About the role
The Young Adults Social Care Team support Adults aged 18-25 countywide, with a diagnosed learning disability, who have an EHC Plan. We are looking for a dynamic, committed and passionate Social Worker to join our team on a part time (18.5 hours) basis.
The team are based at Scott House in Huntingdon but have a hybrid working pattern with some days in the office and some working from home. Some flexibility may be required on occasion around the days or hours worked to cover duty hours, essential meetings or colleagues' annual leave, though your hours over the week will remain at 18.5.
We recently had a Student Social Worker join us, and once their placement ended they said:
As a first placement student, who had no real experience of working with young people with any kind of disability, it was quite daunting for me to come to the Team. However, every single member of the team not only welcomed me, but also helped me to feel comfortable, ask questions, and feel supported.
Not once did I feel like someone was too busy to help me, or that a question I had might be a silly a question. Everybody has helped me to grow my skills to work with the young people, and allowed me to observe and shadow them, to let me learn from their practice. I feel like I am leaving this placement with a wealth of knowledge, and having learnt something from everyone in the team.
One of our team has said:
Of all the teams I have worked in, (which are many over the 28 years), the Young Adults has been the best.
This is partly because it is a lovely part of the world to work in! Such a bonus and I love driving in the countryside. But the main reason is the supportive team. In my view this is due to your strong and knowledgeable leadership, decisive decision making, being supportive to aid learning rather than being critical when mistakes are made, and creating an open learning environment where people can learn from each other and workers feel free to ask for help when they need it.
I think it is also a fun team to be in – and having time out to ‘chill’ and having the regular hubs which are also a supportive environment.
If you too would like to work in a supportive team like this, apply today!
If you would like further information about this role please contact Clare Stocks, Young Adults Social Care Team Manager, on 01223 715535 / 07747790623. Alternatively, you can email us on welovesocialworkers@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or visit our website for more information.
Closing date 11th September. Interviews will be held virtually by Microsoft Teams during the week commencing 16th September. There will be a virtual written assessment as part of this, but we’ll give you all of the relevant information ahead of time.
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?
This is a hugely varied role with the opportunity to work with Children's social care, Adult Social Care, Education, Legal services, Health colleagues and more! Your day could include completing social care assessments, support planning, completing an MCA or Cop Dols application, chairing a social care review, attending an MDT meeting, attending an EHCP review, managing the duty role, undertaking a Section 42 enquiry and, of course, visiting young people and their families at their home, school, college or social care setting.
You will have the opportunity to see young people grow, develop and progress with your support and this makes it a very rewarding role. We are a close knit, supportive team and have twice weekly virtual team huddles to discuss case and practice topics, as well as a Senior Social Worker on duty every day for additional support when your line manager is unavailable.
About you
You'll be dedicated to improving the lives of young people, working alongside other professional colleagues to promote the principles of personalisation, and encouraging independence, choice and opportunities for young people.
Knowledge and experience of working with people with a learning disability is desirable but not essential. Working knowledge of the Care Act 2014 and Mental Capacity Act is important as well as direct experience in managing your own caseload in previous roles.
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
For a full list of the requirements of the role, please check out the Job Description and Person Specification.
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
For our 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
- Payment for business mileage expenses (45p per mile)
- 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 pay progression scheme to enable our Social Workers to accelerate through the pay grade as you gain experience and skills.
- 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.
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 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.