Advanced 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:

We value diverse perspectives and experiences and are striving to create a workplace culture that is inclusive, is accepting of all and is free from discrimination and bias.

In Coventry, we are working hard to build something special. Children and families are at the heart of everything we do, and we believe they deserve the best outcomes.  Children’s Services provides a wide range of statutory and non-statutory duties, from Early Help Services, through to children who are looked after.  

The service reflects and responds to the changing needs of children and their families.  It works to enable a reflective and flexible approach, with a strong Early Help offer and a real focus on Relationship Based Practice and Signs of Safety, which focuses on intervention and keeping families together. 

Children’s Services is proud of its achievements to date and is continuing to ensure children and families remain at the heart of all it does.  We will provide you with an environment where social work can flourish, with high support, high challenge and manageable caseloads.  Children’s Services is proud of its workforce, who are committed, dedicated, and work to a high standard. We are seeking other like minded practitioners who would like to join us.  We pride ourselves on building relationships with families and partners and hold respectful practice at the centre of all we do.

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.  Coventry believe children and families should have limited change of worker where possible to enable relationships to be built.

To ensure this is achievable caseloads are reviewed regularly to ensure that the multiple complexities within them make them manageable.  A Social Work Team consists of:

• A Child and Family Worker
• Social Workers
• Advanced Social Workers
• A Senior Social Worker; and a
• Team Manager

The team is small to enable intensive support, greater collaboration, closer working and shared understanding of risk within the team to ensure wellbeing and work life balance.  The team structure also enables progression, with a clear progression scheme in place for those who want to develop. 

What is the job role?

An opportunity has arisen for an experienced qualified social worker to work within our Social Work Academy team as a Senior Practitioner on a permanent basis.

This position is based in our Social Work Academy team within Children's Services. The successful candidate will be expected to possess significant post-qualifying experience and you will assist the Team Manager in the development, management and supervision of a team of Newly Qualified Social Workers.

This role is primarily a supporting role of Newly Qualified Social Workers, rather than a case holding role. You will make the most of your social work and specialist experience by supporting the team and taking a lead in the development of their practice. 

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?

It is essential that you bring experience of working with Children, Young People and their Families and have completed complex work including Child Protection, Child In Need, and have supported children and their families when children have become looked after by the Local Authority and through Care Proceedings and the Public Law Outline.

You will have provided support and supervision of less experienced staff, and hold a relevant Social Work Qualification. 

This is an exciting opportunity to have a specialist role in combining direct practice alongside service and professional development. You will be passionate about leading best practice and be a positive role model whilst working with our Children, Young People and their families. 

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

Interview date(s): 2nd June 2023

About Coventry

Coventry has a proud, innovative and creative spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems and bring about real social change.

We are cutting-edge, challenging, youthful, vibrant and diverse.

At Coventry we are committed to excellence in everything we do. With around 4800 staff from a range of different backgrounds, our aim is to recruit and develop talented people who will focus on our customers, take responsibility, work together and find better ways of doing things.

To deliver the best services to our residents, we need the best people working for us to make a difference to our communities.

If you join us, we will provide a fantastic rewards and benefits package - to find out more please visit https://www.coventry.gov.uk/council-vacancies