Senior Social Worker - MACPT

Job Description

Discover yourself in Lewisham where what you do makes a difference to our vibrant and culturally diverse communities!

We have a rich history of welcoming people from all over the world and are proud to be recognised as the UK’s first Borough of Sanctuary, for our work in championing the rights of refugees and migrants.

An exciting opportunity is available as part of the DfE Pathfinder project. We are seeking an experienced social worker to become a Senior Practitioner in one of the newly established Multi Agency Child Protection Teams.

This role will play a key part in the supporting the development of the team and is an exciting opportunity to influence social work practice on a local and national level. The successful candidate will be able to work effectively across the multi-agency partnership to ensure the safeguarding of children in Lewisham.

The successful candidate will have recent experience of working in frontline operational safeguarding practice and a thorough knowledge of child protection and PLO/court processes and accompanying legislation.

The Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams will be responsible for the following core areas of work:

• Chair or attend all strategy discussions
• Co-work all s47 enquiries with Family Help
• Co-work all child protection cases with Family Help
• Chairing of child protection conferences
• Provide QA, consultation & advice across all stages of child protection work
• Co-work all Public Law Outline cases
• Co-work early stages of care proceedings

The successful candidate will have considerable experience of working in frontline operational safeguarding practice and a thorough knowledge of child protection and PLO/court processes and accompanying legislation. You will be experienced in building effective working relationships with key partner agencies such as health, education and the police.

The Senior Social Worker will sit within the Multi-Agency Child Protection Team and will have responsibilities in working alongside members of the Family Help service where there are concerns regarding significant harm to children.

This is a crucial role which requires strong practice knowledge and experience, and a proactive approach to contribute to a positive team culture within a multi-agency staff group. The role will require you to work closely with other teams in children’s social care, developing and maintaining relationships with staff and our partner agencies.

Those applying for this post will need to have

• Minimum 2 years post qualifying experience in frontline safeguarding practice
• Experience working with families in PLO and care proceedings
• Experience in supervising or developing less experienced staff

The person applying must have a thorough technical knowledge of the requirements of Working Together 2023, the Pan London Child Protection Procedures and other relevant safeguarding statutory guidance. A track record of working within practice improvement and an in depth understanding of the Signs of Safety practice framework are essential.

You will work alongside your team to promote and deliver the objective, that all children and young people in Lewisham are safe and reach their full potential.

You will need to be a skilled and reflective practitioner with a clear vision of what good practice with children and families looks like. You will be able to make effective decisions regarding children’s safety and use your skills to support change and improvement.

You will need to be a registered social worker and have recent proven frontline operational experience and be able to demonstrate your experience, skill, and ability to think strategically and embed the strategic objectives into operational practice. You will…