Grade I, £34,728 - £38,890 per annum
3 x permanent posts – 2 in the Safeguarding Team and 1 in the Children with Disabilities Team.
37 hours per week
Exciting opportunities have arisen to join Bolton’s Children’s Services as an Advanced Social Work Practitioner.
My name is Ian Walker and I have been Assistant Director in Bolton for only 6 months and most of those in the most unique of contexts. This is a relatively new role to Bolton which I have introduced.
Not for one minute have I regretted my decision to join the Bolton Family and I don’t think you will either.
So, what will you gain from an application to work in Bolton?
Working with a manageable caseload and in small teams ensuring readily available line management support.
A stable and accessible senior management team (including the Assistant Director) who are passionate about improving services for the children and families in Bolton.
A Restorative Practice approach that actively encourages imaginative and family focussed interventions.
A strong commitment from partners to work collaboratively.
An organisation that genuinely care for its workforce and the community in works with.
We may be rated as ‘Good’ but we aspire to be even better
Bolton 2030 is our long term vision for our Borough. In Bolton our vision is to support people to Start Well, Live Well and Age Well. This includes supporting our children to get the best possible start in life, so they have every chance to succeed and be happy.
Here in Bolton we keep children and young people at the centre of all the work we do; we strive to offer families the support and intervention they need to make and sustain positive change so they can safely meet the needs of their children wherever this is possible, and when children cannot remain with family that they have timely plans of permanency.
Bolton’s Children’s Services were judged as ‘GOOD’ in an Ofsted ILACS inspection in 2018
Ofsted commented:
“Children who need help and protection are supported by timely and effective services, delivered by skilled social workers, with decisions that are made by managers.”
“Good management oversight from experienced team managers, who have manageable spans of control, allows for regular formal and informal supervision and provides staff with effective support to ensure that their work with children and families is purposeful and effective.”
The Advanced Social Work Practitioner role has been introduced to support the career development and retention of experienced social workers and to support the Principal Social Worker in the formulation and dissemination of practice developments in a consistent manner across Safeguarding and Early Help. Holding a reduced caseload of some of the more complex cases in the team the ASWPs are also responsible for supporting and mentoring the ASYE cohort.
After a round of internal interviews ASWP posts remain in two of the Safeguarding Teams and one in the Children with a Disability Team.
The posts would be ideal for practitioners who are ready to take their social work career onto its next stage or for those who want to take their first step towards a management position.
The Teams will all be co-located at Castlehill which will support better inter-service communication and collaboration and reduce the risks of ‘silo’ working. In addition, the Senior Management Team, including the Assistant Director, are also co-located with the teams ensuring that management support is visible, accessible and readily available.
You will be a motivated and enthusiastic practitioner with the ability to build professional relationships with children and their families, to ensure their participation in your social work practice.
You will have good knowledge and experience in safeguarding children, as well as being able to produce high quality assessments and understand the current changes within children’s social work.
You will be resilient, adaptable and capable of working effectively with colleagues from other professional disciplines.
You will be an excellent communicator, efficient in time management, report writing and completing assessments as well as a strong team player who values the strength of working in a person-centered manner. All roles require Social Workers to be able to write reports to an excellent standard and deliver accurate and concise information verbally, in written form and also where necessary in court.
Staff benefits include –
Generous Annual Leave – a minimum of 28 days annual leave, rising to 31 days after 5 years service.
Essential Car User Allowance
Flexible Working and access to remote working and mobile technology
Access to Gym Membership and Cycle to Work Schemes
Local Government Pension Scheme
Relocation scheme
Employee Assistance Programme
Our offer to you –
Regular informal and formal supervision from experienced Managers
A clear progression pathway
Access to learning and development training and activities for your Continued Professional Development
Opportunities to shape practice and service delivery with the Principal Social Worker Team
Full access to Research In Practice learning resources
Support to achieve accreditation with the National Assessment & Accreditation System
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. A DBS check is therefore required for this post.
This post is a designated customer facing role under the fluency duty and requires a specified level of spoken English as per the person specification.
This organisation has signed up to the Greater Manchester Continuous Service Commitment. That means we will recognise your continuous or ‘unbroken’ service in any Greater Manchester local authority or NHS organisation, Transport for Greater Manchester, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service or Greater Manchester Combined Authority, giving you access to our service-related benefits.
For more information please see the Work with Us page on greater.jobs
Please see the job description, BN DBS.pdf, BN Privacy Notice.docx, BN VB Framework.pdf, and BN Right to Work.docx for further details