Social Worker - CWAD (Dorchester)

Salary details: £34723 - £37261

Social Worker – CWAD

37 hours (flexible working considered)

Salary £34,723 - £37,261

Dorchester, combined with home-working

What’s in it for you:

This is an excellent opportunity for practitioners who are thinking of diversifying their skills and knowledge in the social work field. An opportunity to make a difference to the lives and circumstances of children who have severe and complex needs and require specialist and integrated approaches. You will be helping children and young people to reach their potential and offering an additional layer of support to families caring for a disabled child.

The Children who are Disabled (CWAD) service is made up of three social work teams who cover the Dorset boundaries. Included in the service is the CWAD Support Team (Early Help) and a Paediatric Occupational Therapy Team. Both of these services are able to support children who have eligible needs but do not require a Social Worker. You will be joining a stable service with a diverse range of skills and knowledge an a strong culture of learning and development.

What you can expect to be doing:

You will be working with children who have severe and complex needs, including Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Dorset Council sets out a threshold statement for disability criteria for children and young people who are eligible to receive a service.

The team undertake the range of statutory social work duties, completing Children and Family Assessments, working with families to address child protection concerns and working with children in care; this includes children living away form home on a permanent basis and children spending periods of time away from home under short break arrangements. Our involvement with families is generally on a longer term basis and focuses on strengths and relationship based practice.

Our work requires a coordinated multi disciplinary response, working closely with partners in Health, Special Educational Needs teams, including educational settings, clinical and therapeutic practitioners in Learning Disability CAMHS and Core CAMHS and also with the voluntary and private sectors.

We work with Adult Services, with a current development plan to create a 0 - Settled Adulthood Service.

About you:

You will be passionate about working with children and families

Be able to demonstrate the skills required to be able to effectively practice social work and build relationships with children and families

Be able to demonstrate knowledge and application of relevant legislation and policies

You will have a Social Work Qualification and be registered with Social Work England

You will have experience of working in statutory social care services

You will be able to fulfil the travel requirements for the role

Additional Information

For further information regarding this post, please contact Katie Downes at katie.downes@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk or 01305 216646.

This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

This post involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders.

See our policy on safeguarding children and young people.

The friends and family referral scheme applies to this post. If an employee recommended this post to you mention them when asked on your application form. They'll give you all the information you need.

Employees can share this advert by using the button links alongside the job title.

You must:

• have a degree in social work/Occupational Therapy or equivalent
• be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• be able to fulfil the travel requirements of the post

See the children’s social worker framework.

Dorset Council: A great place to work

We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

• provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
• have ambitious aspirations
• are excited about our future
• care about Dorset and all the people who live here
• know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success

You will:

• have access to a range of employee benefits
• be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
• have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.

We cannot accept CVs in the place of an application form as we need the same range of information from all our candidates.

Find out more about how to apply.