Social Worker Aspiring Futures

Social Worker - Aspiring Futures (Fixed term for 12 months) -

Grade: G9;
Salary Range: £42,839 - £46,142

An exciting opportunity has arisen for the appointment of a social worker specialising in working with children and young people who are exploited to join our Aspiring Futures Team on a 12‑month fixed term basis.

Walsall Children’s Social Care has created a service for exploited young people. We have listened to the voices of our exploited young people, families and professionals and created a model of working based on this. Collectively, we are proud of the positive impact the team has had in Walsall.

The Aspiring Futures team consists of a Team Manager, Assistant Team Manager, Social Workers, Aspiring Futures Practitioners and Exploitation Coordinators. No matter where a young person is within their social care journey, they will have one Aspiring Futures Practitioner or Street Team’s practitioner who will work in a relational, trauma‑informed way to reduce exploitation risks, alongside a social worker within Aspiring Futures or locality family help teams.

The model is based on rationale practice and consistency of practitioners, enabling rapport to be built which brings the ability to gather richer, vital information that helps keep the young person safe and supports mapping of all exploitation risks across Walsall. We actively attend and advocate for our young people in statutory meetings and contribute to wider planning, drawing on an in‑depth understanding of the push and pull factors, behaviours and individual circumstances.

We work closely with partner agencies, including but not limited to Police, Street Teams, the Youth Justice Service, Education, Health, the Violence Reduction Partnership, Mentoring Services, Detached Youth Work Services and Voluntary Organisations. We undertake MACE (Multi‑Agency Child Exploitation) Meetings on a monthly basis for all high‑risk young people.

Daily Exploitation Triage is in place to oversee all age exploitation and missing episodes and is attended by partner agencies. It is chaired by the Team Manager or Assistant Team Manager on rotation.

The high‑risk exploited young people receive the same comprehensive offer as the medium‑risk group, who are supported by Street Teams. Low‑risk exploited young people have their needs met through the internal Youth Worker offer.

As a social worker within the Aspiring Futures team, you will work with a reduced number of young people who are being exploited, allowing intensive work with each young person and their family. You will help them understand their needs and lived experiences of exploitation and contextual safeguarding, utilising context weighting and considering wider vulnerabilities and protective factors.

You will also conduct The Our Family assessments and Exploitation Risk Reduction assessments to identify and analyse extra‑familial and contextual risks alongside familial risks and protective factors. This is achieved through specific prompts, questions and direct work tools, enabling a greater understanding of how the young person interacts with the wider contexts and the risks this may pose.

Participation and partnership with the young person and their families is key. You will build a positive and engaging relationship, involve them fully in safety planning and decision‑making, and support their active participation in MACE meetings and Team Around the Family meetings with key partners to achieve risk reduction and positive outcomes.

You will engage in group supervision with other involved practitioners and receive individual monthly supervision, including clinical supervision through a trained clinical psychologist.

• Social Work Qualified with a minimum of 12 months post‑qualifying experience in children’s services.
• Registered with Social Work England.
• Enthusiastic, passionate and knowledgeable about reducing exploitation for young people; professional, dynamic, and compassionate.
• Experienced with assessing and supporting the needs of children considered 'children in need', at risk of significant harm, or in care; with a good understanding of statutory…