About the role
In Children’s Services we’re looking for recent, or soon to be, Social Work graduates to join us to complete their Assessed and Supported Year of Employment (ASYE) in 2024 in a Newly Qualified Social Worker role.
We offer an excellent package of support for our NQSWs to build a strong foundation to your Social Work career including support from our Cambridgeshire Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) – our new approach and commitment to support learning and develop for our current and future children’s Social Workers and social care practitioners.
CARE will provide you with the best support and learning opportunities so that you can be the best you can be and that together we can achieve excellence and improve outcomes for our children, young people and families. CARE is driving forward a culture of change where everyone feels valued, experiences kindness and compassion, in an environment that fosters high expectations, high support and high challenge. The focus is on growing people and supporting colleagues to create a more stable workforce.
The learning offer will include the fundamental knowledge and skills essential to excel and will be delivered through tailored courses and programmes, giving you the chance to specialise in a team you feel best supports your career choices and aspirations.
You will also receive:
- Regular high-quality individual and group supervision
- Action Learning Sets to help you translate your knowledge and skills into live practice
- Support from a dedicated ASYE Co-ordinator during your first year of employment, alongside your manager and ASYE Assessor.
Within your application you will be asked to submit a CV and complete a Supporting Statement. Please use this as an opportunity to show us how your experience meets the essential criteria within the Job Description and Person Specification attached to this advert. We will also be looking for you to demonstrate the qualities described in the About You section of this advert.
We’d like to invite you to join our virtual event on Tuesday 13th of February at 4pm-5pm to find out more about life as a Children’s NQSW at CCC – to register your attendance please go to: www.bit.ly/CSCASYE-recruitmentevent
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview at New Shire Hall the week of the 18th of March 2024 – please be aware we are unable to facilitate virtual interviews.
If you have any questions please email JoinUs@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
What will you be doing?
On a reduced and protected caseload, you will work within a diverse and supportive team that will empower you to make important decisions and find creative solutions to challenging situations.
You will be completing our structured ASYE Programme which includes 24 learning and development days over the year. This includes six structured workshops specifically aimed at NQSWs, as well as regular peer supervision using the Action Learning set model, monthly support and portfolio development hubs and study days.
We have vacancies throughout Cambridgeshire in our Assessment and Children in Care Teams, where you will be challenged and supported in developing your core social work skills with vulnerable children and families.
About you
We're looking for confident and dynamic individuals who enjoy making a difference in their local community. Analytical thinkers who are curious and spot things that others might not see, and who like to work creatively and explore possibilities. Most importantly, we are looking for people who are child centred, committed to relationship-based, reflective practice and to achieving the best outcomes for our children and families.
Are you:
- A recent Social Work graduate, or graduating in or before the Summer of 2024?
- Highly motivated, tenacious, and passionate about delivering quality support to children and families?
- Able to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently, including to areas which may not be covered by public transport? We encourage candidates currently learning to drive to apply under the provision that they will have passed their driving test by the end of August 2024.
Then this is the job for you!
For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification.
Please be aware successful candidates must be registered with Social Work England prior to starting in post, we expect this to be on or around the 2nd of September 2024.
Our benefits
We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits:
- Flexible and creative working arrangements
- Flexible Bank Holidays
- A comprehensive wellbeing package
- Our Cambs Rewards employee discounts
- A comprehensive pension scheme
- IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
- Camweb our staff intranet helping to keep you informed
- An employee recognition scheme
- We offer a generous mileage allowance
For our Newly Qualified Social Workers, we offer more specific benefits like:
- Generous annual leave provision (28 days, plus bank holidays)
- A supportive management team that will champion your learning and development
- Employee Assistance Programme – access to free support 24 hours a day
- Scalable retention payments to loyal social workers in specific teams after the first full year of employment, starting at £900 which increases during the first three years of service
- A relocation package of up to £8000 for eligible candidates
- Plus, 6 days of protected time each year to enable our Social Workers to maintain their Continuous Professional Development.
Please read our benefits brochure attached for more information.
For Newly Qualified Social Workers (NQSWs) in their Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) will be appointed to a spot salary of £37,358. On successful completion of your ASYE, you will be moved to a qualified Social Worker position with a salary of £38,258.
About us
As the only county council to be awarded a Silver Membership of The 5% Club, we are committed to developing people as both a business and social imperative; addressing youth unemployment and skills shortage; supporting the development of existing colleagues and working towards having a minimum 5% of our workforce enrolled on ‘earn and learn’ programmes within five years.
We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.
Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.
http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers
