Job Type:	permanent	Duration:
Category:	Medical or Health	Recruiter Reference:	staffscc/TP/301/1844
URL for Applications:	Apply Here	Salary:	G10 £42403 - £46464

This is an exciting opportunity to join a creative, passionate, supportive, and dynamic team who make a real difference to children and their families.

Breathing Space is part of Futures Matters and we support parents who are pregnant who have previously had one or more children removed and Children in our Care and Care Leavers who are pregnant with their first child and are likely to be subject to safeguarding concerns.

The team also supports the districts in the re-assessment and reunification plans for children aged 0-8 to return to the care of their family where it is safe to do so.

The team is made up of a dad’s worker and Breathing Space workers who provide intensive support, working restoratively, creatively, drawing upon a suite of evidenced based resources. The service is based around a model of intensive one to one key work over a sustained period whereby the team build positive relationships, develop tailored support packages to enable parents to care for their children safely.

The team are able to draw upon our substance misuse worker who provides bespoke packages of support to our parents focussing on relapse prevention, impact substance misuse can have on parenting and relationships and supporting parents to access adult services if required,

As a Senior Practitioner within Breathing Space you will offer management support, supervision to the team and quality assuring all work undertaken by the service. You will also screen and triage enquiries into the service offering high challenge/high support allocating referrals where appropriate.

If you enjoy working creatively and have a passion in keeping children at home,  an understanding of the impact repeat removals have on families and are ready for that next step in your Social Work career to be part of a forward thinking team then we would like to hear from you.

Main Responsibilities

1 To support the  Manager in the development of the service. 

2  To complete supervision with the staff team.

 3. Arrange screening meetings, triaging referrals ensuring effective allocation of work.

4.  Provide management support to the team

5  Quality Assuring all work completed by the team

6. Offering high support/High challenge to the team and practitioners in the district regarding packages of support for unborn babies and children being reunified. 

7. Complete reflective discussions and observations.

The Ideal Candidate

You will need to have

A social work Qualification and be Social Work England (SWE) registered.

Post qualifying experience in social work

Experience of leading and motivating staff with the desire to work with children and families to give them the right support at the right time with the aim of keeping families together where it’s safe to do so.

Experience of undertaking supervision 

Knowledge and skills in supporting assessments and formulating creative plans for children and young people to remain or return home to their family

If you wish to know more about the position then please contact Kirsten Booth 07815 999 066.

About Staffordshire County Council

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too. 

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance. 

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post. 

As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.