Social Worker - Quarry Centre

Job Description

Before applying for this job, it is important that you read the Applicant Guidance by clicking on this link and the Job Profile attached. These explain the job role and the type of person we're looking for.

Location: Kinship, Adoption and Fostering Service, Quarry Centre, Aberdeen.
Duration: Full Time (Permanent)

Roles that require PVG Membership

Please note that with effect from 1 April 2023, where a role requires PVG membership, candidates will be required to meet the cost of the PVG membership. This applies only to roles with a full time equivalent salary of £30,000 and above. (Teaching roles and jobs at Grade 11 and above (currently £30,727 per annum / £15.97 per hour)

The Council will pay for the PVG membership cost initially, either £18 for existing PVG scheme members, or £59 for non-members, and this cost will be deducted from an employee’s first FULL month’s salary payment.

Job Purpose:

Provide a high quality person centred social work service within an adoption team, to respond to the needs of children and their families in a timely manner and within statutory guidelines. Be accountable for work undertaken with children and families, which includes assessing needs/parenting capacity, planning and delivering services to facilitate children moving to adoption and sustaining them in their adoptive family, alongside focused interventions to safeguard children, and coordinate and contribute to developing plans to promote positive outcomes for children.

The preferred candidate will be responsible for finding adoptive families for children looked after by Aberdeen City Council, including coordinating and facilitating children moving to adoption.

They will support all potential prospective adopters through the enquiry, application, preparation to adopt, assessment and approval process. They will also provide post adoption support to adoptive families within Aberdeen, and those seeking to access their adoption information.

Other responsibilities include facilitating training across a range of fostering and adoption related areas relevant to the protection, care and nurture of children, writing reports for court, the Adoption and Permanence Panel and Looked After Children's Reviews as well as responding to post adoption support enquiries via the duty desk.

The preferred candidate should have statutory child social work experience, sound skills in formulation, assessment and analysis, experience of producing high quality reports to deadlines and be prepared to work flexibly to meet the requirements of the role.

Requirements

BA Social Work qualification or equivalent DipSW, CQSW
SSSC Registration
PVG

Responsibilities

• The ability to assess and balance risk and protective factors within a child protection
framework.
• The ability to assess needs, formulate and implement effective social work
interventions.
• The ability to prioritise tasks, manage own workload and be accountable for quality
case work with children and families to achieve positive outcomes.
• The ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing and build rapport
with a range of individuals including children and families and other professionals.
• The ability to negotiate effectively to reach a resolution and successfully
implementing change.
• The ability to deal with complex issues in a sensitive and appropriate manner.
• The ability to use information management systems to maintain accurate management information and high-quality data.
• Ability to analyse and evaluate complex information to produce high quality concise
reports to inform quality casework and business decisions.
• The ability to provide social work interventions to children and families and present
concise reports about complex information as required to internal, external audiences including presenting in Court.
• Ability to use research findings and statutory guidance to inform social work
practice.

The Individual

Please see the attached job profile for further information.

Aberdeen City Council is an equal opportunities employer and we are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.

Flexible Working

We are happy to talk flexible working and offer flexible working for most roles in the organisation meaning that many of our employees enjoy the freedom of choosing a working pattern that suits them as much as it suits the organisation.

Disability Confident

We are a Disability Confident Employer. If you consider yourself to have a disability and think you may require a reasonable adjustment to be made for this part of the selection process, or would like further information in relation to reasonable adjustments, please contact AskHR@aberdeencity.gov.uk.

Armed Forces

We are a forces-friendly employer, have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and are a silver award recipient in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme. We have a specific email address for those in the forces, those who have left the forces, as well as their partners / spouses / families: armedforces@aberdeencity.gov.uk. We are able to answer questions about jobs and our application / selection process, as well as about our employee support provisions.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

We have a number of guaranteed interview schemes available to applicants who meet the minimum criteria for our roles and who:

• have a disability
• are care-experienced and aged 16-29
• are aged 16-24 and live in Aberdeen City or have been to an Aberdeen City Council school and are applying for a Modern Apprenticeship (except Trades apprenticeships)
• have done a Foundation Apprenticeship with Aberdeen City Council and are applying for any apprenticeships relevant to the area in which they did their Foundation Apprenticeship
• are New Scots aged 16-24 and are applying for any apprenticeships

 

Further information can be found at https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services/jobs

Please contact Chris Morton, Team Manager on 01224 694554 if you have any queries.