Contract to start ASAP

Duration: 12 weeks with a possible extension.

Job Purpose

To provide advanced social work-level services to children, tamilies and courts by assessing and analysing court applications for any child protection and serious welfare issues affecting a child or young person.

Also, to influence those with parental responsibility to be more child-focused when needed, to advise the courts and Local Authorities about safeguarding concerns and about how a child's life can be improved, supporting judicial case management in the process.

To achieve this, you will need to keep the child at the centre of your work through high quality direct work with children and their families as well as high quality analysis and assessment.

You will also need to be a skilled negotiator, working persuasively with family members and professionals on behalf of children.

You will need to keep the child's timescale in the context of the child's journey through childhood and, where applicable, the care system, at the centre of everything you do and you must be prepared to advocate in the best interests of the child, ensuring their voice is not lost in the court arena.

You will be required to be a resilient, reflective and accountable practitioner, possessing good IT and organisational skills, so that you can maintain a high throughput of outstanding casework.

RESPONSIBILITIES

To provide high quality early safeguarding and child protection advice, assessments and analysis to the Court on the needs and best interests of children subject to or involved in Family Proceedings

To ensure that the well-being and safety of the child is paramount throughout Cafcass' involvement in the case.

To ensure that all incidents or risks of significant harm to the child are dealt with in accordance with the relevant Local Safeguarding Children's Board (LSCB) procedures and Cafcass policies and procedures

To directly work with, or on behalf of children & families to achieve safe and positive outcomes for children, referring to other services where this will produce benefit.

Service Effectiveness Throughput and Productivity

To produce high quality work with a rapid throughput, combining increasing productivity with quality of casework.

For all work produced to be rated good or outstanding in internal and extemal audits, with exceptions tolerated where the learning gained from these exceptions can be absorbed and applied to future work.

To be fully engaged with Cafcass policy that all cases must be allocated and to adopt a proportionate approach to work, assessing the needs of the case. In response to changing demands, the regulating mechanism will be the average time spent on cases; which is lower when demands are higher and vice versa.

Pre-screening question:

• Are you Social Work England Registered?
• Do you have a social work Degree?

Disclaimer: On applying for this vacancy, you agree that your personal details will be passed onto our client for their consideration of your suitability for the role. I acknowledge that it is my responsibility to notify iWork Recruitment Limited of any hirer who I do not want my details to be passed onto.

OR111803-08-26