Return To Practice Social Worker

Our Values

It’s great to know that you are interested in working with us at Coventry City Council. As a prospective employee, it is important that everyone who works for us is committed to our One Coventry values and shares our commitment to becoming a more diverse and inclusive organisation. 

Our Values are:

About the team we are recruiting to

Children’s Services is a service area within Coventry City Council that supports children and families across the city. 

The vision and commitment of Children’s Services ensures that a high quality and child centred service is provided, ensuring the right help at the right time and engaging with partners.  

Children’s Services is committed to outcome-driven and impactful interventions and measures success by the outcome for children and families.  

The service reflects and responds to the changing needs of Coventry and its population and understands the need for a reflective and flexible service with a strong Early Help offer to provide early and targeted intervention so that families can access the support they need from a variety of partners and agencies.  

A successful recruitment and retention strategy has resulted in a committed and stable workforce who are dedicated to delivering excellent services to children and young people in Coventry.  

If you are a newly qualified social worker we want to hear from you.  It is a great time to join our diverse workforce within Children’s Services, with great opportunities to develop your learning, ongoing training to improve practice, a clear way to progress through our progression pathway, and an engaging team that recognises success and values staff.  

What is the job role?

Thank you for your interest in our Return to Practice Programme. Coventry is rated good by OFSTED and is committed to attracting quality practitioners to our workforce.

We have an award-winning Social Work Academy which offers an intensive supportive learning environment to newly qualified social workers stepping into professional practice. The Academy supports a range of initiatives, for example Frontline, Step-Up and a new Apprenticeship Model that have broadened to support local experienced children and families’ workers to progress their social work career.

The Return to Practice Programme will complement this portfolio reaching out to those who have qualified and practiced as a social worker in the United Kingdom, but that have been out of practice for some time and are now looking to reignite their passion for social work as a career. The Return to Practice Programme will enable you to gain the learning and practice experiences needed to start you back into a social work role, as well as enable you to meet the requirements for registration with Social Work England. If you are currently registered with Social Work England, you are not eligible for this programme.

Upon a successful placement and gaining your Social Work England registration, you will continue your employment within Coventry’s Help and Protection service. The city is divided into four areas Central, East, West and South.  These teams undertake statutory social work tasks with families who require an assessment, child in need and child protection services, public law outline and court involvement as well as children looked after who have a return home plan.  

On this programme you will receive:

• A paid full-time supervised practice placement- including shadowing and learning opportunities within Help and Protection.
• Supervision with an experienced Social Work team manager
• Reflective 1:1 and group supervision with a Professional Practice Educator
• Opportunities for protected private and formal study each week, which will be built into your weekly schedule during the time of your practice placement
• A hybrid weekly timetable of learning and practice
• Our Academy will support your placement to review your progress and ensure you have met all requirements in order to gain your registration with Social Work England.
• Initially, the salary is £24496-£30151 (paid as a child and family worker), increasing to a social worker salary of £28226 - £30095 once successfully registered.
• Reimbursement of Social Work England registration fee (excludes restoration/scrutiny fee).

Through the Social Work Academy there is plenty of support available. Your paid supervised practice opportunity in a children’s services team will be complemented by support from the Professional Practice Educators based in the Academy offering the opportunity to access a learning and development offer, to renew and enhance your existing skills. You will then continue with your employment as a registered social worker in Coventry. Coventry is highly committed to improving outcomes for children and their families and attracting enthusiastic and experienced practitioners with the right kind of support and encouragement to come back into this challenging and interesting profession.

This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Who are we looking for?

• You will need to have a recognised professional Social Work qualification (MA/BA/BSc in Social Work, Diploma in Social Work or CQSW).
• Social Workers that have been out of practice between 2-10 years.
• Must have held registration with Social Work England or HCPC.

For full details on the application process please read the attached document on our jobs page labelled 'Coventry City Council Application Process'

About Coventry

Coventry is a lively, multicultural city, which embraces old and new. Around the modern city centre there are traces of history everywhere – in the old city walls, the timber-framed buildings and the reconstructed medieval Spon Street. But Coventry has always had an eye on the future, and is now firmly focused on regenerating and re-inventing itself to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. With major developments and new projects taking place right across the city, Coventry City Council is the place to be!

There's a huge buzz about the city – Coventry ranks as the 8th best city to live, work and do business in the UK, and it was the UK City of Culture 2021. We believe this will help put Coventry on the map for all the right reasons as you can feel the sense of local pride throughout the city. It also offers a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to those joining us to play their part in it.

We genuinely believe that Coventry City Council is a special place. You will be joining Coventry City Council during an exciting time to become part of a team that contribute to achieving our visions for the city. We have made our council a place where we look after our people, making sure you're happy in your work and given everything you need to succeed. We've created friendly, welcoming workplaces where everyone is working towards the same cause, providing the best possible services for the city of Coventry.

As a council with improvement at its heart, we’re committed to making life better for the people who live and work in Coventry. We’re equally concerned with the quality of life enjoyed by our people, so by joining us, you won’t just be helping the community, you’ll be helping yourself too.

Not only do you get to work alongside great people that are helping to improve services for our community we offer great benefits too! For your valued contribution we will provide a fantastic benefits package including;

• Flexible working arrangements
• Generous annual leave allowance starting at 27 days and rising to 32 days
• Opportunity for Salary Match and Pay progression through multiple increments
• Outstanding local government pension scheme
• Learning & Development with access to certified courses.
• Access to an award winning Occupational Health Team
• Vibrant employee networks 
• Lifestyle savings
• Salary Sacrifice Schemes; Car Scheme, Cycle to work and more
• Interest free travel loans
• Payroll giving scheme
• Workplace parking scheme
• Maternity, paternity and adoption Leave
• And much more