Team Manager - Child Protection

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About the role

We're excited to welcome an experienced colleague to join our fantastic team in North Dorset. We are proud of our commitment to our children and families to make Dorset the best place to be a child and the range of innovative initiatives that support this.

You'll join us at an exciting time as we move forward with testing the delivery of key reforms across the sector and designing social work for the future. Dorset has been recognised for the fantastic work with children, young people and families taking place by being selected to be one of only three initial pathfinder Local Authorities nationally. By joining our team, you will be part of helping us to shape the Families First for Children Pathfinder in Dorset and across the country. This is a fantastic 'once in a generation' opportunity and comes with central government grant funding and support which recognises the scale and ambition of the work we need to carry out.

As a Team Manager in North Dorset, you will lead a close-knit and supportive team that strives for excellence and adopts a strengths-based approach in their work. Collaborating with fellow team members, children, their families, and other professionals, you will be responsible for managing and ensuring the quality of all statutory work for children in need, Child Protection, Pre proceedings and Court work.

The successful candidate will demonstrate Dorset behaviours and their ability to:

• Lead and manage work with children and families using a high support high challenge model.
• Support and promote a strength-based approach.
• Develop the use of research and evidence to inform practice.
• Pro-actively manage a staff team to ensure that children and families are provided with the right support at the right time.
• Work as part of a multi-agency partnership to meet the needs of children and families.

About you:

To succeed in this role, you will be a qualified social worker and ideally have experience managing a dynamic team of Social Workers, Social Work Students, and Family Workers, with a strong emphasis on reflective supervision.

As the ideal candidate, you demonstrate through modelling :

• Child-focused approach: Prioritising the well-being and interests of children, ensuring their needs guide decision-making.
• Effective communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills enabling successful collaboration and mediation with diverse individuals and agencies.
• Relationship-building expertise: Proficiency in establishing and nurturing relationships, fostering collaboration among multiple agencies.
• Advocate with kindness, reflective and strengths-based practice: Actively engaging in reflective practice, encouraging others to identify and develop their strengths.
• Skill in calmly managing risk and uncertainty: Capable of assessing and managing risks confidently, navigating uncertain situations effectively.
• Strong reflective abilities: Proficiency in critical self-reflection, continuous learning, and refining professional approaches.
• Supervisory experience: Previous role as a supervisor, providing guidance, support, and feedback to a team.
• Use of performance data: Skilled at leveraging performance data to inform and improve practice, driving positive outcomes for children and families.
• Passion for development and improvement: Genuine enthusiasm for professional growth, actively seeking opportunities to enhance skills and contribute to practice enhancement.

What's in it for you:

Join our exceptional teams in children's services, where you'll be fully supported and appreciated throughout your career - whether you're newly qualified, or an experienced practitioner. In Dorset, we are dedicated to fostering an environment where every child can thrive, and we want our colleagues to do the same.

Our focus is on supporting families to meet the needs of their children and keeping children at home where it is safe to do so, fostering environments where children, young people, and families not only stay together but thrive. We're dedicated to providing the essential help they need, ensuring they are surrounded by the support of their family network, and creating safe spaces both inside and outside their homes. You'll find a variety of exciting challenges, working with our children, families, and partners, in a workplace that inspires you to grow professionally and personally.

As part of our model, we have developed multi-agency locality teams bringing together colleagues from across Early Help, Children's Social Care, Educational Psychology, SEND and Inclusion services under the leadership of Heads of Locality and Strategy.

We also have truly exciting initiatives. Some examples are:

• The Pineapple Project that provides safe havens in Weymouth to help to keep young women safer when they are outside of their family home using the principles of community guardianship.
• Safeguarding Families Together; embedding specialist multi-disciplinary professionals within teams and working 'whole family'. After successful pilots in Weymouth, Portland and Dorchester the project is due to be rolled out across all localities
• Our family hubs provide visible, appealing and welcoming spaces for families to access help and support from Dorset Council and partner services.

Join us and be part of our exceptional Children's Services team, recently recognised as Good with Outstanding Leadership by Ofsted. This is not just a job; it's an extraordinary opportunity to empower children and help them reach their full potential. With Pathfinder, we will be changing the way Social Care and how working with families is approached in Dorset and helping to shape this across the country.

As a Team Manager here in Dorset, you'll truly make a difference to the lives of children and young people in our beautiful county.

We prioritise your wellbeing by offering access to talking therapies, a network of Mental Health Champions, and workshops facilitated by our dedicated Employee Wellbeing Team.

You'll join a forward-thinking service, where you'll be encouraged to think creatively, question how we do things, and devise new, innovative approaches through our Partnership Workforce Events - our Children's Services' employee forum.

Find out more about Children's Services in Dorset: Jobs in Children's Services - Dorset Council .

What our people say:

"Dorset is a great place for children to thrive - I am very proud to be part of an organisation that recognises the strengths of our staff and the creativity we have in achieving great outcomes for our children, young people and families."

"It was great to feel listened to about the big issues and developments within Children's Services".

"I am proud of the service I work in for their commitment to children and young people, working hard to collaborate with colleagues and agencies to achieve good outcomes."

Further Information

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact us at [email protected]

This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

This post involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders .

See our policy on safeguarding children and young people .

See the children's social worker framework .

You must:

• have a degree in social work/Occupational Therapy or equivalent
• be able to fulfil the travel requirements of the post

Friends and Family Referral Scheme

The friends and family referral scheme applies to this post. If an employee recommended this post to you mention them when asked on your application form. They'll give you all the information you need.

Employees can share this advert by using the button links alongside the job title.

Relocation expenses package

A generous relocation package is payable, of which up to £8,000 (of HMRC eligible elements) are free of tax. We can offer you help to move whether you are looking to buy or rent, depending on your circumstances.

Our package includes:

• an initial advance of up to £2,500 payable when you start
• help towards fees associated with buying/selling (up to £6,500)
• an option to receive help towards your rent or mortgage in the first two years

About Us

Dorset Council: A great place to work

We're passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

• provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
• have ambitious aspirations
• are excited about our future
• care about Dorset and all the people who live here
• know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success

You will:

• have access to a range of employee benefits
• be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
• have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours . We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn .

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.

We cannot accept CVs in the place of an application form as we need the same range of information from all our candidates.

Find out more about how to apply .