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1. Job outline and Purpose of role

This role requires team managers to meet all the fundamental professional standards as set out by Social Work England and ensure that the protection of children is adhered to ensure that children and young people are safe and their outcomes enhanced. The main duties and key responsibilities of this role is commensurate across Children's Services applying the skills and competencies in different areas across the service.

2. Purpose of Role

The Team Leader will support and enable their team to build purposeful and meaningful relationships with families and protect children who are at risk of harm.

3. Main Duties and Key Responsibilities

Ensure statutory childcare duties are met, national minimum standards and regulations are complied with, high standards of recognised professional practice are delivered, and operational staff and supervisors work effectively with partners from other agencies to support individual children and families and improve their life chances.

To provide professional leadership, decision making advice, supervision and support of social workers and ensure appropriate decision making in line with delegated responsibilities.

Ensure there is an effective duty system (where appropriate) within the team.

Deliver the area of responsibility assigned to the postholder through the effective deployment of staff and other resources to meet the standards required and ensure children and young people have a positive experience in the care system and successful outcomes.

To implement the Council's policies in relation to HR issues including equalities, discrimination and harassment and health & safety.

Manage and supervise a team of staff, being responsible for the appropriate allocation of work and promotion of a manageable workload including an expectation that all staff undertake a caseload and project work (eg group work, consultation, student supervision as required), utilising a range of interventions.

Ensure regular staff supervision and performance appraisal, coaching and facilitation to enable staff to work effectively.

Work with the Principal Social Worker to manage recruitment, retention and selection of staff, foster carers and adopters, ensuring a high quality staff group and carers through appropriate training and development.

Promote good attendance and conduct within the service and compliance with professional codes of practice and information security, confidentiality and accurate record keeping.

To manage delegated budget within agreed financial limits and authorise, monitor and control expenditure of team budget in order to ensure effective provision of service.

To prioritise and monitor workload to ensure the appropriate levels of service provision by staff in order to make the best use of resources available.

To assist in developing, implementing and auditing the quality of services and performance managing staff to ensure effective and efficient service provision.

To ensure that the team contributes effectively to safeguarding children and young people by following the Working Together Guidance, all relevant legislation and implementing government recommendations in line with NSC strategic direction and vision.

To investigate complaints, disciplinary allegations as required in conjunction with departmental or corporate guidelines and legal requirements, ensuring the appropriate senior managers are kept informed, where necessary.

Understand the delivery of Children's Services in North Somerset and promote the use of Early Help across all partner agencies.
To continually monitor and improve services ensuring that they embed new ways of working in line with research, developments and evidence based good practice; to extend the knowledge base of professionals within the team and to make improvements to service delivery.

To work in partnership with the Police and other agencies to ensure investigations are completed within statutory timescales and to provide professional advice and guidance to service users and partner agencies thus ensuring effective triage of, and response to, referrals from the public and other agencies.

To chair strategy discussions and legal planning meetings as may be required in respect of child protection matters, where children may need to come into care, or proceedings need to be initiated.

To lead preparation for and response to the all areas of inspection standards.

To ensure close working relationships with the provider of the call handling service , offering professional advice and support to the service managers to ensure effective service delivery and first contact information gathering and appropriate response to need at the first point of contact.

Ensure children and young people and carers are actively involved in the assessment of their needs, service delivery and review, gathering user feedback on the effectiveness of services delivered and use this information to support service improvement.

Attend North Somerset's Performance Monitoring Board or such forums as required to maintain standards.

5. GENERAL

This job description is not a complete list of duties but gives a general indication of the range of work undertaken. It will vary over time as demands and priorities change. The management team structures within Childrens' Services operate with a high degree of collaboration and flexibility, and post holders are expected to undertake any other duties commensurate with the general level of responsibility of the post.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

DIRECTORATE

Children's Services

SECTION

Family Support & Safeguarding / Corporate Parenting / Front Door

JOB TITLE

Team Manager
GRADE Level 11

QUALIFICATIONS - ESSENTIAL AND EVIDENCED

Registered as a social worker with Social Work England.

Social Work Qualification, ie Social Work Degree or Diploma in Social Work.

Achieved or commitment to study for a specialist PQ award or equivalent

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE - ESSENTIAL

Social Work qualification, ie social work degree, management qualification NVQ level 4 or working towards level 4 and 5 years post qualifying experience as a social worker.

An approved professional qualification relevant to the area of work to give approved Social Work England registration, and practical experience of working with service user groups giving rise to a variety of technical skills and thorough understanding of the principles of the services available, work practices and processes.

Specialist knowledge of childcare across the range of work procedures and practices underpinned by theoretical knowledge and relevant practical experience.

Knowledge of National Minimum Standards for all areas of the service.

Significant post qualification experience in relevant work area to give knowledge and understanding equivalent to a further advanced qualification in the service area, especially in management and leadership.

Knowledge and understanding of safeguarding protocols and the threshold levels for service user groups to make decisions about service needs.

Demonstrate an ability to lead and manage staff through significant changes, an ability to motivate and lead staff and an ability to supervise/appraise.

Ability to engage with service users and partner agencies within the relevant codes of practice values (dignity, respect etc).

Ability to communicate effectively in person, by phone and in writing.

Experience in service development and embedding improvements into work methodologies and evaluating their impact.

Ability to provide and receive highly complex, highly sensitive or highly contentious information.

Ability to plan and chair meetings.

Practical experience in service delivery and in leading and managing others to deliver the service.

Knowledge and experience of managing budgets, resourcing and contracts

Ability to manage/organise own work and that of a team to meet agreed deadlines

Understanding and recognition of professional boundaries

COMPETENCIES

Team Working ~ Develops team members and encourages and empowers others, delegates work to get the best from the team

Service user/ outcome focused ~ sets challenging goals for self and others to achieve and improve service delivery

Problem solving & judgment ~ facilitates others to solve problems, breaks down complex issues into manageable parts and thinks through the implications of decisions

Planning & Organising ~ makes business plans to determine the work for self and others to meet the objectives of the service

Business Awareness ~ Understands the contribution the service makes to the organisation and partner agencies, thinks outside own area to appreciate the aims of other services.

Leadership Standards ~ demonstrates the behaviours set out in the council's leadership standards.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES

Quantifiable objectives ~ e.g. team performance, impact evaluation of service delivery, quality of records, etc
Feedback from service users, colleagues and partner agencies
Key Performance Indicators (where available)
Line manager assessment
360 feedback from staff and colleagues
Performance of the team

Caritas Recruitment is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.