We currently have a vacancy for an Advanced Practitioner in our Children Looked After service and would love to hear from experienced Social Workers who are passionate about working with children and families and can use this passion to inspire others.
Our Ambition:
In Kirklees we are always striving to be better and we are continuing on our improvement journey. We have made great progress and are now focused on developing outstanding services that ensure we fulfil the following ambitions:
Where children and families need us to be involved in their lives we will provide the lowest level of intervention at the earliest possible opportunity.
We will work with children and families and the people who matter to them not do ‘to’ or ‘for’ them and we will never ignore them.
Relationships will be at the heart of everything we do.
We will support children, families and communities to identify their own solutions, recognising their expertise in their own lives.
All of our work with families will be purposeful and meaningful.
Children will be supported to remain within their birth families and where this is not possible they will be able to maintain strong links with the people and places that matter to them.
Children and young people who come back to read their case files will be able to understand their stories and reasons for decisions and actions that were taken on behalf of them.
We will be ambitious for our children. Every child in Kirklees should be supported to fulfil their full potential no matter what.
If your ambitions match ours and you understand what good and outstanding practice looks like and, most importantly, why this matters to children and families then come and join us!
The Role:
The role of the Advanced Practitioner in Kirklees is to provide tailored support to practitioners by driving and modelling best practice across children’s social work services to improve outcomes for children and families.
As an Advanced Practitioner you will be primarily responsible for providing developmental and direct practice support to a group of Newly Qualified Social Workers, designing and facilitating group learning opportunities and providing specialised practice support.
To enable our Advanced Practitioners to provide flexible and responsive support without compromising the service children and families receive they do not typically case hold, however due to service need there may be occasions where some case work is required.
Advanced Practitioners maintain a connection to practice by supporting others and we strive to ensure that no practitioner in Kirklees will be asked to do anything for the first time in their career on their own or without the support they need.
About You:
You will:
Love working with children and young people.
Be empathetic, curious, kind and helpful.
Have experience of supporting other practitioners and sharing your enthusiasm and practice wisdom.
Be a role model, understanding that as an Advanced Practitioner you will be a practice leader.
Understand the important role Social Work as a profession plays in people’s lives and strive to uphold the standards and values set by Social Work England.
Be a reflexive practitioner who is always seeking to develop your practice and work in an evidence-informed way.
Work well as part of a team as well as being able to motivate yourself to work independently.
Be confident to challenge where you see things that could be done differently to improve outcomes for children and young people.
Our Offer to You:
We believe in working restoratively and are proud to promote a Restorative Practice approach across our Children’s Services and, increasingly, across the wider Council. We prioritise relationships, work collaboratively and value and support innovative and creative practice as this is how we achieve change. We will challenge you to step out of our comfort zone, but this will be in a safe and supported way when you are ready! We will give you the time, tools and support you need to be the best Advanced Practitioner you can be.
As an Advanced Practitioner you will have access to high quality training and professional development opportunities including; coaching and mentoring, opportunities for practice specialism and role specific protected practice development time with the team. You will be supported in your professional development and have a Professional Development Plan to support this whether the AP role is where you want to stay or it is a step in your career pathway.
To support others effectively you need to have access to high quality reflective supervision. We recognise that everyone’s needs are different and that they can change over time and therefore you will be offered regular one to one supervision with your manager at a frequency that meets your needs. Alongside this you will also have access to formal and informal peer support and group supervision.