Service Manager (Children's Services)

Location: Bexleyheath

Hours per week: 36 (9am to 5pm)

The Role

The service manager will be responsible for supervising, leading, and supporting team managers within a statutory child protection service area (ie: child in need, child protection, children looked after and care experienced young adults). Due to the nature of the work, you will be expected to work in an often stressful working environment and dealing with a variety of complex, risky, and diverse issues when supporting and safeguarding the many children and young people we work with. You will be overall responsible for risk management and decision making within your service area. This requires you to have extensive knowledge and experience with professional standards for social work as well as the laws, statutory guidance, and local policies and procedures and to ensure these are being modelled and adhered to across the service.

Responsibilities

• To have experience with, or a willingness to be trained and learn, the Signs of Safety practice model.
• To have extensive previous management or supervisory responsibilities of other practitioners working with children and families.
• To contribute to the development and implementation of local policies and service improvement strategies and support their implementation within the service.
• To provide specialist social work and child protection knowledge and advice to the team, service, and other multi-agency professionals.
• To liaise, network, influence, and coordinate with other multi-agency partners to provide the best support.
• To represent the local authority in a professional and competent matter, especially when making representations at court, with families, or with other agencies.
• To have oversight on the work carried out within the teams of the service, ensuring that timely response and action is carried out to any contacts, referrals, allocations, complaints, information requests, child protection enquiries, court directives received, and plans for children.
• To ensure the practice and management oversight of all work and performance in the service is compliant with relevant laws, statutory guidance, and local procedures that govern children's safeguarding, adult safeguarding, the social work profession, health and safety, employment law, human rights, and data protection.
• To maintain regular supervision and appraisal of managers in the service.
• To participate in and ensure regular audits and review of case work and records and reports are completed to a good standard, that plans are being actioned and monitored for progress, contingency plans are in place and utilised when necessary, the voice and best interest of the child is consistently evident, and decision making takes place at key points in the planning and review process for children.
• To chair complex strategy, review, legal planning, professional, and network meetings as necessary.
• To authorise, review, and manage expenditures within the prescribed budget of the service.
• To participate in developing and leading on any change management processes within the service.
• To be available after hours as necessary to support workers and managers who may be dealing with crisis and casework responsibilities to safeguard children.
• To participate in the out of hours emergency duty rota providing management guidance and decision making for the safety and welfare of children.

Essential

• Ensure that the safety, welfare and best interest of the child is central to the work undertaken by the team and its members.
• Promote and support the use of the Signs of Safety solution focused practice principles in all work undertaken within the service and in decision making.
• Promote and maintain a high standard of professional practice in the service through modelling good practice, regular management oversight, and motivating others to perform at their best.
• Promote, share and use research and professional practice theories within the team to inform the assessments and work undertaken with children and families.
• A proficient knowledge of relevant laws, statutory guidance, local safeguarding procedures, or internal policies and procedures that govern the work that we do with children and families.
• Where this is not always known, a demonstrated ability to seek out advice and guidance on where to find the relevant procedures.
• Possess a relevant social work qualification (ie: DipSW or CQSW or degree in social work).
• Are registered with the professional regulator for social work (Social Work England).
• Have extensive experience working in a statutory child protection setting (ie: child protection, children looked after) and at least one year experience supervising senior practitioners or managers within this setting.