Social Worker

Key Responsibilities:

• To undertake statutory social work with children who are Looked After, providing support, assessment of their ongoing and changing needs and interventions which will secure their welfare
• To undertake assessments of the needs of children, their families and formulate plans for those children in accordance with statutory responsibilities and departmental policies.
• Attend any Court hearings as appropriate and give evidence when necessary.
• To ensure timescales are met for Court reports and panel papers when necessary.
• To ensure each child has a detailed Care Plan which can be presented to Review, in consultation with the team manager.
• To promote placement stability and permanence for looked after children.
• To maximise the life chances of looked after children through education, health care and leisure opportunities.
• To ensure child protection procedures and processes are followed in relation to looked after children.

Qualifications and Requirements:

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

• social work degree and registration with Social Work England
• Proven social work experience/placement in children and families setting/minimum of one year’s post-qualifying experience
• Demonstrable knowledge and experience of issues relating to children in need, child protection and looked-after children, including relevant legislation, guidance and procedures
• Experience of service delivery which is culturally sensitive and responsive to the needs of a multi-cultural community
• Able to prioritise and effectively work under pressure
• Managing a quality service by ensuring key performance indicators relating to service areas are met
• Ability to work well within a team and maintain clear and regular reporting lines to line manager and senior team members
• Display agile behaviours and understand change at any given moment and respond to it effectively
• Ability to communicate clearly, both verbally and in writing, and to follow through on required actions
• Commitment to the participation of children, young people and their families both at an individual and service level
• In rare emergency situations, the ability to work flexible or unsocial hours at short notice.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
• Satisfactory declaration of interest;
• This role is subject to safer recruitment practices as it involves work with children and/ or vulnerable adults;
• Satisfactory DBS check;
• Continued professional body registration;
• Suitable driver’s license;
• As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy. 

We are a Home Office–licensed sponsor; however, for this specific role we are not able to provide Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. To be considered, you must already hold a form of UK work authorisation that does not require sponsorship.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.  

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Verena La Chiusa, Team Manager at verena.lachiusa@walthamforest.gov.uk.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Fraud Awareness Notice

The London Borough of Waltham Forest only advertises vacancies via our official website and approved recruitment platforms (e.g. Jobsgopublic).

We will never ask for payment or request sensitive personal or financial information as part of our recruitment process.

If you are contacted by a third party claiming to represent the Council, please verify the vacancy via our official careers website before sharing any information.

If you have concerns about a job advert or communication, please report it to:
fraud@walthamforest.gov.uk

 Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.