Senior Practitioner - Mulberry Tree Family Centre Colchester

Children and Families is recognised as a service in which social work can develop and prosper, with a culture of collaboration, integrity and compassion; promoting development and wellbeing of children, young people and their families; protecting them from neglect and abuse and working together with partners delivering a range of early help, family support and effective social work interventions, which build resilience, remove barriers and enable children and young people to look forward to a brighter future.

Family Centres

Essex Family Centres provide support to fieldwork teams in delivering assessment and intervention across a range of social work issues such as sexual abuse, domestic abuse and trauma. Where required, parenting assessments including assessment of parents with additional needs, can be completed as directed by the court or under Public Law Outline. Family centres also deliver a variety of interventions to bring about positive change within families, help adults provide positive parenting, and increase the resilience of children so that they can stay with their families where it's safe to do so.

The social workers within the North Essex Family Centre Service are responsible for managing a caseload of assessment and specific targeted intervention and group work, to achieve positive and improved outcomes for children.

The role

This is a fantastic opportunity to join the North Essex Family Centre team. The opportunity will provide the right candidate with the opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and practice across a wide range of social work issues and to further develop skills in assessment. The senior practitioners within the Essex Family Centre Service are responsible for managing a caseload of specific targeted intervention work, to achieve positive and improved outcomes for children. The post holder is responsible for bringing to bear the highest possible standards of practice ability and skills to work in line with policies and procedures.

Senior practitioners within the team generally have a specialist area of practice interest which they share within the team and across the wider service, applicants therefore are required to be enthusiastic about developing their social work knowledge across a wide range of areas, for example working with trauma, domestic abuse and sexual abuse to name a few.

Senior practitioners will have some supervisory responsibilities for the development of other staff and students within the team and to deputise for the manager in their absence.

The Experience You Will Bring

• Diploma/MA in Social Work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent and current Social Work England registration
• Must be able to work in a relationship based way and be a supportive team member.
• Must be able to write to a high standard and demonstrate analytical skills
• Experience of giving evidence in court preferable
• Desirable to have a practice educator qualification / experience of supporting and mentoring others including ASYE's through their first year in practice
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• IT/Word Processing Skills
• Evidence of recent practice at an experienced social worker level, supported by comprehensive working knowledge and experience within the field of practice in Children Services, preferably with experience of Child Protection work including section 47 investigations and assessments.
• Considerable, recent experience of communicating with children of all ages and working in partnership with parents and/or carers.
• Experience in planning activities and programmes of intervention for children, young people and parents.
• Detailed knowledge of current legislation pertinent to Child Protection (e.g. CA1989, CJA1991), Guidance and Regulations
• Knowledge and understanding of child development, relating theory and practice.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

To read more about us please visit: Children & Families

Why Essex? Essex County Council has a location to be proud of. Our 1,300 square miles stretch from Constable Country to the Thames Estuary, from the dynamic M11 corridor to the traditional seaside resorts of Clacton and Walton. England's oldest town, Colchester, and two of its newest - Basildon and Harlow - are right here. Along with the City of Chelmsford, the county town, they form our major population centres. It means real choice and makes Essex the ideal place for your career. Read more about us.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We're committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.

We're also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

What you should do next

If you are interested in finding out more about this role, we would love to hear from you. Please apply via the Working for Essex website.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

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