Assistant Team Manager

Assistant Team Manager – Children’s Resource Service

Grade 10 – Part Time (22.5 hours)

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our Children’s Resource Service. The role and remit of the team is to understand the needs of children and their families who are referred to Children’s Social Care, to ensure they receive the right service at the right time. This includes making timely decisions on levels of need and interventions for all children referred to the service.

The function of the MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub) sits within CRS enabling a multi‑agency work environment where we collaborate with our partner agencies to aid decision making and share relevant and appropriate information.

The team consists of Social Workers, Early Help Advisors and Information Officers. The MASH function includes working alongside our colleagues in Police, Health, Education, Probation, Housing, Substance Use and Independent Domestic Abuse Advisors.

Our team is based within the Southampton Civic Centre and is an office‑based team with the flexibility of working at home one day a week (for part‑time workers) depending on the needs of the team and service.

We are on a journey with the embedding of ‘The Conversation Model’, a relationship‑based approach whereby we have removed the online referral form and instead focused on having deep, meaningful conversations with our referrers including families themselves. This approach is aimed to have a better understanding of family’s needs at the first point of contact to result in better decision making regarding where the right support can be offered.

• Triage police, SCAS, out of hours worker notifications – ensure all immediate safeguarding concerns are prioritised in the team.
• Update task list and allocate work/calls – ensure calls are made in a timely manner, no delay for our children in the team.
• Give advice and support to all IOs/EHAs/SWs who require this in the day including case discussions.
• Complete Manager Oversight (MO) for contacts exceeding 24 hours – rationalising why the delay is proportionate for the child to ensure right help at the right time.
• Complete MO for all closures and transfers.
• Complete MO for contacts being worked by EHAs and SWs, and completing transfers (as applicable).
• Responsibility for Information Requests being shared proportionately and accurately and overseeing why we are sharing the information. ATMs to check the information collated by the IOs.
• Attend and chair MARAC providing relevant information and being able to make decisions resulting from MARAC discussions and outcomes.
• Facilitate reflective sessions to promote learning and development within the team.
• Supervision of EHAs/SWs/IOs.
• Auditing/practice development work to ensure best practice in CRS, celebrate successes within the team and highlight learning from areas of development.
• Community training and development – ensuring our relationships with our partner agencies are promoted and there are clear lines of communication with CRS and our partners.
• Supporting the Team Manager wherever appropriate including supporting Stage 1 Complaint Responses with the team manager’s oversight.
• Ensuring referral feedback is sent out at point of closure/transfer in CRS and recorded on our system.
• Supporting in taking calls with professionals where families have not been made aware of the contact to CRS and the caller is unclear on whether a referral needs to be made.

• A social work qualification (ESSENTIAL).
• Experience of leadership and management in the ‘front door’ services.
• Experience of working with the Conversation Model.
• Experience of multi‑agency and multi‑disciplinary team working.
• Experience of developing working partnerships across sectors.
• Knowledge of policies, regulations and guidance relating to safeguarding.
• Excellent personal organisational and communication skills.
• Clear understanding of Children and Learning Services and quality assurance.

The successful applicant will benefit from a leadership team who care about their staff, a competitive salary, dedicated time for continuous professional development and high‑quality reflective…