Social Worker Permanence

GRADE: AfC Scale Point 35 to 38

JOB FAMILY:  Social work

DIRECTORATE:  Children’s Social Care

REPORTS TO:  Team Leader Permanence/ Head of Permanence

RESPONSIBLE FOR:  No supervisory responsibilities

ABOUT ACHIEVING FOR CHILDREN

Achieving for Children was created by the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and is commissioned to deliver children’s services on behalf of the two local authorities. Our vision for Achieving for Children is simple: by bringing together professional expertise from the two founding local authorities, and by putting children and young people at the heart of everything we do, we will be able to deliver improved outcomes for families and give children and young people the best start in life.

Achieving for Children is divided into five key business areas: Education, Early Help Children’s Social Care; Special Educational Needs and Disabilities; and the Company (Standards and Improvement and Finance and Resources). Each business area is led by a Director or Associate Director.

ABOUT THE PERMANENCE TEAM

The principal service objective of the Permanence service is to pursue the best possible outcomes for children and young people through arrangements that provide value for money, and secure stability and permanence for vulnerable children and young people. The Service assesses, provides and reviews adoption support; organises and provides advice, support, counselling and mentoring to adopters. The service works collaboratively with colleagues within the local authority and from other statutory and independent agencies. 

In line with this, the transfer of cases between the Safeguarding and Permanence services will

happen only when it is clear that permanence away from home will be the outcome.

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE JOB

To deliver all aspects of high quality social work provision to children and their families to support them improve outcomes. To undertake cases independently and demonstrate an ability to adapt the approach from first principles to deal with more complex or unusual cases, assessing and managing risks appropriately.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Operations and supervisory

1. To safeguard and promote the welfare of young people, giving due consideration to their race, culture, religion and linguistic background.
2. To manage an agreed caseload of children and young people in compliance with casework objectives, statutory and departmental policy and procedural requirements, consistently maintaining the highest level of professional standards.
3. To undertake direct social work responsibilities as an allocated worker to the children and young people assigned, investigating concerns regarding a child or young person’s safety or wellbeing, make an assessment of the risk and protective factors and decide on the most appropriate course of action.
4. To work with children and young people, families, carers and communities to formulate care plans in partnership, based on their assessment of need, enabling them to clarify and express their needs and contribute to their planning.
5. To ensure the planning and review of statutory work with children and young people is in accordance with statutory regulation and to produce written reports and other documentation for this purpose.
6. To ensure the provision of clear written reports to child protection conferences, reviews, planning meetings and any other purpose as required, ensuring good quality casework analysis and risk assessment is evident throughout.
7. To ensure reports are prepared for Court are of high quality, and to support and prepare workers in the Court process, including giving evidence in Court, as required.
8. Maintain and update case notes and other records, write reports as required; if required, give evidence in court in relation to care proceedings.
9. To prepare and maintain case records and other casework information on the Integrated Children’s System (ICS), in accordance with the department’s policy and timescales.
10. To demonstrate the standards of proficiency as required by the HCPC in order to maintain registration.
11. To maintain an awareness of own professional limitations and knowledge gaps. To make effective use of supervision and appraisal as an opportunity to critically reflect on casework and to identify learning and development needs to continually improve upon practice; and to support continual professional development.
12. To raise and address (where appropriate) issues of poor practice, internally through the organisation, and then independently if required.
13. To work within the organisation’s professional policy and procedures and code of conduct.
14. To be flexible and able to be deployed in commensurate post across Achieving for Children in line with business need.

Performance

1. To participate in the monitoring of service delivery against agreed targets, timescales and resources, taking action as appropriate to achieve desired outcomes.
2. To champion and support continuous professional development within the team.

Communications

1. To ensure effective communications are conveyed in a timely, transparent and coherent manner.
2. To keep staff and stakeholders informed of information that affects them and influences service development.
   To establish and maintain good communication across children’s social care and with departments and agencies to facilitate the improvement and development of the service.
3. To seek, listen to, and respond to the views and ideas of staff and stakeholders, encouraging and actively engaging in positive communications and working relationships.
4. To promote the service professionally and positively with partners.

General

1. To ensure that the highest quality services are provided, within the resources available, and are responsive to the expressed needs and aspirations of residents/users regardless of backgrounds, lifestyles and abilities.
2. To demonstrate a commitment to own personal and professional development and to developing and coaching others.
3. To undertake project work and produce reports and deliver presentations as required.
4. To work on service and system developments including the use of ICS.
5. In the performance of all your duties, and in particular in the support and management of staff, to implement all Achieving for Children policies and procedures necessary to meet customer care needs and to reflect the Achieving for Children’s vision and values.
6. Champion the promotion of diversity and equalities in all aspects of service delivery and people management; demonstrate confident application of ethical reasoning to professional practice and decision making.
7. Ensure the wellbeing of employees and service-users by actively promoting and complying with health and safety regulations, policies and procedures.
8. Working to accredited children and family practitioner level of the Knowledge and Skills Statement.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Children’s Social Care

Job title: Social Worker (Permanence)

Grade: AfC scale point 35 to 38

KSS/PCF Level: ACFP/Social Worker

This job profile is provided for guidance only. It will be reviewed, updated and amended in accordance with the changing needs of the service and the specific requirements of the role.