The Emergency Duty team runs an out-of-hours service, responding to statutory emergencies and other social work matters within the childcare and adult arenas.

The positions within the team are principal social worker roles. This is on a rota basis, and you will provide an emergency statutory social work duty service out-of-hours with minimal supervision. The ability to work autonomously is therefore paramount.

You will provide guidance and support to sessional and unqualified staff. You will take the lead in child protection investigations, adult safeguarding investigations and will undertake Mental Health Act assessments as Approved Mental Health Professionals, ensuring that services are delivered within the legislative and statutory planning frameworks, Government Guidance, the Trust’s Core Values and Strategic Aims, and Service policies and procedures.

The role includes assessing the needs of children and their families against the Departments agreed threshold criteria and in accordance with National Guidance with set timescales, the creation and implementation of culturally appropriate care plans that demonstrate flexibility and innovative use of resources, and which will fulfil the statutory requirements of the Department until the next working day.

We are committed to continuous improvement, building a skilled, knowledgeable, and flexible workforce alongside promoting innovation and creativity whilst keeping children, young people and families at the heart of all we do.

We really value our workforce and offer you a great benefits package including:

• 2 Day Induction Programme
• Recruitment Welcome Bonus £6,000
• 2 days Signs of Safety training (social care colleagues)
• Extensive Learning & Development and career development opportunities
• Flexible and family working arrangements including enhanced maternity benefits
• A permanent, supportive and inclusive management team where you will be empowered to make good professional decisions
• Local government Pension Scheme
• Heavily subsidised town centre car parking scheme
• Employee Discount Scheme
• 28 days’ annual leave, plus 8 Bank Holidays (pro rata for part time) and an additional 5 days, after 5 years’ service
• Opportunity to purchase up to 25 days
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Monthly quality supervision
• SWE Registration paid yearly (social care colleagues)

In a rewarding, diverse but complex environment, the team deals with a range of cases from child protection to mental health assessments, and decisions that need to be made in the context of each individual case to achieve optimum outcomes.  You will need to evidence having the AMHP award; warranting can be arranged for any candidate able to demonstrate statutory requirements for continued approval to practice as an AMHP.

You will be supported by an on-call Service Manager on each shift, and you will have regular formal and informal supervision by the team manager. The team hold monthly team meetings and have a team training profile that supports your professional development. The Northamptonshire Emergency Duty Team has received consistent positive comments in recent OFSTED Inspections, and we would welcome any worker who shares the team ethos to provide the right amount of help and support at the right time, to those most in need.

Northamptonshire’s children’s service delivers their service via a TRUST and the EDT is currently undergoing a review focussing on the delivery of adult services including the AMHP role. We can only accept applications from people who have flexibility in relation to working patterns as these may change within a re-structuring process. All statutory employment legislation would apply.

You will have good communication within the Directorate, Local Authority and Partnerships, promoting a culture of continuous improvement and service user focus that delivers good outcomes for children and adults.

AMHP and a minimum of three years post qualifying children protection experience.

You must be a qualified Social Worker, Registered with Social Work England.

Northamptonshire Children’s Trust was established in November 2020 to deliver Children’s Services to the newly established North and West Northants County Councils. The Trust is wholly owned and funded but operationally independent from the Councils; this provides the organisation with unique opportunities to explore new ways of working and to be more agile and adaptable in its approach to service delivery. We are developing a culture that allows the very highest quality of professional practice to flourish and evolve, delivering at the cutting edge of new innovation.