#childsafety | Senior Practitioner – Children and Families Hub job with Essex County Council | #parenting | #parenting | #kids

In Essex County Council we are “Serious about Social Work”. Having won the Best Social Work Employer of the Year Award and been awarded ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted this is an exciting time to join us. As if that wasn’t enough, Essex has also been announced as a Partner in Practice by the Department of Education, and the Essex Social Care Academy (ESCA) is the only Local Authority team in the country to be accredited by BASW as a CPD provider. We have invested in our workforce and created a positive environment for our social workers to make a difference and achieve change for our most vulnerable children and families through direct relationship-based social work practice. We have supported our staff to have an understanding of systemic theoretical framework and models underpinning our interventions; to have access to the right tools, equipment and resources; and also the right supervision, training and learning opportunities they need to be strong practitioners.

The Team

The Children and Families Hub is the single point of contact for members of the public and professionals to raise concerns about the welfare and safety of children residing in Essex. We aim to work with families as soon as any difficulties become apparent, to help them identify the things they want to change and provide the right level of intervention at the right time.

The Children and Families Hub provides both early help and statutory advice, guidance via the Consultation Line and access to Family Solutions and Children’s Social Care services for children and families with identified Level 3-intensive and Level 4- specialist needs. The Hub champions Essex’s organisational behaviours to inspire, be innovative, enable, collaborate and deliver. The Children and Families Hub is an office based due to the function of the service and staff being essential key workers.

The Role

The Senior Practitioner role provides leadership in the team, providing both support and mentoring to Social Workers and Alternatively Qualified staff and deputising for the Team Manager when needed. They will oversee the quality and timely progression of Early Help and Social Work triage undertaken by staff at the Hub. The Senior Practitioner role is key in undertaking quality assurance activities to ensure the best possible service is offered to children and families in Essex.

There will be good opportunities for your own professional development and for being part of developing our team and service. There is an ethos of openness to the development of new ideas, particularly to reinforce our relationship based focus, both with our service users and within the staff group.

The successful candidate will be expected to bring skill and high standards of social work to their own work as well as providing modelling, advice and support to colleagues. They will be committed to systemic, relationship based social work, providing effective, innovative interventions and with the ability to build good partnerships, both with our external partners and within the organisation.

Skills and Knowledge

Diploma in Social Work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent.
* Social Work England registration as a registered Social Worker
* Evidence of continuing professional development
* IT/Word Processing Skills
* Evidence of recent practice at an experienced social worker level, supported by comprehensive working knowledge and experience within the field of practice in Children Services
* Preferably with experience of Child Protection work including section 47 investigations and assessments since the implementation of the Children’s Act 1989.Considerable, recent experience of communicating with children of all ages and working in partnership with parents and/or carers.
* Experience in planning activities and programmes for children, young people and parents.
* Experience of Court work in relation to Child Care matters and have an understanding of the legal process.
* Detailed knowledge of current legislation pertinent to Child Protection (e.g. CA1989, CJA1991), Guidance and Regulations.
* Knowledge and understanding of child development, relating theory and practice.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) 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 go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service.

Essex County Council is proud to offer an excellent benefits package to all its employees. More information can be found on

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 contact the Resourcing Team on 0333 013 5888.