Senior Practitioner

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Job Details

Fife Council has just undergone an exciting redesign as part of Fife’s vision to deliver accessible and available services at the right time to children, young people, families and carers. This has been informed by national and local policy which looks for our teams to be child focused, strength based, and trauma informed.

This exciting opportunity is to work within the Enhanced Children and Families Team which has a Lead for children’s planning for children and young people subject to a Compulsory Supervision Order at home, foster care, kinship care, residential care, including secure placements. This role varies with focus on parenting capacity assessments to support care planning, permanence planning as well as reviewing plans which may lead to the potential reunification of families.

The senior roles take on a lead of Child Protection & Permanence and will be responsible, in conjunction with the Team Manager to support the team to deliver a quality service to the children and families we work with. You will undertake initial assessments, develop Child’s Plans which are co-produced with families as part of a relational approach, you will identify, assess and manage risk as well as Safety Plan for our children and young people at risk of significant harm. You will undertake assessments in order to provide logical and coherently evidenced recommendations to enable children to be with their families wherever possible, or review plans to which may lead to the potential reunification of families.

You will be skilled in providing written reports for Child Protection Case Conferences, LAC Reviews and reports to SCRA with informed recommendations concerning care/action/safety plans and identifying any further actions. You would then utilise this skill to develop and support social workers in the team to increase their confidence in their written skills and assessments. You will have an ability to chair LAC Core Group Meetings and CP Core Group Meetings to ensure there is a clear plan in place, to include the voice of the child, views of the family in a multi-agency forum.

You will be required to undertake professional supervision of Social Workers and Social Work Assistants supporting their professional development and ensuring Council policy and procedures are followed; we want to create a team of autonomous, compassionate workers with a clear vision of keeping children at the centre.

You will be required to work within service processes and procedures to assess and undertake appropriate and relevant planning for children to ensure positive outcomes are completed within timescales. We want to be firmly embedded within The Promise where all our children and young people grow up healthy and safe.

You should have experience in being able to successfully negotiate and liaise with partner agencies to plan interventions and supports for children and their families.

The Person

A Diploma in Social Work (or equivalent) qualification is essential, as is registration with the Scottish Social Services Council.

You will have one of the following:

• An accredited post-qualifying award (e.g. Certificate in Child Protection Studies, Mental Health Officer Accreditation, Practice Teacher Award, etc.) or a commitment to work towards achieving this within 2 years of appointment.
• You should have considerable experience in a relevant setting.
• You must have the ability to travel throughout Fife.
• You will have knowledge and understanding of Child and Adult Protection guidelines and information sharing protocols and experience of joint working to achieve common goals.

Before confirming to your appointment, you will be required to obtain PVG scheme membership through Disclosure Scotland.

For further information please contact: Jade Massie - jade.massie@fife.gov.uk