Job Introduction
Milton Keynes City Council is seeking an experienced and enthusiastic Social Work Manager with significant experience of managing contextual risk to lead the Contextual Safeguarding Team.
The team is a statutory multi-disciplinary team which holds Child in Need, Child Protection and Children Looked After cases. The team manager oversees qualified and case holding social workers as well as differently qualified workers including intervention and youth workers. This is an exciting collaboration between the city council and partners which is leading the way in developing contextual safeguarding practice with our young people and our community.
The Contextual Safeguarding Team sits within the Family Support Service and the Team Manager will be expected to oversee all key operational decisions in relation to the Contextual Safeguarding with oversight from the Family Support Service Manager and is also responsible for the operational implementation of the missing response and the Focussed Deterrence pilot programme.
We’re looking for someone who enjoys working with young people and who is innovative in their thinking, has extensive experience in multi-agency working and is able to work to promote the safety and wellbeing of young people through statutory and local guidance.
Interviews will take place on the 21 June.
Main Responsibility
- Ensure oversight of all children sitting under statutory frameworks are appropriately safeguarded and their wellbeing is promoted effectively, through the application of specialist theory, practical and procedural knowledge.
- Lead a team consisting of 21 multi-agency and multi-disciplinary professionals to ensure they are effectively managed and supervised and casework is suitably allocated and monitored across the team’s area of responsibility, ensuring the best possible outcomes for children.
- Supervise the Professional Lead for Contextual Safeguarding to ensure that the oversight and support provided to professionals outside of the contextual safeguarding team is robust and targeted.
- Work in partnership with the strategic lead to ensure that the strategies around missing, exploitation and contextual harm are developed and implemented with the team.
- Ensuring that assessments, care planning and case work reviews comply with the standards set by Social Work England, Ofsted Inspection Framework and Her Majesty Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) to ensure legal requirements are fulfilled to achieve best practice.
- Setting short and long-term goals for the team in order to contribute to the council’s vision, mission and values as well as enhancing the department’s safeguarding and promoting the well-being of children processes.
The Ideal Candidate
- Professional qualification in social work with extensive post qualification experience and/or supervisory experience in social care
- Experienced Team Manager who has extensive experience assessing and managing contextual harm.
- Multi agency working.
- Possess good written and verbal communication skills including presentation skills with ability to question, challenge, solve problems and complete tasks within variable time frames.
- Experience of managing professional anxieties around contextual harm and risk and appropriately challenging professionals to ensure that children and young people’s welfare is paramount.
- Must be self-motivated, able to work independently and make difficult and challenging decisions whilst supporting staff in their complex work.
- Able to drive change and empower staff to deliver outstanding and child focused practice that will ensure we are meeting our local and national requirements and seek to be aspirational for the children who are open to the team and in Milton Keynes.
- 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 provide evidence of your vehicle insurance with business cover and use of a vehicle. 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.
