About the role
We are looking for an inspirational Service Manager, for our Children in Care Service in Cambridgeshire, who wants to lead on developing an outstanding service for the children and young people in our care.
It is an exciting time to join Cambridgeshire County Council as we develop a new model of practice focussed on relationships and being aspirational for children in our care in terms of their homes, relationships with their families and educational opportunities. Within the Children in Care Team, we are developing our practice models to include trauma informed approaches, DDP and strength-based practice. No two days are the same and we have a fantastic team who will all support you to drive these exciting changes in children’s social care.
We recognise that the job can bring challenges and are proud to offer our colleagues holistic support through our employee assistance programme, and through the rolling out of group supervision supported by one of our in house clinicians. You will have the opportunity to be creative with care planning and will have the opportunity to have your ideas and voice heard.
We are supporting our colleagues in career progression and have a comprehensive Learning and Development team that offers bespoke training. This is supported by our Cambridgeshire Academy for Reaching Excellence (CARE) , which is aimed at nurturing and developing social care skills. The new Social Care Academy aims to improve outcomes for children and young people through support and training being offered for social work students and apprentices, international practitioners, experienced social workers and those in leadership positions. This is seen as a long-term investment to deliver excellent outcomes for children and young people of Cambridgeshire and to enable opportunities for them to thrive.
This supports our ways of working while also embedding the ambitions for a greener, fairer and more caring Cambridgeshire.
If you wish to discuss this post, please contact Catherine Isaacs, Head of Service for Corporate Parenting on Catherine.isaacs@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Interviews to provisionally take place on Tuesday the 20th February.
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?
You will be responsible for the supervision of two Children in Care Team Managers, who each line manage 7 Social Workers. You will also be responsible for monitoring and developing practice; use of resources with a particular focus on placements; performance management and supporting with raising the profile of children in care across the County and District Council and partner agencies.
You will effectively manage resources, developing practice and performance, and deliver a strong service development plan; working with other service managers and colleagues across children’s services.
Please refer to the Job description for further details.
About you
We are keen to hear from you if you have strong leadership skills and a passion for continuous improvement as you lead by example.
You will have a passion for working with children in care, senior leaders within the council, and multi disciplinary partner agencies. You will have experience in working with children in care or care leavers, and a knowledge base of relevant statutory legislation and guidance.
You will be creative and understand the needs of children in care and the complex demands on the service. You will be evidenced based in your practice and use data to support developments and quality assurance.
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, enjoys building relationships and likes to explore possibilities.
You must:
- Be a qualified Social Worker with a Social Work England registration.
- Have the ability to work from a variety of locations and travel countywide independently.
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. Benefits include:
- Flexible and creative working arrangements, including agile working
- Generous annual leave entitlement and 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
About us
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.
Attached documents
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