Social Work Team Manager – Children and Families Services

Hackney’s Children and Families Services offer visionary leadership, a culture of continuous learning and a climate for innovation. We are committed to outcomes for our children and families, recognising the impact of discrimination, disadvantage that many of our families experience. For these reasons, systemic, trauma informed and anti racist practice (STAR) is our practice model ensuring a social justice approach whilst creating change. We will offer exciting leadership learning and development opportunities to embed STAR and expect you to lead exemplary anti-racist, trauma informed and systemic practice. 

We currently have Team Manager vacancies within our Assessment and Planning, Child Protection and Corporate Parenting services. This also includes posts in Fostering Support and Fostering Recruitment which are based in our Corporate Parenting Service.

As Team Manager, you will lead the delivery of a confident, professional and respectful service that always places children at the centre of decisions. Your strong leadership skills will enable you to mobilise and engage multi-agency professionals and colleagues across all services to ensure families receive the right help at the right time, and to achieve the very best outcomes for children in Hackney. You will be responsible and accountable for ensuring the highest quality practice, contributing to the quality assurance and creating service wide change. 

As part of our journey to be anti-racist we want our workforce to represent the community we serve and embrace diverse talent so we strongly encourage applications from Black and Global Majority Ethnic backgrounds. 

You will be dedicated to our STAR approach, committed to child centred safeguarding practices and to identifying and challenging discrimination and racism. You will be creative, analytical and reflective and be willing to work hard to improve outcomes for children and young people. You will have excellent communication, negotiation and diplomacy skills to effectively create change in a partnership context.

Candidates must:

– Hold a relevant social work qualification or equivalent

– Be registered with Social Work England

– Have management and leadership experience

An enhanced DBS check is required.

The recruitment process is anonymous. Therefore, we do not accept supporting statements or CVs.

When applying, there will be a number of questions relating to the post on the application form. It is essential that you complete the application questions, responding to each using examples of your skills, knowledge and experience. This application process replaces a supporting statement.

We will not accept applications where Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used to assist with completing the competency questions or any part of the application form.

Closing date for applications: 24 November 2024 

Assessment / Interview date: 11 & 12 December 2024 

We are also working towards our vision, which is to be a place for everyone; where residents and staff can be proud; a place that celebrates diversity and where everyone can feel valued, included and involved. In order to achieve this, we look for people who are: Proud; Ambitious; Pioneering; Open; Proactive; Inclusive.

Hackney Council works to eradicate discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and maternity, age and marital status. We also recognise that people can be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will also work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class. We also welcome those interested in flexible working. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people, as this group is currently under represented in our workforce.

The Council has a dedicated employment support service (Hackney Works), which offers Hackney residents guidance in relation to applying for jobs. If you are thinking about applying for a job, please contact the Hackney Works team to find out what support is available: hackneyworks@hackney.gov.uk