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Senior Practitioner - Children in Care

Please Note: The application deadline for this job has now passed.

Job Introduction

Are you an inspirational and child-centred social worker? Do you have an interest in developing long-term relationships with children and young people in care? Are you passionate about improving your direct work skills and working with children, young people, foster carers and their families to make positive plans of permanency?

As a Senior Practitioner you will play a crucial part in the implementation of statutory responsibilities for our Children in Care, acting as a source of knowledge and experience for all team members and utilising your skills to work towards best outcomes for Children in Care. 

Within the Children in Care Team in Milton Keynes we have a real systemic way of working with children and young people, our visits are written in a narrative way to children and young people and this puts them at the heart of our practice. We have a team that consists of social workers, social work assistants and we work very closely with LAC nurses, primary mental health worker and our colleagues in the Virtual School. The nature of the work does mean travelling both locally and to places at a distance.

As a team we are very passionate about learning and self-development; we meet to discuss as a team every two weeks, where a member of the team presents an idea, model, practice tool or anything of their choosing. This active way of team and self-development promotes a real sense of togetherness and partnership within the team.

We offer a £4000 market supplement (pro rata), excellent training and career progression opportunities, flexible working including homeworking for up to 2 days a week (full time equivalent) and a suite of IT equipment to enable you to do your job effectively. Support with career progression and access to clinical supervision is provided to all employees.

We encourage and warmly welcome applications from social workers in all disciplines such as Adult Social Care and Mental Health Services.

This role is eligible for you to be referred by an MKCC employee, as part of the Children’s Services Social Worker Referral Scheme. The successful candidate, and the referrer, will, subject to all conditions of the scheme being met, receive £1000. The reward is split into two £500 payments, the first received on appointment, and the second after the first-year anniversary of being in post. You must indicate in your application, the name of the person referring you, for this to apply. It cannot be applied retrospectively.

Main Responsibility

  • Chairing multi-disciplinary meetings and working closely with other agencies/professionals to complete assessments and formulate child centred care plans.
  • Completing annual Children and Family Assessments on each case to ensure that the care plan for the child/young person is reviewed. 
  • Ensuring that children have all of their day-to-day care needs met and fully understand their care story. This will be through the provision of direct work/life story work and multi-agency working with other professionals. 
  • Managing a caseload of up to 20 children with children subject to Care Orders, Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children, Placed with Parents and children subject to Placement Orders. 
  • Working as part of a team to share knowledge, develop team skills and contribute to the overall development of the team.

The Ideal Candidate

  • Work closely with the Deputy Team Manager, Team Manager and colleagues to provide the leadership, management, support and training necessary to help social workers, social work assistants and social work professionals fulfil their role.
  • You will be an experienced and high performing Senior Social Work professional holding case work responsibility for the most demanding and complex cases assigned to the team.
  • The role holder will develop and maintain positive and influential working relationships with team members in order to fulfil the role of supervisor, mentor, coach and trainer.
  • The role holder will work with a range of colleagues from across the Council and partners, and chair as appropriate a range of professionals’ meetings and decision-making forums.
  • You will be the allocated Social Worker for children and young people who have care plans of long-term foster care, adoption or permanency through kinship care. It is essential that you have a driving license and a car available for work purposes. 
  • Should you be offered the role, as part of the pre-employment checks an Enhanced DBS will be actioned for you (unless you are on the DBS Update Service).
  • For this role you are required to have a Full UK Driving Licence and evidence of your Vehicle Insurance with Business Use. . If you are successful, you will be required to supply evidence of your Licence prior to starting the role.

Package Description

In addition to your salary, we offer a range of benefits including:

  • Great holiday benefits - most roles include 28 days annual leave every year on top of public (bank) holidays, increasing to 32 days after five years.  In addition, there is a holiday purchase scheme allowing staff to purchase up to 5 additional days of leave each year.
  • Excellent pension – everyone who works for us can join the national Local Government Pension Scheme, widely regarded as one of the best available.
  • A full range of family friendly policies including enhanced maternity, adoption and paternity support and a childcare subsidy.
  • Access to an award-winning employee benefits programme that includes a health cash plan, a low-cost bike purchase scheme as well as high street discounts and money off entertainment and travel.
  • Blue Light Card - employees working within social care can qualify for an additional range of discounts from national retailers and local businesses.

Our roles are either designated ‘site based’ or ‘home based’. ‘Site based’ roles can include up to two days a week working from home whilst ‘home based’ roles are based at home four days a week.  Of course, managers designate which category roles are in based on the needs of the service and the circumstances.

About The Organisation

Milton Keynes City Council is a large, modern and financially stable employer with around 2,500 people working across our eight areas. Together we provide local residents and businesses with a wide range of important round-the-clock services and aim to make our city a better place to live.

We work hard because of the demands placed on us, like protecting children from harm or preventing homelessness. However, working for the city is always rewarding and everyone has the opportunity to make a real difference. 

We’re very proud of our diversity and are committed to having a workforce that reflects the community we serve. Whatever your background, you will be welcome here if you share our values of being dedicated, respectful and collaborative.

We offer great training and support and because of the size and scale of the organisation there are always new opportunities to explore when it’s time for a new role.

If you’d like to know more about how we do things and what matters to us, take a look at our short booklet What makes us Milton Keynes City Council.

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