Consultant Social Worker

Cheshire West and Chester Council brings a fresh and energetic approach to providing top quality services for its many customers and communities. West Cheshire is a place where everyone can Thrive – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money and Empowerment.

We are seeking to recruit an experienced Social Worker to our workforce team to support our ongoing Social Work Apprenticeship Programme. This is a new and exciting venture, and the successful applicant will play a key role in developing the skills of our apprentices across adult social care as well as contribute to the wider practice development across the directorate.

It is essential that you have a Social Work degree qualification or equivalent and are registered with Social Work England. You also need a Practice Educator Lever 2 or be working towards.

We are looking to appoint a Consultant Social Worker, to support the Assurance and Workforce Manager in delivering support for apprentices, organising and overseeing placements including acting as practice educator during their placements where required. You will also support the wider practice development programmes in adult social care including the ASYE and Progression programmes. You will also have the opportunity to support the wider apprenticeship growth across the directorate on other apprenticeship programmes.

The Consultant Social Worker will facilitate a learning culture where individual workers are recognised for the experience they bring to the job as well as providing challenges to develop their social work identity and autonomy and learn from good practice. The successful candidate will provide case and reflective supervision and will be responsible for the assessment of the apprentices within adult social care and will support the completion of the placement portfolios. The role will also involve coordinating the learning and development of Apprentices and NQSW’s across the service by facilitating group supervision and supporting practice managers to ensure that they provide optimal learning opportunities and that portfolios are evidenced to the highest standard service wide. The Consultant Social worker will also hold some complex cases where the service requires additional support or independent review.

The successful applicant will have considerable experience of practicing statutory social work in a multi-disciplinary setting and supporting student social workers. We expect applicants to have demonstrable skills in delivering interventions with complex cases, the ability to analyse and evaluate risk and feel comfortable in making justifiable professional decisions whilst working with reasonable levels of autonomy.

We expect the knowledge base of applicants to demonstrate expert understanding of social work legislation, court of protection processes and statutory guidance, assessment, and social work methodologies, including systemic and relational approaches. The successful candidate will be empathic, enabling, and resilient with a ‘can do,’ solution-focussed approach.

This is an exciting opportunity and a commitment to our continued desire to grow the skills of our workforce. 

You must be committed to promoting Equality and Diversity, have a proven ability to provide reflective supervision, think systematically, effectively challenge and influence Social Work Practitioners, whilst guiding them to seek evidence-based conclusions with the child’s welfare as paramount. It is also essential that you can demonstrate that you have developed strategies to engender a culture of productivity and learning.

This is a hybrid post which means working in one of our Council offices in locations across the borough as well as the opportunity to work from home and undertake visits in the community.   The benefits of working for the Council go well beyond making a difference to people’s lives, as well as working within a supportive environment with people who share your values you will have access to a huge range of benefits including discounts on: 

• High street and supermarket shopping 
• Gym membership 
• Holidays 
• Days out 
• Cinemas 
• Childcare vouchers 
• Cash back scheme on any medical treatment that you may require via Medicash 
• Car lease scheme (Brand new fully maintained and insured car for 3 years in return for a fixed monthly payment via salary sacrifice) 
• Cycle Scheme (Save up to £320 on the cost of a brand-new bike and equipment) 

We also offer: 

• Competitive salary 
• A generous holiday allowance starting at 26 days pro rata (plus bank holidays) increasing with length of service to 31 days 
• An excellent career average pension scheme with employer contributions of 22.3%. (Employer contributions elsewhere are typically 3%) 
• The opportunity to develop your skills and career 
• Rewards and Recognition for going above and beyond such as additional annual leave and shopping vouchers 
• Supportive team and culture 
• Opportunity to purchase up to 10 days additional annual leave 
• An Employee Assistance Programme, which offers free 24/7 confidential assistance, practical information, and emotional support. 

 For more information about the role please contact ascrecruitment@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk.

Please note that this job is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

To find out more information about what it is like to work for Cheshire West and Chester Council including our rewards and benefits please see www.cwcrecruitment.co.uk

No candidate will meet every single requirement - if your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you!

Cheshire West and Chester Council are committed to equality and diversity in employment.  Please see the Equality Policy for more information.

Cheshire West and Chester Council have adopted a Local Living Wage for our employees which means that all employees will receive a minimum of £10.90 per hour for all contracted hours.

For any technical enquiries please email Sourcingteam@ecwip.co.uk and quote job reference number in all correspondence.