sussex. As the first point of contact with children and families, the IFD can influence their entire journeys. As a fast-moving service everyone can make a difference and we build strong relationships with a wide range of partner agencies including police, health and housing professionals who are co-located and working together to ensure the best outcomes for children, young people and families.
You will be joining our service at an exciting time of recent change, bringing an opportunity to influence our ways of working, utilising and developing your skills in an evolving team.
For further information about us and about working in Children’s Social Care at West Sussex County Council, please visit Careers in children's social work in West Sussex
Further Information
The reference number for this role is CAFHE06539.
For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Shannon Russell on [email protected]
For any application issues please reach out to [email protected]
To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and application form. In your application form please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to Social Work England registration, an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.
Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.
We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.
