About the role
What could be more rewarding than helping care-experienced young people build the confidence, independence and opportunities they need to thrive in adulthood? Do you have the expertise and passion to lead practice that transforms outcomes for young people leaving care?
If so then this could be the ideal opportunity for you. We have a part time (30 hours), 12 month, fixed term or secondment opportunity in our Leaving Care Team for a Senior Practitioner. If you are applying for the role as a secondment you must speak to your line manager before applying, to confirm that you can be released from your substantive post.
We work with young people aged 16 to 25 who are in care or care experienced, supporting them to develop independence, access education, employment and training opportunities, maintain positive relationships, and achieve stability in adulthood. We use a strengths-based and relationship-focused approach, working in partnership with young people and professionals to achieve sustainable change and improved outcomes.
Practitioners in the Leaving Care Team tell us how much they value the supportive relationships they have with their colleagues and the strong focus on helping young people achieve positive outcomes as they move into adulthood.
The role is hybrid with a mix of home and office working. It covers the whole of Cambridgeshire but the office base can be Noble House in Ely or Scott House in Huntingdon.
If this sounds like an environment where you would thrive, we would love to hear from you! For more information or an informal chat, email Head of Service Melissa Jiggins, melissa.jiggins@cambridgeshire.gov.uk to arrange a call or simply apply today!
Closing date 29th September. Interviews will be held in person week commencing 5th October.
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?
Day-to-day responsibilities of a Senior Practitioner in the Leaving Care Team include:
- Providing leadership in highly complex cases involving care experienced young people, risk management, vulnerability, homelessness prevention, and transition planning.
- Providing written and verbal reports for a variety of settings that are concise, informative and based on analysis of complex information and evidence.
- Leading, guiding and directing Social Workers, Personal Advisers and other practitioners, supporting their performance and development, including supervision.
- Supporting the planning, allocation and review of children across the team.
- Providing oversight and quality assurance of Pathway Plans and transition planning.
- Supporting partnership working with housing, education, health, DWP and other agencies to promote positive outcomes for young people.
- Supporting the induction and retention of staff.
About you
We're looking for confident and dynamic individuals who enjoy making a difference in their local community, are curious and spot things that others might not see, enjoy building relationships and like to explore possibilities.
You must:
- Be a qualified Social Worker with Social Work England registration.
- Have the ability to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently.
This is a Senior Practitioner post, so you must be able to demonstrate experience in complex case management, safeguarding practice, permanence and transition planning, and providing informal support or supervision to others.
Experience of working with care experienced young people and an understanding of the statutory responsibilities towards care leavers would be advantageous.
For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description & Person Specification.
Our benefits
We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…
- A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
- 6 days of protected time each year to support in maintaining your Continuous Professional Development
- A Refer a Friend Scheme where if you refer another Social Worker to us who is subsequently employed by us as a result of that introduction, we’ll pay you an introduction fee of £350
- Access to our Cambridgeshire Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) who will support your development, enabling you to become the best practitioner you can be
For more information and to see our other benefits, take a look at the benefits brochure attached to this advert.
About us
Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.
Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.
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 Leader. 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. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process 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.
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