We are delighted to be able to offer you an exciting opportunity to join our Children and Families Teams in North Essex (Clacton on Sea, Colchester, and surrounding areas).

We are offering a face to face welcome from our Director and the opportunity to meet our teams and the colleagues you could be working with. Our Recruitment Day is Monday 24th May 2021, of course we will have your safety as our priority and all required Covid measures will be in place, to allow you to truly get an understanding of our teams and our environment. If you would prefer a virtual interview, please do let us know.

Serious about social work? We are…read on about this incredible offer

At Essex County Council, we are committed to giving every child and young person the support they need to excel in life.

Our immensely successful Social Work teams are at the heart of this ambition. Using systemic and strengths-based social work approaches, they deliver high quality services to families facing the most complex challenges – this has resulted in them being awarded an ‘Outstanding’ ranking by Ofsted. And now, with vacancies available across our Children and Families service in North Essex, you could play an integral part in improving the life outcomes of some of Essex’s most vulnerable children and families.

We are serious about staff wellbeing and in Clacton encourage a lunch time break with walks along the beach, barbeques and after work rounders if you are interested, we know that wellbeing is vitally important for the health of our workforce.

Our Senior Practitioner posts offer a reduced caseload to provide our less experienced and newly qualified social workers with support and mentoring.

We are dedicated in supporting you to grow and develop your career with many brilliant training opportunities. Clacton is the only location in Essex to have a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) with support from a wide range of specialist practitioners to support you in working with Children and their families. The idea for MDT was part of discussions in Tendring ‘Big Think’, put in place for suggestions about service development with managers to develop ideas and be creative about improving the offer to families.

 About Us

We’re proud to say that we have won the Best Social Work Employer of the Year Award – and that we are the only Local Authority in the country to be accredited by BASW as a CPD provider.

Quite simply, we are passionate about playing our part in enabling the life-changing work of our social work colleagues. As such, we continue to invest in our workforce, providing our practitioners with the tools, learning facilities, mentoring opportunities, and resources they need to improve life outcomes.

We want every member of the team to have a comprehensive and current understanding of the systemic theoretical framework and models underpinning our interventions. To maintain these standards, we have introduced our social care capability matrix in which every member of the team benefits from a structured career path. All current and new social workers are assessed against this during the interview process, and then annually. This allows us to determine the development plans needed to support the teams’ growth, and crucially, it means our employees can take the next steps in progressing their careers.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

This is a unique opportunity to embed yourself in a team who aren’t just good at what they do – they’re truly exceptional. To be equal to the challenge, you will be a registered Social Worker with a Diploma in in Social Work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent.

With plenty of motivation, the opportunity to be creative and great communication skills, you will be comfortable working with children of all ages, plus their parents and carers, and you will ideally have recent experience of Child Protection work, including section 47 investigations and assessments.

With comprehensive knowledge of relevant child protection guidance, regulations, and legislation (such as CA1989 and CJA1991) and the legal process, you will have experience of attending court in relation to childcare matters.

On a practical level, you will have strong skills in planning activities and programmes for children, young people, and their parents, and you will be well versed in child development, relating theory and practice.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wide operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role is essential.

 Our Benefits

When you join us, you can expect an exceptional benefits package that includes access to a competitive local government pension scheme, up to 29 days of annual leave with the option to ‘buy’ more holiday, flexible working arrangements, ongoing CPD opportunities and a wide array of staff discounts and loans, and our relocation packages.

But more than that, we support our staff with a truly progressive workplace that is focussed on wellbeing. With both a Wellbeing Lead and dedicated Mental Health First Aiders, we are on the verge of launching a forward-thinking wellbeing strategy for the entire Council – so you can be sure of a great work/life balance.

When applying for this role, please note that interviews will be held as part of the Recruitment Day on Monday 24th May 2021, this Recruitment Day is for post qualified Social Workers and Senior Practitioners only , we look forward to welcoming all newly qualified Social Workers at a separate event soon.

Apply now or email jane.smith2@essex.gov.uk for further information 

As part of employment with Essex County Council should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please visit: https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is proud to offer an excellent benefits package to all its employees. For more information please use the following link: https://workingforessex.com/working-here/pay-reward/ Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people as diversity is key to our success. If you have any queries regarding this role, or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk or call us on 0333 013 5888. Lines are open Monday to Friday 08:30 – 16.30.