Qualified Social Worker – Integrated Adolescent Service

Do you want to work in an Outstanding Local Authority? Ofsted have recently awarded Kent with an Outstanding rating in recognition of the service we provide to our children. In particular, Ofsted were impressed with the Adolescent Service responses and support to children at risk of contextualised harm. We are now looking for social workers who can lend their skills and experience to help us build on our successes.

The Integrated Adolescent Service recognises that adolescents should be given a bespoke offer of support. We want professionals capable of bringing understanding and emotional intelligence to everything they do. The service promotes a practice philosophy which seeks to empower young people and their families, building on individual strengths, and helping them to develop strategies which support them to understand, manage and respond to the difficulties they face.

Our practitioners need to be resilient and persistent; be solution-focussed; look past challenging behaviours; build positive relationships with adolescents and their carers, and to inspire young people to reach their potential.

We have opportunities for experienced Social Workers to join our teams in West Kent as a Senior Practitioner. We want a practitioner who really cares about adolescents and who understands the impact of trauma, and how to respond to contextual harm.

Our generous retention package is up to £5,000 per annum, after a qualifying period. In specific circumstances a relocation package and golden hello payment is available to qualifying applicants. Applicants will receive an annual salary from £41,782 to £46,606 dependent on skills and experience.

About us:

AST are a specialist social work team within an Integrated Adolescent Service which includes Youth Justice, Early Help, Inclusion & Attendance and Youth Services.

AST offers intensive support to adolescents and their families to manage complex situations including extra familial harm and family conflict. AST focuses on young people who are at risk of being exploited. We work with young people facing a range of difficulties and challenges associated with the state of 'adolescence'. We recognise that the more vulnerable the young person is because of the difficulties they experience, the greater the risk is that they may be exploited.

We offer co-working and co-location opportunities and we have excellent relationships with key partners including Housing, Education, Health and the Police.

Your role will involve providing intensive support, empowering young people and their families to develop effective long-term solutions to manage their family relationships and develop strategies to overcome the risks that adolescents face during this phase of their life.

Where it is not safe for young people to remain living at home we will continue to work with them and their families as well as their wider network to identify suitable safe alternatives.

This role is a unique role which will provide you with experience in working across the areas of assessment, children in need, child protection, contextual harm, Court work and rehabilitation home. We believe that this will provide you with a wide spectrum of skills and we are committed to putting in place personalized development plans with our workers to enable them to feel valued and supported in their career development.

We have invested heavily in our core offer to staff, including evidenced based training in case formulation, contextual safeguarding and trauma-informed approaches. We also offer trauma-informed supervision to practitioners and managers to enhance how we support our workforce.

About you:

With a degree in social work – CQSW,…