About the role
Do you want to work in a team where we encourage and celebrate young people's aspirations? Can you help drive transition planning to ensure that care experienced young people have the tools to make successful transitions to adulthood? Can you be an inspiring team leader cultivating a culture of creativity and dedication, empathy and expertise? If so then this is the job for you.
Our Care Leavers team are looking for a team manager to work alongside two others, to support 20 personal advisors and 3 specialist advisors on delivering the Council's ‘Local Offer’. This outlines the support that Cambridgeshire County Council provides care experienced young people, from housing to health and from education to finance. The local offer is part of our commitment to ensuring no one is left behind and that all young people, whatever their background or circumstances, receive the education and support they need to have the best possible start in life, and experience opportunities that enable them to pursue happy and successful lives.
The team follow a Pathway Planning process for care experienced young people (predominantly 18-25 years old) transitioning to adulthood, working with a variety of professionals that may be involved in a young person’s life to ensure a joined-up approach focusing on a young person’s holistic needs.
This is a hybrid role with a mix of office (in Huntingdon) and home working.
Are you ready to contribute to the welfare of young lives in Cambridgeshire working in a challenging yet rewarding environment, if so apply now, or for more information, please contact Nikki Hanks at nikki.hanks@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Interviews will be held in person week commencing 14th 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?
As a Team Manager in our Leaving Care Service, your day-to-day responsibilities are diverse and impactful.
You will line manage approximately 8 members of staff, supporting their professional growth and creating a positive team environment to address challenges and celebrate successes.
You will drive the progress of Pathway Plans, regularly reviewing and enhancing the Pathway Plans and Assessments, to ensure optimal support, with positive and sustainable outcomes, for each unique young person. You will be proactive in your approach to safeguarding and risk management ensuring that it is reflective of the evolving needs of the young person.
You will attend, facilitate, and chair meetings, ensuring that they are purposeful, while creating a collaborative environment for effective communication and decision-making. The role involves close collaboration with internal and external colleagues, including Children in Care, UASC and Adult Services, to facilitate seamless transitions for young people into adulthood.
You will produce comprehensive reports for Senior Management, offering insights into the team's performance, challenges, and achievements and provide transparent and accurate information to contribute to strategic decision-making.
You will work with other team managers to facilitate the ongoing planning of suitable accommodation and education, employment and training opportunities for care experienced young people.
About you
You will have robust experience of Children's Social Care, including familiarity with legal frameworks, statutory requirements, and guidance for care-experienced young people. You will have a good understanding of the challenges facing young people leaving our care, including separated migrant young people.
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 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
- Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
- Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
- Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
- Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
- Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
- Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
- Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
- An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes
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.
http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers