Social Worker

Wigan Life Centre South

College Avenue

Wigan

WN1 1NJ

Salary: Grade 9, £37,336 - £42,403 per annum.

37 hours per week

Are you a qualified Social Worker? Or are you currently working towards your Social Work qualification? Then we would love to hear from you in Wigans Duty Service, please do not apply for this post if you do not have a Social Work qualification or are actively on a Social Work course.

Why would you want to work on the duty team at Wigan?

Here at Wigan Council, we believe our workforce is our greatest asset and we will ensure you have the right support and a positive working environment to deliver outstanding support to children, young people and families. 

It’s our view that children and families benefit from a strong consistent professional relationships and workforce. Our key values and culture along with the support you will receive have enabled us to have a stable and supportive workforce. Furthermore, when Ofsted visited staff indicated that they "feel well supported by managers and leaders and they receive regular communication from the senior management team".

What will your role as a Social Worker on the duty team look like?

We are looking for Social Workers who are committed to achieving positive change for children and families and supporting your colleagues to learn, develop and deliver consistently good social work practice.  

The duty service consists of 5 duty teams, you will be on duty one week in five and have the support of a Team Manager, Advanced Practitioner and a Senior Social worker. Families who we work with in duty require our expert assessment and interventions skills. The nature of the work within the duty Service can be described as fast paced, you will work on one of 5 duty teams, only going on duty 1 in every 5 weeks. The duty teams in Wigan hold a varying complexity of cases, in our duty service, case transfer points include the initial child protection case conference, the first CLA review, the first PLO meeting, the 3rd CIN meeting.

You will have the ability to think quickly and be creative to overcome the complex challenges and issues you may face.  You will have good interpersonal and caring skills which will help you to support and meet the needs of the children, young people and their families.  Being able to be motivated to empower children and families is essential to support them to reach and achieve their own solutions and for assist in helping them make long term sustainable family plans. 

Having good analytical skills is key to be able to analyse, risks assess and interpret information or situations to solve difficult problems or to develop solutions and plans. 

In Children’s Social Care, we want to support all children in Wigan to be happy, healthy and safe; to feel listened to and to have the maximum opportunities to be ambitious. We recognise that social workers have one of the most challenging but rewarding roles. We value our social workers; the fantastic work they do and the resilience they show by overcoming challenges every day.

We believe that looking out for our young people and supporting families is a key priority for the future. Our children and young people have told us how important it is for them to feel safe, to have access to things that interest them and be proud of their local area. We want our young people to thrive, be proud to call the borough of Wigan home and see it as a safe and vibrant place to grow up in. We want them to be happy and to continue to feel connected with the borough as they grow into adults, with opportunities to live, work and raise their own families here. We want you to help us to achieve our goals.

The social workers currently in post on the duty teams have said:

“I really enjoy the balance of a fast-paced duty week, with 4 weeks to then focus on my families. I think this really helps to be organised and manage my time.

There is so much support in Wigan from my colleagues and management. I can discuss my wellbeing and how I am feeling at every supervision to ensure I am managing my workload and feeling okay in my work& personal life.

 

I recently received feedback from a separated young person who said he feels like his professional network of his social worker, placement staff and college staff have replaced his family and provided a sense of belonging.”

“I can honestly say that joining the duty team at Wigan was the best decision I made. I have never felt as supported and appreciated in any job I have worked. We have an amazing team and a brilliant manager who is always checking in and goes above and beyond to ensure that we are okay. I feel confident in my role and am encouraged to speak out if I am ever unsure. I manage my own diary and haven’t felt overwhelmed”

 

The feedback from families who the duty teams have worked alongside and have supported have said:

“The situation was distressing, but when the social worker visited she was very sensible, thoughtful and appeared to understand the parenting decisions which they had made and she did not feel judged. Mum said that she felt that the social worker considered the wider dynamics of the family, in addition to the allegations/ concerns which X had raised.”

 

“The social worker listened, was lovely and down to earth and I felt she was clued up and knew what she was doing. She really cheered us up during her visits and we felt we could open up to her because she listened”

“We have wanted social care help for ages and things have now been put into place. Feel that school wasn't listening properly and now we have a support worker and a social worker who has really taken in board our views as a family. Multi agency plans have helped us to move forward”

 

“The social worker has always taken us as the family we are. She understood that we just speak normal and didn’t judge that. We were a bit edgy at first, didn’t want a social worker, but we couldn’t have had a better social worker than X.  It’s helped us a lot as a family, helping us to understand how things affect X.  We learned lots from our meetings you know, about how it affects children, we didn’t know how to handle issues in the past even with past relationships and didn’t understand how this would affect him.”

What we need from you:

• A caring and friendly nature and you put children, young people and their families at the heart of all you do
• Social work qualification with up-to-date registration with Social Work England
• Knowledge and fundamental understanding of research, innovation and good practice,
• You MUST be  on a social work course or have a Social Work qualification to apply for this post.
• Knowledge of statutory and legislative frameworks which underpin effective care planning
• Experience of a broad spectrum of services within the field of social work with children and families either through social work experience or through training
• The ability to work as part of a team and alongside colleagues from other areas of Children’s services
• Good time management skills with the ability to work to deadlines and reorganise the workload to meet conflicting demands           

About us:

Wigan Council has been voted ‘Overall Council of the Year’ at the APSE (Association for Public Service Excellence) Awards and has recently published The Deal 2030, our ambitious plan for our borough. We are signed up to the Greater Manchester Continuous Service Commitment ensuring that your service will be continuous or 'unbroken' between the supporting organisations.

What we can offer you:

• Flexible working – including a blend of working from home/remotely and utilising our re-designed, shared office space.
• A generous pension scheme.
• To work in a dedicated team of social work practitioners with manageable caseloads.
• Fantastic career development opportunities you can access through our ‘one stop shop’ supported by regular supervision with your manager and reflective supervision with peers.
• Regular social work forums to share your views with the ability to get involved in service development to improve our support to children and families, being creative and doing things differently.
• New challenges and experiences.
• A culture where everyone is treated with respect and ensure our behaviours of Be Positive, Be Accountable, Be Courageous and Be Kind are embedded in everything we do.
• Continuous service across other GM Authorities and partner organisations.
• Free parking.

Here at Wigan, we are proud to support flexible working patterns, when the service can accommodate this. We also take a blended approach to where we work, depending on the work we do. This may include working from home (My Place), the office (Our Place) or the community (Your Place). We like to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment by giving them the opportunity to access a range of exclusive rewards and benefits click here to find out more about working for #TeamWigan.

Wigan Council prides itself on equality, inclusion and promoting diversity within the borough and aims to recruit a workforce that reflects our diverse communities. We invest in training and developing our staff, in a positive learning environment, and aim to be a consciously inclusive employer. We welcome applications from everybody in the community and would particularly encourage applicants from our underrepresented groups to apply. At Wigan, it is really important to us that applicants demonstrate our Team Wigan behaviours, and we do all we can to make sure that everyone feels like they belong. We have guidance in place to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process.

To be appointable in this role you must be able to prove you have the right to work in the UK. If you are unsure, please visit the below link to check you qualify to apply. Please note, at present we are not a licenced sponsor. Prove your right to work to an employer: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

For further information, please contact Shareen Denman, Dity Team Manager at shareen.denman@wigan.gov.uk

 

To view the details relating to this position, please click the links below:

Job Specification

DBS Applicant Information

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Interview date: To Be Confirmed

This position is subject to Enhanced Disclosure Procedures plus child barred list check

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