SGO​/Discharge Assessor

We are within easy commutable distance of Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside regions. In addition, we offer flexible working – including a blend of working from home/remotely

We have a strong vision for social work practice in Warrington and have developed a new approach to social work. We have embedded 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.

We have three Children in Care teams, and a Care Experienced Team for our Care Leavers each team has a Team Manager who is eager to support and develop all social workers alongside the Senior Practitioner. Our teams support children and young people who are subject to care orders and for whom we share PR who live within foster placements, residential care and also with members of their extended family.

We recognise that the role can be challenging and we have a range of exciting and impactful developments in Warrington that our social workers can utilise in supporting families, including:

• No Wrong Door –a multi-agency hub where young people at risk of going into care get targeted support to cope with the multiple issues they face; this includes our own Internal Accommodation ‘The Lighthouse’ from aged 8 years, for Outreach and from aged 12 years for Emergency accommodation whilst we work with families for children at risk of entering care and Supported Accommodation placements with wrap around Outreach support for 16-18 year old.
• Systemic Hub
  – consisting of Systemic Family Practitioners who are assigned to each team to provide therapeutic support and intervention and provide guidance to our social workers regarding systemic approaches to direct work and interventions.
• Family Time Service
  (to assist in arranging and supervising the time that our children in care spend with their families).
• Restore
  - a service designed to work with Mothers who are pregnant and have children previously moved, with the aim of reducing repeat removals.
• Family Group Conference Co-ordinators and Lifelong Links.
• Business Support
  – the team are able to assist with taking minutes of meetings, scanning documents onto the system and other administrative tasks.
• Magic Notes
  – AI to record meetings to ease the burden of recording onto the children’s files in a timely way.

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.

Here in Warrington we are proud to be graded Good overall and Outstanding in two areas – Children in Care and Leadership in our 2024 Ofsted inspection, which says;

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The decisions for children to enter care are made in a timely manner and when it is in their interests to do so. When necessary, care proceedings are initiated, and work is progressed without delay. Feedback from the local judiciary and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) is exceptionally positive. Social workers in Warrington produce high-quality evidence and assessments for court, which are supporting the timely progression of legal proceedings.

This results in swift and highly effective plans being secured for children’s future care.

Children benefit from early planning for permanence. When it is not possible for children to live with their birth parents, social workers work diligently to explore all alternative options, including foster to adopt and special guardianship orders. There is a strong emphasis on keeping children within their kinship network. Family group conferences are used to great effect to identify potential carers for children, which enables assessments to start sooner.

When children live with kinship carers, their assessments are comprehensive and support children to remain within the family,…