Sanctuary Social Care is currently looking for an experienced and dedicated Social Work Unit Leader to fill a full-time role within a Looked After Children Team based in Newham.
The pay rate for this locum Unit Leader job is £42 to £45 per hour (LTD Company Equivalent) and is an initial 3-month contract.
Duties:
- To lead a social work unit of staff, delivering a high quality effective social work service that promotes the safety and wellbeing of children contributes to the development of resilient communities and supports positive outcomes for vulnerable children and their families.
- The post holder is responsible for a statutory social work service that has an impact on the overall performance of the council, public and individual service users.
- The post holder has line management responsibility for a social work unit of six social workers. This role entails the recruitment, induction and managing the on-going performance and development of unit staff in line with the national skills and knowledge framework for social workers.
- The post holder is responsible for the decision making on cases within their unit, up to their level of designated responsibility. This will include chairing multi-agency meetings and working closely with the Service Manager on cases where children cannot safely remain at home or in their current placement.
- The post holder has responsibility for a delegated unit budget for staffing and service users and for managing expenditure in line with their unit budget.
- As a member of the service management team, the post holder will provide cover for other Unit Practice Leaders.
- The post holder will have responsibility to work with other agencies on projects and service developments which promote an integrated approach and multi-disciplinary working.
- The post holder will be required to work some evenings, weekends and occasional public holidays in order to meet service requirements and in order to ensure appropriate representation of the Council with residents, the Mayor and elected members, and external bodies.
Requirements:
- A recognised and relevant professional social work qualification (Degree / Diploma in Social Work).
- Qualified HCPC registered Social Worker
- Management experience is essential.
- Ability to write concise reports and have excellent verbal communication skills.
- An ability to build rapport and build relationships with children and parents and to be able to coach staff in developing and strengthening their ability to do the same.
- To respect and appreciate diversity and promoting an understanding of diversity issues in social work practice.
- A high level of consultative, interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills including the ability to deal with complex issues in a sensitive and appropriate manner
- Ability to lead the social work unit, taking an overview of the work of the unit, and allocating work to staff in line with experience and ability.
- Ability to both undertake and promote the use of summary, analysis and evaluation of complex Information.
- Ability to prioritise, monitor and be accountable for children's social work through supervision of staff.
- Ability to ensure that staff within the Social work unit respond in a timely manner to all contacts from children and their families
- Computer literacy skills necessary to work with information management systems and produce good quality data in a variety of formats. The ability to work with word processing packages at a speed commensurate with the responsibilities of the role.
- An ability to develop effective interagency working processes.
- Ability to actively support and promote Equal Opportunities.
- To be able to thrive in a complex environment and demonstrate resilience.
- To ensure that staff communicate effectively with children and their families, that the voices of children and families are heard, recorded accurately and appropriately considered as part of decision making.
- A high level of consultative, interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills including the ability to deal with complex issues in a sensitive and appropriate manner.
Contact:
This Unit Leader job is advertised by Jess Ling; if you are interested in this position please click above to apply now.
Due to the high volume of applications we receive, regretfully we are only able to respond to candidates who meet our clients' requirements.
Reasonable Adjustments:
If you consider yourself to have a disability or require any reasonable adjustment during the recruitment process or within the workplace, please highlight this at the earliest opportunity. With this information, we will provide appropriate support to you throughout the process and into your work placement.
