Team Manager-Families Together

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Job Description

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, LE3 8RA

Worker Category: Hybrid Worker

Salary: £47,694 - £52,155 + £3,000 market premia per annum (pro rata for part time)

Working Hours: 37 per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 30th March 2025

Interview Date(s): TBC

About the Role

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the Families Together Team within the Children & Families Service , who work with children aged 11 - 18 who are at risk of coming into the care of the local authority.

We are looking for a team manager for our Families Together Team. This is an exciting opportunity to lead practitioners to work intensively with children and their families, or care givers.

We are looking for an enthusiastic team manager, who is passionate to use evidence-based approaches to bring about change. You will understand the impact of trauma on children, how additional needs can impact risk management, and recognise the importance of community liaison.

About You

Who we are looking for -

To apply for this post, you must :

• Have an appropriate social work professional qualification such as MA, DipSW or CQSW with experience of working in a statutory child safeguarding setting and evidence of continuing professional development.
• Knowledge and understanding of the complexity and contexts of vulnerabilities and risks that young people experience and the complex needs of families where children are on the edge of care.
• Ability to evidence your skills and knowledge of creative, innovative and relationship-based social work and demonstrate your ability to lead and manage a skilled workforce.
• Be able to demonstrate an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion
• Be confident in your supervisory skills and oversee learning and development for your team - ensuring they make the most of their CPD time and our learning offer.
• Have retained a strong interest in research and the evidence base for practice and are confident about how this can be used in practice
• Have an in depth understanding of Trauma informed practice and ensuring the child/family are at the centre of everything you and your team do, and you have high aspirations for those we serve and support.

We hope this sounds like you!

Our salaries are competitive (£47,694 - £52,155 + £3,000 market premia per annum (pro rata for part time) but we know from our own staff that there are other reasons to come to Leicestershire. We hope you agree. We look forward to hearing from you

A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.

For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our policy statement.

About Us

In Leicestershire we have a fantastic package to provide our workers. This includes the option as a full-time worker to do hybrid working, celebrating diversity with a range of events throughout the year, recognition of our staff in annual Pride in Practice events, fantastic learning and training opportunities - enabling our staff to develop and progress within their roles and committed wellbeing support.

We are proud of our continuous improvement plan - 'Achieving Excellence through Purposeful Practice' which sets out our key values, behaviours and ambitions. We have embedded the Signs of Safety approach throughout our services and this approach mirrors our values of Aspiration, Being Curious and Collaboration. We are focused on working with families and the networks of family, friends and professionals around children, to work in collaboration to achieve shared goals.
We are committed to our vision of becoming a trauma informed responsive department where we believe we are "stronger together". Our culture is one of partnership, where we look for solutions and recognise the potential impact of trauma on the children and families we work with and on our staff. We will strive to create a safe, compassionate, healing environment demonstrated through relationships based on trust, respect, hope and empathy. We will achieve this through a spirit of curiosity, by nurturing connections through relationships, making a deliberate effort to know and understand people, and by providing hope for growth and recovery.

We support and empower our staff to be the best that they can be. We will give you the support and resources that you need to work in collaboration with children and families.

• We want all our staff to be inspired to go the extra mile. We are doing our best to create the sort of culture where practice excellence can flourish. We want to learn from what works, as much, if not more, than from when things go badly - we are ambitious to create a true 'learning organisation. So...
• Every year we run three annual conferences for staff to come together and reflect and learn.
• Every month each team sets aside time for team learning.
• You will receive consistent, regular, and reflective supervision
• You will receive group supervision support
• Twice a year our senior leaders take a week out spending time with social workers observing positive practice and talking to young people and parents and carers about their experience of services
• All Social Work England registered workers have three extra Continuous Professional Development days over the year.
• Our training offer to social workers is refreshed each year and is highly valued by our staff
• We provide course and training to support workforce career progression including Practice Educator Awards, Aspiring Managers Program, and Social Work Apprenticeship Program.
• We have a team dedicated to supporting practice excellence who work alongside practitioners offering monthly training and learning, coaching and mentoring to build practitioner confidence, 1:1 or group reflective case discussions, and other support to staff and teams that can be requested.
• Our Practice Development Group is well established for practitioners to collaborate on practice development.
• We have a Critical Incident Response service for staff which provides independent therapeutic support within 48 hours if you experience a significant traumatic experience within work.
• We have a well-respected Wellbeing Service who provide specific support to staff when needed, but also offers events throughout the year. They also hold a weekly 1:1 focused session for children's social care staff with a qualified therapist and we support our workers to use this service and seeing the strength in doing so.

In all service areas you are expected to work closely with colleagues across team and agency boundaries to ensure that families get the most appropriate level of support. Staff workloads are manageable and are monitored and managed closely. Managers and staff all have regular monthly supervision, and you will be supported in your practice by an experienced senior management team.

We are currently operating a hybrid model of working, which includes office working and working from home. You will be provided with equipment including a laptop and smart phone to enable you to complete your role. We utilise smarter and flexible working policies to support staff to fulfil their roles within flexible circumstances.

For more about working in Leicestershire go to:

https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/sites/default/files/field/pdf/2017/11/...

For further information about our services areas: https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/education-and-children/social-care-and...

By the Way A Few More Benefits of working In Leicestershire....

Well regarded employee counselling services

Free car parking

Cycle to work scheme

Paid SW registration

Lease car scheme

Option to purchase of additional leave

Discounts at high-street stores and supermarket shopping

Special offers on leisure activities and gym memberships

Great Canteen for County Hall based workers (which is you!)

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Sam Stone, Field Social Work Service Manager

Email: Sam.Stone@leics.gov.uk

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.org.uk/support.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.

About Us

About Leicestershire County Council

Leicestershire County Council is a Disability Confident, Menopause Friendly, Mindful Employer, Fostering Friendly, Forces Friendly, and Cycle Friendly organisation. In August 2021, we also signed up to the Race at Work Charter. We are strongly committed to promoting equality and opportunity, championing employee wellbeing and investing in staff training and development.

Our aim is to work with communities and partners to deliver public services that make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone. Our employees play a key role in supporting this goal and helping us deliver the vital services we provide to the people of Leicestershire.

For further information on what it's like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please refer to the following:

Our Recruitment Process
Our Organisational Values
Our Employee Benefits
Working for Us