Early Help Social Worker

It's an exciting time to be joining Children Social Care in Warrington, as we have been chosen as a Pathfinder authority for the Families First for Children reforms. We have several opportunities across the duty and assessment teams for Early Help Social Worker., Duty and Assessment Team - this is a fast-paced team who is responsible for the initial assessment of children and family to determine the ongoing level of need. The team complete assessments at Child In Need and within Section 47s. Within this team we have early help social workers, who primarily focus on supporting children and their families who are also supported by early help services. As part of this role, you would be responsible for working closely with early help services to contribute to the support being offered to families prior to and during the initial assessment period., This is a really exciting time to join Warrington. Warrington Borough Council is one of seven new areas to be chosen to deliver the Families First for Children Pathfinder programme - improving services to help more children stay with their families in safe and loving homes, and protecting vulnerable children from harm where needed. The programme will make sure targeted early help is available for families suffering domestic abuse, addiction, or poor mental health, to help them overcome adversity before issues escalate and children are put at risk of harm. Where child protection is necessary, it will be carried out by social workers with greater expertise and experience, and the wider family will stay involved in decision-making. The "pathfinder", backed by up to £19.5 million, sits at the core of the national children's social care reform strategy, Stable Homes, Built on Love, which aims to revamp the current system to focus more on early intervention and best practice child protection where that is required. Other reforms being tested include strengthened support for wider family members like grandparents, aunts or uncles to help them step in and provide support to children to help them continue living with their parents - for example help with additional weekly costs, buying a new bed, or topping up lost wages. The Families First programme will transform how Warrington Borough Council supports families and children by:

• Creating multi-disciplinary family help teams, to make sure families with multiple needs can access all the support they need earlier and in one place
• Making greater use of extended family members, with them being the first port of call if extra support is required, and practical and financial support provided to them if needed
• Establishing dedicated multi-agency child protection teams
• Creating stronger and clearer multi-agency safeguarding processes, including an increased role for education and improved information sharing
• The children's social care reform strategy published last year, Stable Homes, Built on Love responded to recommendations made in the Independent Review of Children's Social Care, led by Josh MacAlister and the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel's review into the tragic deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson. The findings showed the care system was often fragmented and struggling to meet the needs of children and families across England.
For more information, visit Families first for children (FFC) pathfinder programme and family networks pilot (FNP) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)


• Self-motivated and flexible with the ability to use own initiative
• Good organisational skills with ability to prioritise work to deadlines
• Positive approach to managing stress and the ability to work under pressure
• Ability to use IT and present information
• Ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing with a range of people including team members, service users, carers, colleagues within the department and with other agencies.
• Ability to prioritise and organise workload to meet targets and respond to unforeseen events.
• Negotiation, problem solving and decision-making
• Ability to adapt to change
• Ability to model and promote excellent practice within the team and to wider audiences
Education, Qualifications and Knowledge
• Recognised social work qualification
• SWE registration
• Evidence of Continuous Professional Development
• Knowledge of relevant legislation, Government policy and guidance, The ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post.
  
  Here in Warrington, we are on our own journey and are proud to be graded Good in all areas in our 2024 Ofsted inspection. It says: -"Social workers told inspectors that they enjoy working in Warrington. They feel valued and benefit from a culture of openness and learning. Workers feel well supported by managers, with supervision taking place regularly, which is mostly reflective and focuses on children. Senior leaders are extremely visible and approachable, listening to staff views. There is a strong focus on and a commitment to workforce development. Warrington has a practice framework and culture which is based on shared values. Social workers are supported to access a wide range of appropriate training opportunities, reinforcing and embedding the learning culture. These opportunities support social workers to develop new skills, enabling them to work very effectively with children and families, along with supporting their professional development"
We have a strong vision for social work practice in Warrington and are developing a new approach to social work. We are currently embedding a relationship-based practice model that has systemic practice at its core. We are working alongside the Centre for Systemic Social Work, who are providing a comprehensive training programme to social workers and managers across our teams. In Warrington we want all children and families to benefit from high quality and purposeful relationships with professionals. We believe this will help create the best opportunities for people to change and reach their full potential. We also believe one of the most effective ways to improve the outcomes for children and families is through providing our social workers with the best conditions in which they can thrive. We are based in Time Square; this is a great workspace with hubs and pods in order to provide a great environment to work, furthermore, with cafes and restaurants on the doorstep, with excellent transport links to surrounding areas .So, if you want to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children and young people with relationship-based practice at the heart of everything we do and develop great relationships, then come and join us in Warrington where we are passionate about our work with children and families.

As well as a competitive salary, working for us means you get:
• Essential Car Allowance
• 26 days annual holiday - raising to 31 after 5 years of service (pro-rata)
• Access to our attractive and competitive benefits package
• Access to our Health & Wellbeing Programme