Supervising Social Worker - Fostering

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.

The two Fostering Teams undertake robust, analytical assessments which focus on the trauma children have experienced and offer high quality supervision and support to our fostering families. As a Supervising Social Worker, you will safeguard and promote the welfare of Cheshire West and Chester's children by delivering an exceptional service, keeping children's wellbeing and safety at the heart of your approach.

The vacancy is for a half-time (18.5 hours) Supervising Social Worker to work across the two Fostering Teams –

Grade 9 (Progressed) SCP 27-31: £33,820 - £37,261 or

Grade 10 (PQ Award/experienced) SCP 31-35: £37,261 - £43,366

The post requires a Social Work qualification, extensive knowledge of legislation underpinning delivery of social care and fostering, and at least 3 years post qualifying experience. The post will be based in Winsford. 

The post holder will:

• require registration with Social Work England as a registered Social Worker.
• be able to work across the Cheshire West and Chester Borough and beyond
• must demonstrate experience and a good understanding of working directly with children and families including working with connected carers/recruited foster carers.

Our Children's Social Care workforce is passionate and committed to improving outcomes for children in our Authority by providing a consistent, high-quality service to children and families, together with the support from a stable leadership and management team. We are committed to a culture of shared learning and development in which everyone has a part to play to ensure that our services to children and families focusses on positive outcomes.

We have developed and continue to embed ‘Our Way of Working’ with our multi-agency partners to ensure improved collaboration and one common approach to our work with families using Motivational Interviewing and Trauma Informed Practice.  Social Workers are encouraged to work creatively in planning and decision-making with children and their families and our partner agencies to achieve positive outcomes and with a focus on prevention at every level.

We are proud that Ofsted have rated us as one of the top performing Children’s Services in the country, receiving overall “good” in our 2015 inspection and retaining “good” in our inspection in 2019. OFSTED has acknowledged that our children benefit from a stable and resilient workforce.  We are approved as a ‘Partner in Practice’ with the Department of Education and won ‘Overall council of the Year’ and ‘Best Innovation’ awards in 2018.

Cheshire West and Chester will be committed to supporting your development. In March 2019, OFSTED said that our ‘Social workers have access to a comprehensive learning and development package and are supported to develop their skills, experience and qualifications through a well-embedded ‘grow your own’ framework. Staff report opportunities to progress into more senior positions in the organisation and develop their skills through moving around different service areas. Social Workers receive regular and reflective supervision, and they are supported to learn and develop their skills through a comprehensive learning and development programme.

Our social workers will tell you: -

• •I’ve always felt supported and part of a team.
• The training opportunities are excellent across all grades.
• •Managers at Cheshire West and Chester strive to make Social Workers feel valued and recognised, they are approachable and compassionate
• •Cheshire West is a great Local Authority to work for! Everyone genuinely has the needs of children at the heart of everything we do
• •Social Workers are both encouraged and supported to be creative and strive for excellence.
• •Cheshire West is a cheerful, friendly, and caring place to work
• I feel valued; it is great to work somewhere that makes you feel like your contribution to the work we do actually counts.
• •Social Workers are encouraged to work with partner agencies to make plans that work with families and encourage and promote change.
• •There are ample training opportunities to develop your Social Work practice and a clear progression pathway to underpin this.
• •I feel well supported by my team, manager, and the senior managers in the authority.

Our commitment and investment in professional development means that most of our Senior Practice Leads, Team Managers and some Senior Managers have progressed within our own organisation.

As a local authority, we have developed an inspirational social work offer to support and develop our valued workforce, including.

* high quality progression and developmental opportunities

* work-life balance, flexible and remote working arrangements available, including up to date IT equipment, and a smart mobile phone for all employees

* competitive working rewards

* high quality supervision

* strong reflective practice framework

* free parking at all our office locations

As employers, we recognise that Cheshire West and Chester Council has a major role to play in improving the quality of life of its employees.  We are committed to agile flexible and mobile working and helping employees to maintain an effective balance between their work and home life.

We have a strong political and senior leadership team with a wealth of experience and knowledge about children’s outcomes across the borough of Cheshire West and Chester. Children’s social care and the wider partnership use this understanding well to target areas for continued improvement.

If you have any queries about this vacancy, please don't hesitate to contact: Julie.preece@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.